Meet the Artist - Watermelon Radish

by Isabel Vinton

Watermelon Radish is likely the closest you’ll get to eating a local watermelon this winter! Planted in late summer, these large radishes ripen in mid- to late fall, storing up the season's remaining light and vibrant colors before they fade. Harvested around first frost and stored somewhere cool, these roots add vibrant, sweet refreshing crunch to the winter kitchen. In fact, it was Ken and his favorite Watermelon Radish recipe that inspired the design of this art pack.

Artist Anna O'Sullivan uses layers of texture and color to illustrate delicious recipes of all sorts. She told us, “primarily I’m a printmaker, and recently I’ve been applying my printmaking sensibilities to illustration. I love form, color, and composition, and reducing imagery down to simple elements. Stripped down, color palates are a huge part of my work; a lot of planning goes into making color choices, how and where overlap will work in the piece, and where to use pattern, texture and negative space. I pretty much see life as one big illustration waiting to happen, and illustrating recipes fits right into that. It’s also fun to inject a little narrative into things that can otherwise read like stereo instructions."

The bearded fellow in her artwork is modeled after our co-founder Ken and he is making Ken's favorite Watermelon Radish recipe. Anna told us, “I always love hands (when they’re done well), and I think the guy’s hands are pretty cool. I’m also pleased with the dynamism of the composition and the energy of the gesture in the figure. Those are the areas I always spend the most time on. If they’re solid, everything else falls into place, if not, no amount of color and detail will save it.”

Look closely at the pack, and you’ll see that each petal of the quatrefoil seed pack shows one step of the recipe. Start on the top petal, then work your way around the pack in a clockwise direction.

Need more? See the full recipe below!

Ken’s Favorite Watermelon Radish Recipe

Ingredients

  • Several Watermelon Radishes
  • 2 Tbsp Sesame Oil
  • 1 Tbsp Ume Plum Vinegar
  • 1/4Tsp Sugar
  • Black sesame seeds to sprinkle

Steps

  1. Take your watermelon radishes and cut them into rounds. Then cut into wedges to resemble tiny pieces of watermelon.
  2. Now make your vinaigrette. Whisk all of the ingredients together, leaving out the radish pieces and sesame seeds.
  3. Arrange the radishes on a plate and drizzle with the vinaigrette. (The vinegar soaks into the radish and helps to break down the watermelon radish a little bit.)
  4. Take the black sesame seeds and place on the radishes. Depending on your personality you can just sprinkle all over the plate or arrange carefully.

Tip: If you're having trouble placing the black sesame seeds on the wedges the way you want, you can use a toothpick. Dip the tip of the toothpick in water, then touch a seed. The toothpick will pick up the seed easily. When you touch the seed to the watermelon radish, the seed will stick to the radish. That's the same way we often seed flats when the seeds are very tiny and we want to be careful to only have 1 or 2 seeds in each cell.

And ta da! You now have a beautiful amuse-bouche of tiny little watermelon slices with seeds.