This is one vegetable that is not ready for the chopping board! This oddly-shaped daikon radish heavily resembles a runner as they swing their arms and legs back and forth during a sprint.
The Running Radish suspended against the sky. A Japanese farmer created the charming tableau after noticing its resemblance to a sprinter
It was unearthed by a farmer Minako Shibata, 36, who pulled it from her field in Japan’s Hyogo prefecture in October and rescued the vegetable from the kitchen after noticing its unusual extremities, telling her 36-year-old husband, Masayuki, ‘Look, this daikon is running’.
Like anyone with a healthy sense of humour, she proceeded to photograph it in a series of funny situations by suspending it using string.
The pictures show the velocious vegetable including fleeing a barking dog, racing across the fields and leaping against the backdrop of the sky, reports The Asahi Shimbun.
The vegetable flees a barking dog intent on a healthy snack
Shibata provided a link to her photos, titled ‘Daikon runs away’, on Twitter, drawing comments like ‘It’s heartwarming’ and ‘How cute’.
The daikon photos also appeared on the news section of an internet search site and it has now been viewed more than 360,000 times.
In fact, the running radish garnered so much attention it is now the new star of promotional material for products from the region.
An association that promotes Hyogo Prefecture’s specialty products decided to feature the running daikon in its posters and calendars.
The vegetable (left) stumbles across the fields, intent on avoiding the pickling jar and the chopping board (right)
They are now sold at a local petrol station, as well as at the prefecture’s ‘satellite shop’ in Tokyo.
‘I initially wanted to enjoy the photos with my family members,’ Shibata said. ‘But I would be happy if it can help promote local daikon sales. I hope many people will enjoy the photos and eat daikon.’
In the UK and continental Asia daikon radish is most commonly known as mooli. In Japanese cuisine, many types of pickles are made with daikon.
It is also frequently used grated and mixed into a soy sauce and citrus juice condiment, as well as being chopped into salads.
