Making pink ink from radishes

You would think by now I would have one moment of hesitation before I started boiling 3 bunches of radishes that had been in the back of the fridge too long. It makes #WeirdSmells but will it make ink?

Photo of a small stainless steel pot full of chopped radishes and water. On the surface there are bubbles and foam. The radishes are pale pink, having released some of their colour into the liquid.

Surprisingly solid pink ink once it gets concentrated enough! Seems more stable than things like raspberry or red cabbage.

Photo of a stainless steel pot with about 2 cm of dark pink liquid in the bottom -- radish tea

Photo of four strips of paper that have been labelled and dipped in ink at different stages. radish: very pale pink radish + 10 min: still very pale pink radish + 15 min + salt + alum: noticeably darker but still pale pink radish + 20 min + salt + alum: even darker but still light pink that could possibly be legible for writing

Can’t decide whether to add gum arabic for a drawing/dipping ink, or filter it better and add a bit of glycerin to try with a cheap fountain pen 🤔