Planting Horseradish

It’s been a long, cranky kind of day, capped off by doing the business accounting and taxes – as you can imagine not the kind of “Gee! Can’t wait to do that again next month!” kind of office activity I love(er, loathe).  I have half an hour before I need to post my last story for the day, and then it’s off to dinner, errands and choir practice.  But before I rush to the next set of tasks, I thought I’d update you on the progress of the vegetable garden.

I’ve been so consumed with tales of the flower garden lately that I nearly forgot to mention that we finished topping off each of the raised beds with compost – all 10 of them are done!  On Saturday, I planted 80 yellow onion sets and my very first horseradish roots.  The weather report looked grim for Sunday and indeed, we had pouring, “somebody in heaven turned on the faucets and forgot to turn them off”  kind of rain all day, so it was a good thing I got those horseradish roots in early.

Here in the south, we’ve had a hard time finding horseradish in the supermarkets but back on Long Island where I used to live horseradish was in the deli case next to the pickles and other deli-style condiments.  Now it’s growing in my backyard. I hope…..

I bought a boxed set of roots and after a few false starts, we patted down the long, pencil-stick roots into the soil. One of the roots looked like a centipede with legs sticking out, but the legs were actually small roots.

According to a horticultural extension website I found,  you’re supposed to plant your horseradish in a spot where it can grow about two feet deep and just leave it. That’s it.  Keep it watered and in about a year I can dig up my horseradish root, grate it, and enjoy it with a pot roast (okay, I added that part, but that’s how we love our horseradish!).

In my research for information about horseradish, I found a group called the Horseradish Council (I kid you not. Seems like in this day and age, there’s a council or group for everything.)  The humble horseradish has been cultivated for over 3,000 years, and at one time or another, it was viewed as an aphrodisiac, a cure for rheumatism, and more. I was happy to see that my friends, the ancient Egyptian gardeners of whom I continue to read in my new book, cultivated horseradish too.  Seems like everyone from the ancient Jews to the Egyptians and beyond enjoyed horseradish!

Now it lies sleeping under the compost, well watered by yesterday’s deluge. I have no idea what to expect. I planted it in the herb bed, next to the catnip so that if Farmer Pierre’s catnip crop takes over, it can battle it out with the horseradish. Sort of an animal theme going on there – horse radish versus cat nip.  Given what I know of cats, I’m betting the catnip will win…..