Fire in YOUR BELLY
HORSERADISH HAS A BAD REPUTATION FOR SPREADING, BUT IT’S EASY TO GROW AND MAKES A DELICIOUS SAUCE
My father grew horseradish and made his own horseradish sauce, which he ate with roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. (I’m not sure smoked salmon had been invented back then.) It was hotter than hell and we kids hated it – even the name put us off.
It’s thought to be a corruption of its German name “Meerrettich”, badly pronounced as “mare radish”, but the plant has nothing to do with horses. Anyway, I’m going to call it by its far more romantic name of Armoracia rusticana. It’s a close-ish rellie of mustard and wasabi, and more distantly related to cabbage and cauliflower. Sadly, it doesn’t look at all romantic and if anything, resembles a random patch of dock. It also spreads by sending out new shoots laterally, which has earned it a reputation for being invasive, so it’s a bit of a double-edged sword.
Mine – if I ever find a bit of root to grow it from – will inhabit an old half barrel recently vacated by a mint plant. The instructions I’ve been given for planting it are straightforward: Choose a sunny place, dig a deep hole to accommodate a long taproot and refill with compost. Plant the Armoracia, then you just leave it alone. My kind of plant.
You may be lucky enough to find some at a garden centre, but otherwise, it’s available from various sources online and at some farmers’ markets. Failing that, put the word out and someone is bound to donate you a healthy piece of root to start from.
Established plants may develop sprays of white summer flowers, but it’s recommended to take these off to help save energy and to prevent re-seeding. The plants need at least one season, preferably two, before they’re ready to dig.
Harvesting is a pretty simple business. Dig a trench down 30 to 40cm along one side of the row of plants. Loosen the roots from the opposite side of the row with a fork. Tug the plants gently from the soil and trim back the foliage to about 3cm. Trim off the sides and bottom roots to process, saving any that are 20cm or longer to plant next year.