Bob Flowerdew: horseradish is easy to grow and good for you, says Bob
High in vitamin C, a powerful antibacterial agent and tangy to boot – everyone should grow horseradish, says Bob
HERE’S a handy herb (or rather, flavouring) that’s easy to grow, wonderfully tasty, and healthy into the bargain. Horseradish sauce is a traditional accompaniment to roast beef, although it also goes well with many other kinds of savoury dishes.
If you’ve never tried horseradish, it’s almost indistinguishable from Japanese wasabi, and much like a mustard. Indeed, horseradish can be substituted for either, and being related to brassicas and scurvy grass (Cochlearia) it is also nutritious.
One great advantage, though, is that horseradish is easy to cultivate, whereas wasabi is a miffy subject, only happy in the cool damp north and west of the UK. To start your own horseradish patch, transplant roots from a friend or buy them online or fresh from a supermarket or speciality store (try those catering for Jewish and central European cookery). Plant the roots in almost any soil or position – horseradish seldom fails! When you want to make sauce, you dig up a plant, detach some new fat roots and replant it – preferably in a new spot, although this is not essential. The original plant may well reappear from a missed piece of root, thus increasing your stock. In practice, roots can be cut into short lengths and every piece planted if you wish for more.
A way to get better (softer, fresher and more easily grateable roots) is to earth up a plant in winter by burying it under a mound of soil; it will grow up through this, and burst into leaf on top. Then, when wanted, you can remove the mound and cut off the new plump root, leaving the bottom piece to grow back again, rebuild its strength and re-mound again the year after. Horseradish is near-impossible to accidentally kill, so now you will always have some handy…
“It’s practically impossible to kill it”