You might remember more than a month ago I wrote a blog post about getting all of the plants moved from the farm house to this house. Â Well when we did that we dug up the horseradish, trimmed the bottoms off and replanted the crowns.
We had really good intentions of getting horseradish made but it got late and then we had a series of things going on in the evening several nights in a row. Â Sunday Hubby was cleaning the garage and UGH….there was the long forgotten horseradish. Â We debated what to do and then Hubby finally said-why not, we have nothing to loose.
Hubby pealed it and was then suddenly was called off to a first responder call leaving me to tend to it on my own. Â UGH…I don’t like horseradish and don’t really use it at all. Â Hubby…he loves it.
So I sputter and cried my way through the process. Â I followed all the directions from this Youtube video. Â I worked with the food processor in the kitchen then moved it out to the garage to actually put it in jars.
It only took about a half hour but I spent most of the time with either my eyes closed or crying. Â It was MUCH better than last time though. Â I swear last time I burned my throat and lungs. Â I felt it for days. Â This time is was more like the peeling the worst onion ever times five.
I quickly wrote a little note and left it on the work bench in the garage.
I don’t do fancy things for Hubby…just the little things like make horseradish…and add an occasional note.
I am so glad that task is done for a year or so. Â The new crowns will take a bit to get re-established so there won’t be any horseradish making here for a bit…thank goodness!!
You must really love your husband. I love horseradish, but I hate fixing it. Our roots are always “woody”, but we rarely ever dig any. I have some in the fridge now that I am trying to forget until it is too old to fix. My husband move it from my flower bed to the garden and then decided to till it up as he did not want it. He did not realize that every piece of it would make another plant. Now he has been using Roundup on it for the last few years!
I need to do something with my horseradish…care to share your recipe?? I found out a bit over a year ago that I really like horseradish and I have a plant that has been ignored for years, so now I would love to use it! Maybe I’ll wait for summer and do the whole thing outside though!!!
Oh, look at all those jars of tasty goodness! I love horseradish and have it on hand all the time, but have never made it.but I can imagine how the fumes from peeling and grinding it would be very irritating to the eyes and breathing. I bet your husband was so pleased with you when he got home! Good Girl!!!
Oh my, do I remember the first time I fixed horseradish. The directions said to be careful not to stick your nose in the food processor bowl. Seemed like a good idea. Alas, they didn’t mention that if you’re on the short side your eyes will be just above the edge of the bowl when you remove the lid. I had my eyes squinted shut and streaming tears for many minutes. Hubby kept saying, “Can i help?” Of course there was nothing for him to do at that point. Good thing we love the stuff, and fresh horseradish in your Christmas beef roast sauce is fantastic, but I will never forget that.
Jo – this make me giggle! And triggered a memory – many years ago when we lived in Cresco, someone ‘gifted’ us several horseradish roots, and hubs loves horseradish and I like a little horseradish occasionally so of course we needed to do something with it! We started in the house with a food processor which jammed right away (I guess it wasn’t built to chop the equivalent of tree roots). We tried the blender with mostly the same result. At about this time the ‘smell/odor’ started to be known. We decided to take the operation to the garage…..we had small children and since tears were streaming down our faces we didn’t think it would be good for the children. We switched to a food grinder – the metal kind that you clamp on to a table. THAT really released the juice and fumes. By now it has become so painful AND funny, we really couldn’t tell which tears were which! It was early spring and quite cold out, but we finally had to move the operation one more time – out to the driveway. It was delicious and a learning experience and 30 years later, we buy our horseradish – but I remember that day like it was yesterday!
Jo,
I remember seeing a story on our local (Twin Cities) news a few years back. They do/did a weekly show called on the Road with Jason Davis. He would visit small towns in MN and do stories on “interesting” things/people. One that sticks in my memory was of an old guy in New Ulm, MN (my grandparents settled there when they moved off the farm in the late 50’s). This old guy processed horseradish to sell and he actually used an Army gas mask when he did because of the fumes!
Thanks for sharing your stories, etc.