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24 | LIFE IN SOLERA | JUNE 2025 | By Richard Crowe By Richard Crowe Growing horseradish and making your own sauce are easy, but I have learned five important lessons from my experience that I did not find out about until after a few years of growing and grinding: 1. Be careful where you plant the roots as they spread into other parts of your vegetable garden (although I control the spread easily enough). The leaves are nice and green and grow to about 2 feet tall. (Photo 1). 2. Do not dig the roots during the summer; they have no taste. Dig after the leaves have died down in the fall-winter. (Photos 2 and 3) 3. Be careful when grinding the roots; the aroma is extremely powerful! 4. I store the ground roots in the freezer. Freezing preserves the hotness whereas putting the material in the refrigerator causes the hotness to disappear in rather short order. When I want to make some sauce, I just remove the jar, thaw it for a day in the refrigerator, and then refreeze the remainder. 5. I place the ground roots in canning jars but the hotness causes the undersides of the lids to rust out, so I place a sheet of saran wrap between the glass rim and the metal lid and that does the trick. (Photo 7) When I dig the roots, I wash residual dirt off with the garden hose prior to bringing them into the house. (Photo 4) In the kitchen 1) cut off the leafy top portion of roots; 2) scrape off the brown skin (as much as you can) down to the white area (I use a knife); 3) cut the roots into 1" cubes and place in a blender (Photo 5); and 4) grind (for several seconds) the roots into a fine mush. (Photo 6) While the ground roots are still in the blender, add white vinegar and salt as follows: to 1 part horseradish root mush add 1/4 part vinegar and a pinch of salt. I usually add enough vinegar to almost reach the top of the mush mass. Note: this is where you have to watch out for the effects of fumes — to both eyes and sinuses! One fellow on a website insists the key to really hot horseradish is to wait 3 minutes between grinding the roots and adding the vinegar-salt solution. Consult websites or a cookbook for recipes for prepared horseradish sauce. Growing Horseradish & Making Your Own Sauce 1 3 4 5 6 7 2