# Horseradish



## PaulN (Mar 4, 2014)

The hay is done, the corn is done and the tillage is done. There is only one thing left to harvest before freeze up. I have to dig my horseradish. Am I the only fool that does this? :huh:


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## stack em up (Mar 7, 2013)

All good Germans eat horseradish. You get the Deutsch seal of approval!


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

Can't eat roast beef without horseradish--that's the law.

Ralph


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## SCtrailrider (May 1, 2016)

Yuck !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

That is something I have never grown here.....I will make it a point to try it this spring. I love horseradish. We have a little Chinese restaurant in town and they make their mustard sauce with a overwhelming dose of horseradish.....it will take your breath when you cover your egg roll with it as I am prone to do. My eyes stream and my nose runs but I love it.

Regards, Mike


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## CowboyRam (Dec 13, 2015)

stack em up said:


> All good Germans eat horseradish. You get the Deutsch seal of approval!


I guess I'm not a very good German then, I don't like horseradish, but I will eat sauerkraut; I'm only half German, now my dad is full German and He will not eat sauerkraut.


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## Ox76 (Oct 22, 2018)

Never grew any, don't know nothing about it. But I eat it and prefer the milder ones, not the hot ones. Yep, I'm German with a bit of Dutch and English.


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## PaulN (Mar 4, 2014)

Eating horseradish is the easy part, making it is what takes balls. After digging, washing & peeling, comes the grinding. When we first started doing this, we used an old hand cranked Enterprise meat grinder. Now that was a workout. It's like trying to grind wood. We finally got an electric grinder. It does work better, but it does lug the motor down. We found out right away that you have to do this outside on a windy day. Try it in your kitchen and you won't be able to see or breathe because of the fumes. It must be a labor of love.


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## PaulN (Mar 4, 2014)

SCtrailrider said:


> Yuck !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


There's one in every crowd.


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## mstuck21 (Oct 4, 2019)

Now you're speaking my language. I love it, the hotter the better. When it takes your breath away that means its good stuff.

Horseradish is also one of our primary crops over the winter. We raise about 15-20 acres. My dad and I are in a growers association that sells into Collinsville, IL (proclaimed horseradish capital of the world). There's around 15 or so growers in nearby counties. The largest grower has around 600+ acres, with most average guys having 50-80 acres. We're probably the smallest. If I can figure out how to post some pictures I will. We use an old 1970 potato harvester to dig it. Once upon a time in high school we didn't have a self loading harvester and picked it all up off the ground by hand. We still do it that way every once in awhile if its too wet to pull the large machine.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

Here's the approved KoM condiment list.

Ham -- mustard only

Hamburgers -- Ketchup, pickles, raw onions

Hot dogs -- mustard, relish, raw onions

Roast beef -- horseradsih

Corned beef -- mustard, sauerkraut (or horseradish alone

Turkey -- mayonaise

Ribs -- no sauce of any kind.

Pork steak -- BBQ sauce.

Beef steak -- none but A1 or Worchester sauce may be used optionally.

Seafood (shrimp, crawdads, crab legs) -- cocktail sauce of 1 part ketchup, 2 parts horseradish, one part Worchester sauce

Ralph


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## mstuck21 (Oct 4, 2019)

horseradish 4




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horseradish 3




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## PaulN (Mar 4, 2014)

mstuck21, that's very interesting! I've always wondered how it's grown commercially. Can you tell us more about growing it? Planting, fertilizer, herbicide or insecticide, yield per acre?


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

mstuck21 said:


> Now you're speaking my language. I love it, the hotter the better. When it takes your breath away that means its good stuff.
> 
> Horseradish is also one of our primary crops over the winter. We raise about 15-20 acres. My dad and I are in a growers association that sells into Collinsville, IL (proclaimed horseradish capital of the world). There's around 15 or so growers in nearby counties. The largest grower has around 600+ acres, with most average guys having 50-80 acres. We're probably the smallest. If I can figure out how to post some pictures I will. We use an old 1970 potato harvester to dig it. Once upon a time in high school we didn't have a self loading harvester and picked it all up off the ground by hand. We still do it that way every once in awhile if its too wet to pull the large machine.


From what I understand, about 90% of the US horseradish crop comes from the Collinsville ,Il, area because the ground is high in potash.

Ralph


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## JOR Farm (Aug 27, 2019)

I bought my truck from collinsville ($12000 less than local dealers) they picked me up at the airport as soon as we got out of town that stuff was everywhere the guy driving told me what it was. I am not the biggest fan of eating it but it looked cool growing.


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## mstuck21 (Oct 4, 2019)

We plant in March/April and harvest Nov thru March. Whenever the weather cooperates. They say the roots grow 1/3 bigger if you wait until late winter/early spring and its sold by weight, but if its a wet start to the year it can really put you behind. Also if the roots continue to grow they can become too large and get hollow on the inside which makes them junk.

Inputs (in our case at least) are pretty low. 250# per ac. equal parts PNK and preemergent at planting. We use a JD 4 row cultivator that we also use for sweet corn to keep it clean throughout the summer and hand hoe at least once or twice if needed. I believe you can spray Select if needed. Other guys have much more involved program than us, but with the other vegetables we grow are rather cautious of drift/residues.

The equipment we use is all shop-built, hand-me-down, or modified potato equipment.

From that first pic you see those straight pieces growing off the bottom. Those sets are your seed for the next year. When we clean/separate the roots. One crew goes through and pulls off all the longest, straightest sets. Next crew separates the main roots and cuts off all the green leaves with knives. The solid roots with a single head are considered #1s and get sold to grocery stores. All other roots with multiple head, at are broken, or crazy looking get pressed in a 1200# pallet of "wildroot". Wildroot is sold to processers for prepared horseradish, cocktail sauce, etc.

Lots of hand labor involved. My dad and I have 3 to 5 other part time workers help us. The bigger farms have many more people involved. Hardest job is sprouting it in the spring. Once it begins to grow several heads shoot up from the seed stock. To get the cleanest #1 roots you can, you need to go and pinch back each seeding root down to 1 head. Each root is spaced maybe 12-18 inches apart on 36-inch rows. You put your head in-between your knees and take off walking, pitching each root as you go. Hamstrings are pretty loose after our little 20 acre patch is done. Takes us about a week to finish. Some years we went through it twice, but thats about the time tomatoes are ready to plant which is much easier so everyone wants to go do that instead.

4 to 5 tons per acre is a nice average on yield. I heard on fresh dirt 7-9 tons is possible. You have to keep rotating the crop from year to year bc it can pick up a fungus that makes the root brown and not bright white.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

That was excellent mstuck21. I love to hear and read about farming techniques of unfamiliar crops.

Regards, Mike


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

rjmoses said:


> Can't eat roast beef without horseradish--that's the law.
> 
> Ralph


Reminds me of deviled eggs, never could get the wifey to put a little HR in until I made them once. Now, she uses a little while making them and is always ask to make them, with folks asking what did you put in them? They are delicious.

Hmmm, I think it's time to ask for some deviled eggs. 

Larry


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## PaulN (Mar 4, 2014)

I never thought about horseradish in deviled eggs. I'll have to try that.

The best cocktail sauce I ever had is equal parts of ketchup, mayonnaise and horseradish.


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## mstuck21 (Oct 4, 2019)

Thanks Mike. I like raising it. One thing about raising all the different crops that we do is that the seasons are always changing and by about the time you’re getting burned out on one thing that season is about over and time to start something new. Gets a little hairy at times keeping it all going and having to plan ahead to keep the succession rolling but makes it enjoyable. Never a lot of down time but bills don’t take many vacations either.


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## Farmineer95 (Aug 11, 2014)

That's a lot of horseradish! 
I'm going to help with grinding today, usually we grind enough for 5 gallons or so, it's done as a fundraiser kind of sorts. Take what you think will sell and tell the people pay what you think and money goes to your church for whatever you designate as. It seems the hotness changes every year, but the patches are permanent locations . Maybe they need to be rotated? What can you put on to prevent the fungus?


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## mstuck21 (Oct 4, 2019)

If the roots are still nice and white I would think you don't have an issue. I'm unsure if there's anything the larger guys do other than rotate. We don't add anything.

I'm no expert on grinding but the old timers say after you grind it to however fine you want it, let it sit for 2-3 minutes before adding your vinegar.

Also I like use a lot of small pieces when I make mine. When you're around it all day, you get eventually get dumb enough to cut a piece off and chew on it. Sometimes if you take a piece off a bigger root you get a little burst of heat and it's gone, whereas seems like its more common that the smaller stuff hits like a hammer and makes you have to spit it out.


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## Farmineer95 (Aug 11, 2014)

Added lemon juice this year to help keep color. 
It kept the heat too!


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

Just heard from a horseradish grower over by Edwardsville, Ill., that horseradish sales are way down because restaurants aren't buying.

Ralph


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## paoutdoorsman (Apr 23, 2016)

Very interesting stuff mstuck21! Now I've got a hankering for a roast beef sammich!


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## mstuck21 (Oct 4, 2019)

Yea I had heard that too about the restaurant sales but I guess I'm not real surprised. Our farm sales of our other vegetables is down probably over 50% to restaurants , but wholesale to grocery stores and sales at our own retail stand are way up.

When we deliver those roots they get stacked on pallet racking and froze. I believe they're good in storage for at least a year. The best part about the roots is there's a few different avenues that they can be sold and used. Hopefully the shelf life will help avoid some of the issues that other crops ran into during the pandemic.

We keep delivering and they keep taking the pallets off the truck so we'll keep digging.


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## mstuck21 (Oct 4, 2019)

It’s that time of year again.. we got the digger greased up this morning and gave it a go to make sure everything checked out.. first load of the year.. we have around 25 acres to do.. from now thru February we’ll spend dry/warm spells harvesting and cold/wet days cleaning and sorting




















We also spent the morning pulling together a few odds and ends for my restaurant and food service customers. It’s been a full day


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