May 6 Valley Life Column

May 6 Valley Life Column in AG Weekly
Fresh horseradish clears stuffy sinuses

"P-U," my husband said as he walked through the kitchen to refill his coffee cup. "What's that awful smell?"

As if he didn't know, as if he couldn't tell from the tears streaking my face.

Hands busy at the food processor, I gave him a smarty smirk. "Go ahead. Take a deep breath, then get out of my kitchen."

My sister-in-law once said it's best to harvest horseradish in months that have an "r," which means I should harvest horseradish in January, February, March, April, September, October, November or December. Since I didn't get to it last fall, there I stood, the last day of April, feeding large horseradish roots into my food processor, trying to remember not to inhale every time I opened the lid. The windows stood open wide; I had a fan going to blow the caustic fumes outside. Even so, my eyes were watering, and my nose was running. Good, I thought, now maybe my sinuses would drain.

According to my herb books, horseradish has many healing properties. It stimulates digestion, is a good diuretic and promotes perspiration, making it useful in treating fevers, colds and flu. Medieval people regarded horseradish as an aphrodisiac, claiming it could cure everything, including toothaches. Known as one of the five "bitter herbs," it is traditionally served at Passover.

At our house, we don't use horseradish to cure fevers or stimulate digestion, we use it as a condiment, and if I wasn't so lazy, I wouldn't need a whole day to harvest the roots. I could harvest it anytime I wanted to use some, fresh from the garden.

But I'm lazy and like to make up big batches, which I store in glass jars in the refrigerator and freezer. That way I only have to smell up my kitchen once or twice a year!