Carrots and Horseradish: Two Hardy (& delicious) Root Crops

This year has been one crazy year with the start of our small business and all that entails so we are grateful for this extended fall and what it is allowing us to accomplish with the many, many things we put off in lieu of something else just a tad more pressing.

We've had several good freezes and frosts, but that doesn't hurt carrots so they sat in the ground till this past week when I dug them and put them in buckets to store in our basement root cellar. We put them in damp sand last year as instructed by many and that worked fine for preserving them, but the extras I put in a bucket lasted just fine too - and were much easier to work with - so bucket storing is now our preferred method. Digging through cold, wet sand is not so fun in my opinion.

I harvested lots of horseradish root this year because we love it so, so much. The warm, breezy day I processed these allowed me to open the windows so I didn't get overwhelmed with the potent fumes. After washing and peeling, I used the food processor to grate these roots into nice flakes. I'm so grateful for that machine!

I added a little vinegar to each batch to help preserve the potency and a dash of salt. You can add water to make it more smooth and creamy if you like, but we like it just as pictured. We are putting this on almost everything right now and just love it. I remember my first experience with horseradish in elementary school when I breathed through my nose after a big sample. Yikes! I froze the six half pints so we will see how long this amount lasts us. Old Timer wisdom says you can harvest horseradish in any month with an R in its name.