It's only taken 20,000 years to create the perfect place to grow horseradish. What's the recipe? Take one slow moving glacier from 23,000 B.C., add cold winters, long summers and potash rich soil, and you get the American Bottoms of southern Illinois. This area grows 80 percent of the world's tongue-tingling root, used for everything from cocktail sauce to your favorite Bloody Mary mix.

It helped that contestants made smart choices: pork tenderloin, beef, raspberries, cream cheese, and shrimp. Any one of these foods and horseradish make a great couple. The best recipes had a little sweetness to compensate for the astringent quality of the root. And when it's right, mmmmm. Like an enthusiastic dancer, horseradish can whirl you at dizzying speeds on a sandwich, waltz you silkily through your prime rib, or whip you through a jazzy jambalaya number. It adds passion to food.

The organizers of the festival want people to know horseradish is also serious business. Education about the root is a major part of the festival, and booths are set up to show all stages of crop production. The Collinsville History Museum hosts a special horseradish history display for the festival.

Brought to Collinsville by Dutch and German immigrants, the root has been farmed by families for generations. Automation has made the crop's production easier, but it still requires significant hand labor. Weeding is done by hand, as is harvesting in the spring and fall. The small roots dangling at the bottom of a harvested horseradish root are the "set" or seedlings for next year's horseradish crop. They must be removed by hand to prevent damage. They are then stored at 28 degrees in high-tech, refrigerated barns from harvest time until spring planting.

The green horseradish tops are cut and discarded. The finished root resembles a parsnip on steroids and is deceptively innocent-looking, given its fiery propensities. In fact, until you crush it to release the heat, it isn't hot at all. Grinding crushes the root's cells, releasing isothiocyanates that make it spicy.

While it might be difficult to grow in large quantities, horseradish isn't hard for home growers to produce. If you want to raise your own horseradish, www.horseradishplants.com and www.noursefarms.com sell roots and provide instructions for planting. The plant is a perennial from Nebraska to Texas (zones 5-9) and can be grown as an annual elsewhere. If your winters are cold, your soil rich, and you have a sunny spot, it will grow. More sun means faster growth, and using a deep container like a barrel will make you a proficient horseradish farmer.

If you'd like to make your own, look for fresh roots in upscale supermarkets and some farmers markets. The southern Illinois farm of the J.R. Kelly Company sells roots online at www.jrkelly.com. But be sure you want to try this at home. Making horseradish is not for sensitive noses. They didn't nickname it "stingnose" for nothing. Open all of the windows, turn on the bathroom vents, set up some fans and invite over some enemies. The fumes can't literally ignite flames in your nasal cavities, but it sure feels possible. That's why grinding demonstrations at the festival are done out in open air.

Some people like to add salt, sugar, and cream, but vinegar and horseradish are the purist's preference. Keep the mixture refrigerated in tightly lidded jars to preserve flavor. Fresh horseradish is white or cream colored. When horseradish turns brown, it's lost its mojo, so about six months is the maximum you want to store it in the fridge. Freezing it can extend storage time several months.

The root is a member of the mustard family, but a definite black sheep of the clan. The name horseradish may come from a mistranslation of the German word "meerrettich" (sea radish). Mispronounced by English speakers to "mareradish," mare may have become synonymous with horse, giving us horseradish.

While it seduces with its earthy fire in food, horseradish has also been used for medicinal purposes. Once used to treat coughs, food poisoning, scurvy, colic, and tuberculosis, it's still touted as a headache remedy. The root was once thought to be an aphrodisiac, but it's more likely to turn on your tear ducts than anything else. It definitely clears out the nasal passages.

New water treatment experiments show that enzymes in the root can remove toxins from water and kill some strains of bacteria. T And at 6 calories per tablespoon and no fat, it's great for people looking to add zest, but not calories, to a roast beef sandwich.

Now, the history of horseradish is coming full circle. Early on, the ancients understood the root's value. The oracle of Delphi was such a fan, she pronounced it worth its weight in gold. The ancient Greeks used it as far back as 1500 B.C., and it's still part of the Jewish Passover tradition as a bitter herb. In modern times, Dagwood Bumstead has been the biggest celebrity endorser of horseradish. He doesn't consider one of his famously stacked sandwiches complete without it. But somewhere along the way, the root got lost amongst the impressive array of spicy foods we can access in our global community.

Now that the festival is garnering attention, hopefully it can take its rightful place in the hot flavorings repertoire of cooks everywhere. Mark Badascha said, "Attendance at the festival varies between 15,000 to 20,000 a year, depending on weather." But that will probably change next year. "The Travel Channel is here filming for their Taste of America show," he reports. Thanks to the festival, horseradish is finally getting the attention it deserves.

I prefer my horseradish the non-toxic way—purchased from the store. Some great products that help you relish the root's flavor include:

at www.everythingemeril.com.

or Sweet Beet and Horseradish Mustard at www.mcness.com.

at www.braswells.com.

1/4 cup white vinegar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 cup cucumber, seeded and chopped

1/4 cup yellow zucchini, seeded and chopped

1/4 cup red bell pepper, seeded and chopped

2 tablespoons chopped baby carrot

2 tablespoons chopped red onion

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

1/2 pound boneless sirloin steak

1 tablespoon prepared horseradish

2 tablespoons horseradish sauce

6 miniature pita breads cut in half (microwave for 5 seconds if needed)

In a medium bowl, combine the sugar, vinegar, salt and pepper and stir well. Add all of the vegetables and cilantro and stir to combine. Cover and set aside until serving time.

Grill the beef over medium high heat until it's cooked to your liking, with a slight charcoal burn on the beef. Cut the beef into small bite-sized pieces or thin slices and set aside.

In a small sauce bowl, add prepared horseradish and horseradish sauce together and stir to combine. Spread approximately 1 teaspoon of the horseradish sauce mixture into the pocket of the pita bread. Add approximately some of the festive salad mixture and arrange the beef over the salad mixture. Top with a little more festive salad mixture.

Repeat steps with the remaining ingredients. Serve immediately.

Heat: Mild to Medium

Horseradish Pate

Raz-radish Spread