Horseradish Heroes

Daniel and his brother Joseph were perched on a bluff, looking down at an old abandoned fort. It was September 1846, and the wind blew in their faces. If they had been home in Nauvoo, Illinois, they would be able to go inside the thick, warm walls of their red-brick home. They would have something good to eat for supper. But they were not at home.

With the rest of the Saints, Daniel and Joseph’s family had been forced to leave Nauvoo by the mobs that had killed the Prophet Joseph Smith. Now they were living in a sod hut in Winter Quarters, Nebraska. It was cold, and they had very little food to eat.

“Come on, Joseph, let’s go look around,” Daniel said.

Inside the old fort, the boys saw pieces of wood on the ground and bits of iron gleaming in the dirt.

“Maybe some of these things can be useful,” Daniel said. “Let’s find something to carry them in.”

Daniel poked around in corners and looked behind old doors. He didn’t want to go back to the sod house. Their mother was pale, and she coughed more every day. It made him scared to watch her. Other people were getting sick as well.

“Over here!” Joseph called. He pulled at the end of a flat log jutting out of the ground. “We can use this to carry things on.”

“Good idea!” Daniel said, hurrying over to help pull.

With a great heave the log flew out of the ground, throwing both boys to the ground and spraying dirt everywhere. The boys laughed as they got up and brushed themselves off. Then they looked down into the hole where the log had been.

“Potatoes!” Daniel cried. “Let’s take some back to Father. He will know if they’re good to eat.”

After the boys had picked all the potatoes from the first plant, they moved on to the next one.

“Let’s try to just pull this plant out,” Daniel said.

They grabbed the base of the stalk but the plant did not budge. Joseph pulled hard but his hands slipped. He stumbled back, crushing some tall plants behind him.

“Ew,” Daniel said, pinching his nose closed. “What did you step on?” A strong smell was coming from the broken plant under Joseph’s foot.

“What is this plant?” Joseph asked.

“I don’t know, but it stinks!” Daniel said. “Let’s get away from it.”

“But onions have a strong smell, and they are good to eat.”

“Yes, I guess so. But you take it home.”

“All right,” Joseph said. He dug up the root and took the whole plant.

The boys headed home with the potatoes and the mysterious plant. When they showed the plants to their father, he was very happy. He held up the smelly plant. “This is horseradish,” Father said. “It can be used as medicine. You’ve brought us not only food to fill our stomachs but medicine to help your mother get well.”

Then the boys and their father walked back to the old fort to harvest all the potatoes and horseradish they could find.

The potatoes made nourishing soup that night, more than Joseph and Daniel had eaten in a while. The horseradish was ground down and mixed with vinegar and fed to the sick. The boys’ mother made a face when she took the medicine, but she got better.

When winter was over, the pioneers were glad to be on their way to the Salt Lake Valley and their new home.