Our family has been making fresh prepared horseradish for five generations. It began in the late 19th century in Germany. The tradition carried onto American soil when our ancestors emigrated to the United States and needed a way to make money. It was around 1902 when we first made our now famous fresh grated horseradish here in the U.S. Since those earlier days of preparing the fresh horseradish and selling it at open-air street markets in small wax paper cylinders we’ve made a few changes, but not many. We no longer sell the majority of our horseradish in wax paper cones and we’ve expanded our product offering beyond fresh grated prepared horseradish to include gourmet horseradish mustard, cocktail sauce, horseradish pickles, as well as a number of other artisan condiments.

Today we operate primarily from a small stand in the historic Central Market located in downtown Lancaster Pennsylvania. Central Market is the oldest continuously operating farmers market in the United States and is so named because of its location right next to the town square in the center of Lancaster City, the oldest inland city in America and the only municipality that has been designated historic due to over 95% of its original housing stock remaining intact. In 2012 CNN listed Central Market among the worlds 10 best fresh markets.

We’ve been making and selling our horseradish on Central Market since the 1930′s. And although much has changed over the years we haven’t strayed from what made Long’s horseradish famous. You can still find us at the market on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays grating fresh horseradish roots by hand and mixing up our prepared horseradish in small batches one jar at a time. If you love horseradish as much as we do you know that the fresher it is the more natural kick it has and the only way to keep as much of that natural heat intact is to make it and eat it fresh. So that’s what we’ve been selling to our loyal customers for generations – The freshest, most naturally vibrant prepared horseradish money can buy.

Buying Our Products Online

For over 100 years we’ve been bottling and selling our horseradish products in Lancaster Pennsylvania. On any given market day we have smiling customers who purchase several jars horseradish and promptly let us know that  they’ll be taking our horseradish back home to their friends and family hundreds, sometime thousands of miles away. Some even let us know that if they visit Lancaster and come home without some Long’s Horseradish in hand there will be ‘hell to pay’. So after all these years we’ve decided to give our loyal customer near and far the ability to buy our fresh prepared horseradish online. However we’re doing it a bit differently than most online retailers.

We’ve built our business on quality not quantity, and that’s exactly how we plan on building our business online. We’re a small business that does a lot of things the old fashioned way and so we’d like to ask that you be patient with us as we get used to selling online and sending the horseradish you love far and wide.

We’re not interested in compromising the quality of the horseradish you’ve come to know and love so in order to ensure that doesn’t happen we need to lay down a few ground rules for order our products online.

Our horseradish is fresh and that means it’s far more perishable than store-bought horseradish which has been ‘hot packed’ or mixed with a cream base to artificially preserve it over a longer period of time. When ordering our horseradish it’s important that you be aware of the four enemies of truly fresh prepared horseradish: heat, light, air and time. In order to remain fresh for as long as possible our horseradish will need to be kept cold as soon as you receive it (before and after it’s opened). Keeping your Long’s horseradish in the refrigerator is the only place we recommend storing because it’s both cold and dark. When using your horseradish we recommend taking the amount you need out of the jar and placing the rest back into the refrigerator right away. Limiting the horseradish’s exposure to air will keep it from darkening and preserve its bold taste for as long as possible.

If you follow these simple guidelines it will ensure your horseradish will remain as fresh and tasty as long as possible. However, as with any fresh product our horseradish will begin to lose its initial pungency over time. You should expect a brand new jar of horseradish to retain is best flavor for about 60 days. If you leave a jar in the refrigerator for more than 60-90 days you’ll notice that it will begin to turn in color from a bright white to a light grayish brown. When you see your jar begin to change color you know it’s time to order another jar. That said we do not take returns or issue refunds for horseradish which has not been properly cared for or allowed to expire.