Harvest: Ginger
I wish you all had smell-o-vision: I dug up the ginger yesterday and oh. my. goodness, does it smell good ;-)
Like the turmeric, I was a bit worried about the ginger this year when heavy rains after planting rotted some of the rhizomes, and then the new vegie bed I planted them didn't seem to get as much sun as I would have liked them too - but after digging it all up, I still got a pretty good crop, yay! Again, I don't remember how many I planted, maybe a dozen small pieces?
It didn't take me as long to sort and wash the ginger as it did the turmeric, which was good! Although I did have to keep stopping and rescue the multitude of worms hanging out in the crevices between rhizomes and throw them back in to the garden.
See how fresh and lovely the new ginger looks? It doesn't have that wizened, dark skin that stupormarket ginger has and the smell is unreal when you break a piece.
Final harvest total: 4795g or 10.5 pounds. Not bad, not bad at all.
To be eaten fresh, pickled in rice wine vinegar (for stir fries next winter - we're still eating last years' pickled ginger from the fridge) and dried and powdered for making home made ginger beer next summer. Yummo.
22 comments:
Brilliant harvest Julie, wtg!
awesome..sometimes Mediterranean climates suck. i love fresh ginger. yours looks brilliant.
How wonderful! I bet you sniffed a lot - I love the smell of ginger. We are about to open the first jar of pickled ginger that I laid down 3 months -ish ago, given to us freshly dug. It is so hard to get it without the hard skin. I'll be growing some in the hothouse next year because of the cold here. What time of the year did you plant it?
Wow, I had no idea that fresh ginger (from the garden) actually looked like that!
I love fresh soft (almost pinky at places) ginger - I'll just eat it in slices, raw. Wonderful harvest.
You are an inspiration, I'm going to try both ginger and turmeric this year, thanks for the idea.
Great harvest!
Do you have any secrets of the trade for growing ginger?
Do you have to wait till it sprouts before you plant it? or just whack it in?
Did you plant supermarket ginger? I tried it with a promising looking root and had no luck so I wondered if it is sometimes treated to prevent sprouting.
I love ginger tea so I sometimes grate a bunch and freeze tablespoon sized blobs on a cookie sheet before storing them in a bag. One blob makes two cups of tea.
Can you give instructions on how to dry ginger and make powder, please?
Hi, by coincidence we have been given some ginger rhizomes by a friend this weekend, and I am wondering about the best place to plant them - do they need full sun, or can they tolerate part or full shade? Any tips?
Beautiful! I love ginger. What a fantastic harvest. :)
Julie you are an inspiration! I love ginger and your pictures have got me determined to grow my own.
Julie, that is just beautiful!
Hi guys, thanks!
@ Cosmic: I planted them out in about September last year I think? We don't get any frosts here, so as soon as the soil warms up I whack them in.
@ Cathode: In spring the rhizomes do then to look like they want to sprout and then I bung them in (I've never actually had them shoot as such though, before planting). No tips apart from making sure it is shaded from the worst of the summer sun, which will scorch it; you'd get away with half a day's sun over in Perth I reckon. Lots of water too, but good drainage so they don't rot.
@ Diane: I used organic ginger from my local organic grocer when I first planted them - this harvest was from rhizomes I saved from last year. It wouldn't surprise me if conventionally grown ginger was sprayed to stop it sprouting? Love the freezing tip, thanks, I'm going to use that!
@ ladyhawthorne: I peel the tubers, slice them thinly and dry in a dehydrator. Then I use an old coffee grinder to powder the dried slices. If I get time I will do a whole post on it this week when I dry my harvest.
@ Paola: We have hot summers here and so I have mine planted in part sun and they do well - this year they were shaded more than I was anticipating but they still did well on about 4 hours sun a day.
Cheers, Julie
Wow, they really do look great. Well done!
I was told by a French neighbour once, they'd make a huge batch of ginger, lemon and garlic tea on the stove every winter.
She said to cut up a bag of lemons, in half, roughly squeeze, as well as a few hands of ginger (sliced thin), with a few heads of garlic (cloves peeled but left whole).
You put that all in a big pot, fill with water and let it boil slowly for a few hours. Let it cool, strain and then leave liquid in the fridge.
Every morning in winter, they'd have a cup (warmed up) with a tablespoon of honey added before drinking. She said they never got colds or flu whenever they did this brew.
I've always wanted to try it out myself, and with your lovely looking ginger, I'm just going to have to try and grow some of my own this year!
PS: wish I had smell'o'vision too. ;)
Hi Julie, great post. It is so nice to grow our own vegetable, isn’t it? http://climatarians.org guesses a lot of people are missing out on this. They wouldn’t know what they’re missing until they try it on their own. Not only that, this also helps the environment in a very positive way. The carbon foot print you leave behind is miniscule. Great way to live.
Nice post!
Joost Hoogstrate
Hi Chris,
Yum! How good does that tea sound? I'm salivating. It's cold and wet and that sounds so warming and invigorating - I'm *so* trying that ASAP. Thanks!
Hi Joost,
Thanks :-)
Cheers, Julie
Cool, let me know how it goes. :) I always thought it sounded pretty yum too.
Wow, that's an awesome harvest! I'm going to try growing some in a bucket, since I will almost certainly need to bring it indoors over the winter. But perhaps I could suss out a tiny microclimate in my yard a bit warmer than the rest where it would survive.
I love your outdoor sink by the way. Jealous am I!
I have ginger growing, but I was never sure when or how to harvest it. Do I pull it all up? Or only the biggest shoots? I am not sure. I am envious of your turmeric though!
Hi Chris,
I will :-)
Hi Kate,
It's worth trying IMHO. It dies back in winter anyway, so you'd only need it in a warmer, frost free position in early spring and early autumn?
Hi Margaret,
Yes, pull it all up when the leaves start to die back, then remove the leaves and stalks. Some will be bigger than others, but that's OK. Enjoy!
Cheers, Julie
Hey, Julie! Just wanted to let you know I got a hunk of ginger into a 5-gallon bucket of dirt yesterday. I hope that's all it takes. I'm not the greatest with root crops. But I do love to have ginger around, and it's not exactly a local crop here. So if I can grow it myself, I'll be thrilled. I'm planning on bringing it in since it's not hardy in my zone, but I'll keep in mind what you say about it dying back in winter, so that I don't despair if it does that.
Thanks for the inspiration for another experiment!
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