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growing ginger

the path less traveled market: growing ginger

7.08.2010

growing ginger

I love the flavor of ginger. Something about it just seems so "homey" to me, and at the same time it can be fresh and a bit exotic, too.

the ginger tuber that I "harvested"
I have been wanting to use fresh ginger in recipes for a while now, but was hesitating to buy it because I knew I wouldn't use it all and the rest would go bad. And I couldn't stand the idea of buying something (that's not really in our food budget in the first place) knowing that I'd be throwing half of it out.

Last fall I finally took a few minutes to research (read, type it into Google) growing it myself. It's surprisingly easy! As I was doing that I found that you can store ginger in the freezer, and that frozen ginger is actually easier to grate (now, isn't that nice?). It also grows well in shady spots and indoors, quite handy since we don't get any sun through our windows.

So I splurged a little and bought some.

one of the ginger stalks (it looks like bamboo)

I found that ginger tubers grow in a similar fashion to potatoes: instead of planting seeds, you plant "eyes".
The article I liked the best was on eHow. The steps are simple and easy to follow.
Instead of planting the entire tuber, though, I cut it into inch size chunks and planted the ones with the most promising looking eyes on them and put the rest in the freezer to use in recipes.

10 months later, the stalks on the plant turned yellow and died off, just like the article said! I forgot that it was normal and that you are only supposed to harvest a little bit, so I dug it all up. But that's okay - I just replanted some eyes, and in another 10 months I'll harvest again! :)



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4 Comments:

Blogger origa-me said...

hope you enjoy trying new dishes with your harvest!

July 9, 2010 at 8:01 AM  
Blogger Jacqueline said...

Who would have thought?!!! That is so clever of you and you get the beautiful plant to. I could do this. Thanks for sharing such a great idea.

July 12, 2010 at 9:34 AM  
Blogger Kathryn said...

I had always thought about trying this as I love ginger also. Thanks for the info - may give it a try.

July 12, 2010 at 10:15 PM  
Blogger jen @ homeinthecountry said...

Ohh! Thanks for sharing. I LOVE fresh ginger and had read that you could grow it yourself, but I've been skeptical about it. This gives me hope that I can do it, too! Also, I just tried the freeze-your-ginger technique, and it is easier to grate! Thanks!

July 13, 2010 at 8:47 AM  

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