Ginger
(The ginger is to the right of the horse, in the big, black, round pot.)
I have harvested a portion of my ginger crop! Every day I drink a ginger and lemon tea; I often add powdered ginger to pork and chicken; and of course use it to bake with and as a condiment.
I started my ginger plant, with a piece of ginger, which I bought at the grocery store. I am sure there are more sophisticated ways to grow ginger; but part of what I enjoy about gardening, is watching something grow into a plant, from a seed, or in this case rhizome. I simply put the piece of ginger into a pot, covered it with dirt, watered, and watched it grow!
I think perhaps, grown in the ground, instead of indoors in a pot, I might have gotten larger rhizomes, but I was quite pleased with amount of the harvest. I was out of pickled ginger, and decided in these days when we are not supposed to be out and about, especially for something as frivolous as picking up ginger, it was a good time to try my hand at pickling the ginger, which we did.
The most laborious part of the endeavor was peeling the ginger, which Kate helped with. I then made a simple brine, consisting of one and half cups of water, three fourth cup rice vinegar, one third cup of white sugar, and 2 teaspoons of kosher salt, which I sprinkled on the ginger after it was peeled, washed, and shredded, in the food processor.
I put the rest of the ingredients on a low simmer for about 15 minutes, after the salted ginger sat for fifteen to twenty minutes; I put it in a glass bowl, poured the brine over it, and let it cool before covering and refrigerating.
Overall, very pleased with our harvest and efforts.
Jill this is so fun, that you grew ginger in a pot from a simple piece of ginger! How do you use the pickled ginger, and how long does it take to pickle?
It is wonderful Patty, you would like this. We add it, as a condiment, to Chinese food, we make; even though I was introduced to pickled ginger with Japanese food. I left it about a week, in the refrigerator, before we began to eat it.