Backyard Stories

Ginger – Re-planting the Harvest

by Irene

With temperatures steadily dropping, particularly overnight, frost has started to make a few appearances in my backyard, which means that my potted tender plants have been indoors for at least a week now.  The two lemon seedlings went directly inside, just after making sure that there were no dissembling passengers with them (AKA bugs).  For the ginger, I loosened the dirt in the pot outdoors first, and pulled all the plants out very gently, to assess the harvest.  Because of the relatively cold early summer we had, my ginger crop was not nearly as big as last year’s, but neither completely deplorable, and on the bright side, it looked very healthy:

The smaller stalks and shoots were reserved for re-planting; in the photo at the top of the post, for example, the three plants on the right were separated for that purpose, and the one on the left was chosen for the kitchen.  All the plants were brought inside; the ones selected for re-planting were set in a clean pot with fresh soil, which will stay cozy by a South-facing window until next spring:

The plants for cooking were dusted, roots removed, then washed and dried.  One plant at a time, the rhizomes were separated from the stems and leaves, then trimmed:

I used to discard the leaves and stems (ugh!), but recently I read a very useful post at Kunstkitchen detailing how to use them, such as for tea, or as flavouring agents, so I will keep them and try out a few of the suggested tips. As for the rhizomes, some were packed and stored in the freezer right away; I will be able to grate or slice them, as needed, to use in stews and soups throughout the winter, and possibly even until I get my next crop.  To take advantage of the rest while still young and fresh, I thought it would be nice to prepare a batch of Japanese pickled ginger, as well as a couple of recipes involving Canadian and Mexican elements, which turned out to be a little bit of a challenge, as I will explain when I share my findings in future posts.

17 thoughts on “Ginger – Re-planting the Harvest”

  1. I don’t plant anything edible (or otherwise) in my yard that would need protection from frost. Where I live, it never gets cold enough to be a concern. So that’s one challenge I don’t have to deal with.

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    1. Thank you, Judy! It is very crisp and not as pungent, and not fibrous at all. And the colour is just something else, pure white with a tinge of pink. I had bigger pieces but I forgot to take pictures before cleaning them (as they say, aging is not for wimps!) but I will show more detail in one of my next posts.

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      4. There are several ornamental ginger plants, different from kitchen ginger (Zingiber officinale); I believe they would not be poisonous, and some people have reported eating buds and rhizomes, etc., but some are bitter or just not tasty, so I would not take the risk. Growing kitchen ginger will be a breeze for you, though, because it will be very similar to your ginger flowers.

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