Ginger is another plant that grows here without my intervention. It isn’t true “Accidental Gardening” (which is what i call the self-seeding of various edible plants in my garden, like verdolaga or cherry tomatoes) because i planted it intentionally after a piece of ginger i had bought to cook with had sprouted roots. I had enough for 4 different clumps of roots that were planted in pots for awhile, then moved over to a spot on our property.
I have never dug up the roots of ginger to use, and probably wouldn’t have thought to do it now, but I wanted to make a recipe for Sweet and Savory Asian Chicken Drumsticks that just wouldn’t wait, and I had run out of fresh ginger, which seemed like a critical ingredient. I was thinking of using dry … and browsing through some google articles about ginger when i remembered that i actually have some ginger plants growing in the back yard.
I went out with a giant spoon and started to gently pull away the soil from the base of the plant.
Sure enough, there was ginger under there!!
I used the edge of the spoon to just slice through the tender juicy root taking off just enough for the recipe. I want to plant some more plants now … I use a lot of ginger and i would like to be able to use as much as possible from my own garden.
This was the beautiful tender aromatic and perfect piece of ginger that i harvested for the recipe.
This is so amazing! We use fresh ginger all the time, and especially love it chopped up and added to our “sleepy time tea” we drink nightly. I can only image how amazing the flavour would be when you’re digging it straight out of your garden! I’m envious of the gardening possibilities, thanks for sharing.
I know what you mean, Breanne, I love tea with ginger in it, and use if for a lot of cooking. And the flavor of fresh ginger is so deliciously intense!! My goal is to grow enough to use for all my ginger needs .. especially now that i know that it will grow well in the local bad soil!
Great news Anne! Looks like beautiful ginger too! The flowers are really beautiful if you let them reach flower as well.
I’ve heard the expression “volunteer” to describe seeds and other bits that grow outside human designated zones. 😉
Do you know if they die back in the winter, Sean? We just noticed that they have died back … I’m guessing they will appear again when the rains start. (I like the term “volunteer” :-))