Ginger

While a challenge to grow in the American Northeast, ginger is such a pleasure it’s worth it. Something about those Jurassic Park looking leaves thriving in our July, only a few months after our last threat of snow is gone. Like turmeric, ginger must be started indoors, and stay indoors, for several months, before being transplanted outside in June. The reward at harvest is to dig up a beautiful hand of fresh ginger in October, pink blushes on glazed porcelain looking flesh. Fresh first year ginger doesn’t have the hard second year skin that you get in grocery-store ginger grown in warmer climates through two seasons. You can directly grate or chop the whole root, and enjoy the milder, more ginger-forward flavor with less searing heat. When eaten fresh, fewer sugars have converted to starches (like sweet corn), so it's a generally milder flavor and easy to incorporate great ginger flavor into dishes. Just like garlic I’ll sautee an ounce or two in a pan before adding other ingredients, or alternately right at the end, if I want more of the “zip” left in the dish.

Fresh ginger is also obligatory for authentic results in making your own gari, the pickled ginger served with sushi. The pink color is sometimes supplied with dyes now, but the original way was to use fresh ginger with its pink blush pigmentation- buy real fresh ginger, and no dyes are needed.

I bought my ginger seed rhizomes from Biker Dude Puna Organics - as far as my research goes, they're the only reliable source of clean seed. I will have quantities of 3 varieties available for sale- Bubba Blue, Yellow Hawaiian, and Khing Yai Thai.

Currently online sales of ginger will not be available, but I will be bringing freshly harvested "hands" (whole root complexes from one plant, usually 4-9 ounces) to all my garlic festivals and farmer's markets. If you would like me to bring you some to an event I'm attending, please contact me and I can bring some reserved and set aside. Pricing will be by the hand, at $16-$20 per pound.