Grow your own ginger

Ginger is used extensively in Indian cooking. Geez! we all wonder at the price, the most expensive culinary vegetable which adds so much flavour to Indian curries. And in winter no Indian home will drink tea without the slice of ginger in it. Most housewives discuss the price of ginger where they can find it cheaper than the $75-80a kilo. Many frustrated wives have left ginger out from the cooking. Others go looking from shop to shop, vendor to vendor and only buy just few inches of the rhizome as if it is a treasure. Really, ginger makes the dish equally expensive as if it was some highly priced gourmet dish.

Well no more, as you can grow your own ginger, simply find ginger root that has green eye buds when shopping at the green grocer. Ginger is a summer herb or spice or vegetable, whatever you may call. It definitely makes Indian Daals (lentils) so full of aroma, rich flavour and highly nutritious.

ginger loves warm weather, hates direct sun, and needs moist-rich-soil. so that it stays moist make sure to water it every now and then and cover it with mulch. ginger loves growing in the ground but weeds are a bother.

It takes 8-10 months for the ginger root to grow so sow at least 10 separate pieces to get a good crop worth couple of kilos. Ginger can stay long so it will give you good supply for months. When the plant dies on top, that is the time to harvest the ginger crop.

Take whatever you want and leave some which are sprouting green eyes and put them back to grow for the next lot of crop.

Green ginger is an essential spice in Indian curries, Daals, Soups, Chutneys, Pickles (love ginger pickle) and Tea.

Ginger has a very long history of use in various forms of traditional and alternative medicine. It’s been used to aid digestion, reduce nausea, and help fight the flu and common cold, to name a few of its purposes.

The unique fragrance and flavor of ginger come from its natural oils, the most important of which is gingerol.

Gingerol is the main bioactive compound in ginger. It’s responsible for much of ginger’s medicinal properties.

Gingerol has powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects.

Ginger may play a role in weight loss, osteoarthiritis, lower blood sugars, help in chronic indigestion, may lower cholesterol levels, and increases hunger if taken pre meal. Being a bitter herb it helps increase hunger for all those recuperating after an illness.

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