In domestic kitchens, the root of ginger has primarily established itself as a spice and tea ingredient in recent years. If you grow ginger in the garden, you can also harvest the fresh ginger leaves for consumption.

Ginger leaves and tubers from our own cultivation

In our latitudes, the season for cultivating tropical ginger outdoors lasts from around March to November. You can usually get the tubers you need for this all year round in the vegetable department of any well-stocked supermarket. For a recurring cultivation, all tubers are taken out of the ground in autumn and a certain part of them overwinters for renewed cultivation in spring.

Various uses for ginger in the kitchen

If the commercially available tubers are planted in a bucket with nutrient-rich soil in March, fresh ginger leaves can be harvested from around June for use in tasty salads. To harvest the tubers, wait until the leaves turn yellow in autumn, then you can dig the tubers out of the ground and use them or prepare them for storage.

Harvesting the ginger leaves

The fresh ginger leaves can be used as an ingredient in green salads as they have a very aromatic taste. However, be aware that every time you remove leaves, the plants also lose energy and the possibility of tuber formation. However, with the right amount of leaf trimming, you can still harvest ginger bulbs in the fall for use as a spice or in tea blends.

Processing and storage of ginger bulbs

Freshly dug ginger bulbs only develop their full aromatic spectrum when the leaves turn yellow in autumn. Then parts of the tuber can be chopped or grated as a spice or used for tea infusions. If you harvest larger quantities of ginger bulbs, you can use them for propagation or dry them for use as a spice.

Overwinter and dry ginger

You can use tubers and tuber pieces that should not be smaller than a dice to sprout again in the spring. Store in a cool, dry, dark basement, clean of soil. Ginger can be preserved for cooking use by thinly slicing and drying in the air or in the oven.

tips and tricks

After the ginger harvest, make sure you process the harvested tubers as soon as possible. Whole tubers sometimes lose their aroma when they dry out in the air or tend to mold when exposed to moisture. Storage is possible by freezing or controlled drying in slices.

Category:

Vegetable garden