January Newsletter

HERBS AND HEIRLOOMS

January, 2011

He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herbs for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth...

Ginger

From The Herb Patch

As a child, did you enjoy gingerbread or gingersnaps with a glass of cold milk for after-school snacks, or a delicious glass of ginger ale when you were in bed with an upset stomach? The realization that the lumpy rhizome in the produce section of the grocery store and the tan powder in the can is the same spice for these tasty treats is somewhat shocking.

Ginger (Zingiber officinale), not to be confused with native wild ginger (Asarum canadense), is a native of hot, humid Southeast Asia. It belongs to the ginger family, some of whose members are cultivated in greenhouses for their flowers or ornamental foliage. Others, such as turmeric and ginger, are grown for their rhizomes (fleshy roots).

The ginger plant is a perennial. Each spring it produces reedy leafstalks about 2 feet high. The green leaves are narrow and pointed, about 7 inches long by 3/4 inch wide. The flower head, a dense spike 3 inches long, is produced on a separate stalk that arises from the rhizome. The flowers are yellow or white, the surrounding bracts, green (windowsill specimens aren’t likely to bloom). In nature, the stalks die back after flowering. Each year’s growth extends the rhizome. As cultivated forms are sterile, plants are propagated by division of rhizomes in the spring.

Gingerroot that is to be ground into powder is harvested when fully ripe and then washed, boiled, peeled, and dried in the sun. The West Indies are said to produce the best dried ginger. Rhizomes to be candied are harvested “green” because younger roots are less likely to be fibrous.

uses

Ginger has been cultivated for centuries in India and Southeast Asia for medicinal uses and as a flavoring spice. It is grown in many parts of the world: much of the fresh gingerroot sold in this country in recent decades has come from Hawaii. In many cultures, ginger has been used for centuries to aid digestion (in humans and domestic animals) and relieve symptoms of colds and other ailments. So the ginger ale you may have sipped as a child had some health benefits in addition to tasting good. Ginger is available in capsules as a motion sickness preventive. Chinese cooks add sliced ginger to fish and meat to neutralize odors. They also used it minced for flavoring.

Growing It

It is easy to grow ginger in the greenhouse or indoors. Where summers are hot and humid, it can be grown outside, but it will not tolerate high winds or cold. It prefers fertile soil and partial shade, and should be rested in the winter after the stalks have dried back. Start with fresh ginger root from the grocery store. Select a plump specimen; avoid shriveled rhizomes or those with sunken or molded areas. Sprouts will grow from the “eyes” on the rhizome, much as potatoes sprout. Plant the rhizome with the eyes at the soil surface.

If you don’t care about producing a ginger plant with 2-foot leaves  but would just like to keep your fresh gingerroot from turning to slime in the refrigerator between stir-fry dinners, you can plant the rhizome in a flowerpot. in moist sand. Exhume it when you need a piece for cooking and bury the rest. It might even grow, if conditions are right.

To Crystallize Your Own Ginger

Try crystallized ginger in fruit salads or ginger cookies, or dipped in bitter-sweet chocolate for an elegant treat. You might want to take the time to make your own. This recipe can easily be doubled.

2 cups of 1/4-inch thick slices of peeled or scraped gingerroot

Water

1 1/2 lemon, sliced

1 cup light corn syrup

First day:  Cover the ginger with water in a saucepan and bring slowly to a boil. Cover and simmer gently until tender, about 20 minutes. Add 1/2 cup sugar, stir well, and return to a boil. Remove from the heat. Let stand, covered, at room temperature overnight.

Day two:  Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer gently for 15 minutes. Add the sliced lemon and the corn syrup. Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes more, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat, cover, and let stand overnight.

Day three:  Bring to a boil, stirring often. Stir 1/2 cup of sugar, bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer gently for 30 minutes. Stir in the rest of the sugar and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and let stand overnight.

Day Four:  Bring to a boil. When the syrup drops heavily from the side of a spoon and the ginger is translucent, remove from heat and drain. Save syrup; it makes a delicious sauce. Dry ginger slices on a wire rack overnight. When it’s well dried, roll the ginger in granulated sugar and store in tightly covered glass jars. (I know, who wants to go through all this trouble to make crystallized ginger when you can buy it!!)

TRIPLE GINGERSNAPS

What’s better than a gingersnap on a cold winter afternoon? A ginger-ginger-ginger snap! These cookies pack a lot of flavor, and last for quite a while—if you hide them.

1/2 cup butter or margarine                        

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 cup brown sugar, packed                          

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg                                                          

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1/4 cup dark molasses                                

2 tablespoons finely grated fresh gingerroot

2 1/4 cups unbleached flour                         

1/2 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger

Granulated sugar                                        

Cream the butter and brown sugar. Beat in the egg and molasses. Sift the dry ingredients and stir into the butter mixture until well blended. Add the fresh and crystallized ginger. Chill the dough until stiff enough to handle easily.

Shape the dough into 1-inch balls and roll in the granulated sugar. Bake in a 350ºF oven for about 10 minutes.

Let’s go even further and make ginger bread men! So exciting! All you have to do is cut them out and add candies to shape eyes, mouth and buttons. Great project for kids and grown-ups too!

Makes 4 dozen.☺yummy!!

*This information was taken from THE HERB COMPANION magazine.

MORE ABOUT GINGER

While I was staying with my daughter Grace a few months last year, I would sometimes go to the Mall and go specifically to a little Asian place called the Jelly Ball. This stand sold organic teas, smoothies and other delectable drinks. I would always get a cold ginger and honey drink that I thought was simply delicious. It gave me a lot of energy. I’m sure that fresh ginger was used and since going there and having to pay $2 for a small drink of this in a cup (they make it while you wait) I decided to try to make my own rendition of this drink. First, I boiled water in a tea kettle or whatever you have available, then grate some fresh ginger into the water. Add a little honey, stir and let sit.  This is almost as good as the “Jelly Ball”.

Also, ginger just happens to be one of the raw ingredients in the Super Immune Tonic and let me tell you it will open up something in your head as well as allow good circulation in your body. By the way, while I’m talking about the tonic I would like to say it is a great way to spice up your salad dressing. I just had an organic salad with olive oil, vinegar, fresh garlic, pepper mixed in a bottle for fresh dressing and added Super Immune Tonic (a little) to this and it is great!

GETTING TO KNOW FOOD

One of the reasons I started this newsletter was to inform people about what has been happening with our food industry in the last few years. Have you heard the expression “everything old is new again’? These words couldn’t be truer as they apply to the food in the 21^st century. We are seeing a renaissance of food culture in America. In response to fast food, bad food, food-borne disease outbreaks in mass-produced food, factory farming and the alarming rise of obesity in our country, people are finally starting to think a bit more about the stuff that goes into our bodies every few hours. Where does it come from? Who produced it? How far did it travel to get here and how much fossil fuel was burned to do it? Is it organic? Does it contain genetically modified organisms? These questions have rarely been asked in the past and certainly not at the rate they are today.

There isn’t space here to detail the downward spiral of our nation’s food supply over the last 50 years, but a very simplistic answer is that we got greedy. Scientists and chemical companies figured out how to make plants grow larger, to be more resistant to pests and to increase crop yields. It sounds like a good thing, but the long-term effects of this strategy have been devastating. Hybrid varieties of vegetables replaced open-pollinated varieties because disease resistance and tougher skins could be bred to allow for safe travel over long distances and extended shelf life at the market. Commercial growers and home gardeners alike appreciated the homogeneous qualities of these new hybrids and began to prefer them over the traditional open-pollinated (now known as “heirloom”) varieties, giving no thought to qualities like taste, color or texture. Many old varieties of vegetables and fruits began to vanish from the garden landscape.

What can be done? We can embrace the old! We can choose to grow heirloom varieties in our gardens, buy heirloom seeds from dedicated seeds men, save our seeds from year to year, pass them around to other gardeners and support local growers who sell heirlooms at our farmers’ markets. The remarkable tastes of some of these old-time varieties will amaze you and you’ll be doing your part to ensure our nation’s food future.

Heirlooms VS Hybrids

The exact definition of an heirloom plant varies from source to source, but gardening experts generally agree that heirlooms are open-pollinated cultivars developed and grown during earlier times.  Open-pollinated means the plant crosses naturally without human intervention; its pollen is transported on the wind and dew by birds, bees and other pollinators. It can also be self-pollinated. To heirloom experts and gardeners, the term also applies to plants that will breed true to type when you save and sow their seeds. In other words, the next generation will look just like its parent.

Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seed: lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled” (Deuteronomy 22:9)

Not so with most hybrid vegetables. Hybrids are the artificially pollinated plant varieties used in the majority of today’s massive, industrialized agricultural operations and are the varieties increasingly marketed to gardeners. Commercial hybrid seed stems from the crossing of two different plant varieties, or parent lines, each highly inbred to produce certain desired characteristics such as disease resistance, uniform size or increased productivity. With heirloom seeds you can keep saving them and pass them along; you don’t have to go to the seed company and buy more seed, but with hybrids, you have to go to the seed company and buy more seed. It’s to the benefit of the seed industry that you can’t reproduce your hybrid seeds.

Next month...a focus on Genetically Modified Food...sold at a grocer near you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!☺