THE CHINESE HERB GARDEN - Growing Chinese Vegetables in Your Own Backyard - page 157

The plant's normal cycle is to die down over the winter. Dig up the roots and store
in sand until spring. If you wish to keep the plant going in the house, give it a resting
period. Withhold water and fertilizer and allow plants to go dormant for two months.
You can force winter blooms by planting it in a pot about nine months before you want
the flowers; it will subsequently go dormant on its usual schedule.
DID YOU KNOW?
If you like to cook highly spiced food (whether Chinese or Indian), always include ginger among your
spices. This is the secret ingredient of those lands; ginger has a soothing effect on the digestive tract and
counteracts the other hot spices used. One of the chief uses of ginger in the Far East is as an aid to di-
gestion. Try it for yourself. You'll find that nibbling on a piece of crystallized ginger relieves discomfort
after a too-heavy meal. In the United States, ginger ale is frequently recommended for nausea and other
stomach disorders.
In addition to its medicinal value, ginger is a good source of vitamin C (also magnesium and potassi-
um). The wise Chinese took pots of ginger with them on long sea voyages to prevent scurvy, and this
practice was considerably before the British navy learned to achieve the same result with limes.
How to Harvest
For shoots. The shoots are delicious and can be cut anytime after they are 3 inches
high. The roots will continue to sprout if you don't take too many shoots, so this crop-
ping will do the plant no harm. A famous Japanese delicacy is a condiment made by
marinating ginger shoots in a blend of vinegar, sugar, and sesame oil.
For “green ginger.” To harvest the roots, dig away enough soil to expose them. Cut off
the rosy-pink baby roots for a special treat; these are known as “green ginger.” Look for
them three to four months after you've planted the root. These juvenile roots are recog-
nizably gingery but so mild and delicate you'll think it's a different plant. The flavor
and the “heat” of ginger are the result of two different substances; the immature root has
not yet developed the gingerin that makes ginger “hot.” These baby roots are sufficient
reason for including ginger somewhere in the home garden or windowsill.
For mature roots. Once plants have died back and the stem has withered, the mature
root can be dug up whole. You can also gather one joint at a time from plants that are
still growing. When harvesting the mature root, always leave the plant enough to grow
on.
Varieties
In addition to the variety of ginger we commonly use, there are many other gingers
grown in China, Japan, and India. One of them tastes like bergamot, another is lemon-