What are you preserving by less common methods?

[patandchickens]

Oooh, I want to hear how the salted beans thing goes. I keep thinking of trying that and chickening (or lazying) out I would really like to hear what the resulting product is like!

Ginger makes a fairly attractive foliage-type houseplant. I've never managed to grow it well enough to produce enough extra root to cook with, but probably that has a lot to do with only happening to try it when I lived in inappropriate climates or inappropriate apartments.

I like the idea of putting ginger in vodka. I may try that, as quality of ginger is so unreliable in the stores. I bet the vodka would be reeeallly good afterwards too!

Pat

 

[miss_thenorth]

So would it be correct to assume that you would need to plant ginger in a farily large pot? Or is the root size comparable to the plant size, and you would just repot as necessary? More info on how you woudl harvest some of this, and what type growing conditions does it thrive in?

(sorry if I'm being a pest )

 

[miss_thenorth]

boy, I'm gonna have to buy a bottle of vodka just to store stuff in--vanilla beans, ginger--what else? Of course I could just use the rest for caesars.

 

[delia_peterson]

Is there a thread explaining the vodka and storage thing? Any brand of vodka? Vanilla beans,ginger and what else? Do you just keep adding things to the vodka as you go? Do you keep in fridge? And what do you do with the vodka afterwards?(after you have used up what you stored in it?)

 

[patandchickens]

You don't have to overpot it as long as you don't mind repotting when necessary. I have found it to be pretty tolerant and forgiving. As a houseplant it wants bright light with part sun (will survive very bright but sunless conditions indoors, but not grow as well IME), decent soil kept evenly damp. I've never tried growing it in rooms that got below about 65 F though, so I cannot say how it deals with coolth.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[patandchickens]

Is there a thread explaining the vodka and storage thing? Any vodka? Vanilla beans,ginger and what else? Do you just keep adding things to the vodka as you go? Or what do you do with the vodka afterwards?

Vodka is basically just fairly strong alcohol (about 50% by volume I believe). Think of it as making biology-lab pickled specimens in alcohol, only you can fish these specimens out and cook with them later on

Vodka (or even scotch in a pinch) makes a decent biological-specimen preservative in the field when you run out of 'real' alcohol or formalin, btw. And is a somewhat more multi-purpose supply than formalin, especially at the end of a long day collecting things in mosquito-and-snake-and-mud filled swamps

Pat

 

[miss_thenorth]

By soaking vanilla beans in vodka--you get vanilla extract. If you do a search up there, you will find a thread on it, or atleast it's in a thread.

 

[ORChick]

Re: ginger in vodka - I have often read of storing ginger in sherry, but personally don't think either ginger or sherry benefits from the process - sherry has too much flavor of its own. So now I use vodka or light rum - not the expensive kind, but not the cheapest either, just because sometimes I use the vodka/rum with tonic . If you only want it to store your ginger then there's no harm in going for the cheap stuff. When I lived in a more cosmopolitan area I never worried about this; I just walked the half mile to the Indian market (good, firm ginger @ 49c/lb), and got some when needed. Now The best deal on ginger I can get is in the "several dollars to several more" range, so I buy in bulk when I travel to the SF Bay Area once a year. Bring it home, peel it, and drop it in a jar, and then cover with alcohol. Unfortunately I haven't found a use for the left over vodka - it just doesn't work in mixed drinks. Best I can manage is to re-use it for the next batch or two of ginger, but I don't like to carry that too far as eventually the alcohol will dilute to the point of not being a good preservative.

My ginger plant when I had it only sent up long stalks with thin leaves near the top - looked a little like bamboo. The turmeric however has lovely broad leaves, more like a hosta.

 

[ORChick]

Oh, I forgot to mention the ginger in vodka lasts for a long time too. I have used some from a jar that I had put up 2 years before, and it was just fine. It tends to get darker, but the taste is good. Maybe if I put it in a lightproof jar it would hold its color better. I keep it in my dark, and relatively cool pantry.

 

[enjoy the ride]

I've had ginger bloom while growing in the pot. The shoots that I have had growing are too far apart to make a really pretty indoor plan for my taste but it was so easy to grow that I did it anyway.
I can't temember ever fertilizing or anything like that- just have enough ambient light and keep from drying out- I have found that the stalks turn brown and die back when the pot got too dry- at that point I couldn't bring it back. The only problem I had was when I planted the roots too close to the edge- they would bump right into the edge and sort of lever themselves out. Since then I plant with the older parts of the root against the edge of the pot and the growing end towards the middle where it can grow for some time without my having to pull the roots.
I frequent take out what has grown into the edge of the pot but have had it grow well enough to fill up the whole pot and then I took it all out and repotted.
I have never lived where it could be actually outside.
But it's nice to be able to just take some when needed.