In recent years, the ginger bulb has primarily established itself as a spice and tea base in local kitchens. If you grow ginger in the garden, you can also harvest the fresh ginger leaves for consumption.
When and how do you harvest ginger?
You can harvest ginger by digging the tubers out of the ground in the fall after the leaves have turned yellow. Fresh ginger leaves can be cut and used in salads from June onwards without greatly affecting tuber growth.
Home-grown ginger leaves and tubers
In our latitudes, the season for growing tropical ginger outdoors lasts from 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 recurring cultivation, all tubers are removed from the ground in autumn and a certain part of them is overwintered for renewed cultivation in spring.
Different 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 for the leaves to turn yellow in autumn, then you can dig the tubers out of the ground and use them or prepare them for storage.
The Harvest of Ginger Leaves
The fresh leaves of ginger can be used as an ingredient in green salads as they have a very aromatic taste. However, make sure that every removal of leaves also deprives the plants of energy and the opportunity to develop tubers. With the right amount of cutting off the leaves, you can still harvest ginger bulbs in the fall for use as a spice or in tea blends.
Processing and storage of ginger tubers
Freshly dug ginger bulbs only develop their full aromatic spectrum when the leaves turn yellow in autumn. Parts of the tuber can then be chopped or grated and used as a spice or 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.
Overwintering and drying ginger
For re-sprouting in spring, you can use tubers and tuber pieces that should be no smaller than a cube. Store them, cleaned of soil, in a cool, dry and dark basement. For use in the kitchen, you can preserve ginger by cutting it into thin slices and allowing it to air dry or in the oven.
Tips & Tricks
After harvesting the ginger, make sure that the harvested tubers are processed as soon as possible. Whole tubers sometimes lose their aroma as they dry out in the air or tend to form mold when exposed to moisture. Storage is possible by freezing or by controlled drying in slices.
