Have you ever heard of ginseng? Ginseng is popular in Korea. The ginseng that I discuss in a variety of local Indonesian ginseng.
We call this local Indonesian ginseng "Som Jawa or Javanese Ginseng".
The ginseng plant is used by its leaves and tubers to make herbal foods rich in health properties. However, different from ginseng originating from Korea, local ginseng tubers are smaller.
Ginseng plants grow wild behind my house. I left them behind my house for years. I just harvested their tubers little by little. As for the ginseng leaves, I harvest them for a mixture of noodle dishes and herbal soup.
So this time I will share my activities to harvest ginseng tubers. I looked at the area of the ginseng plants and I saw the signs there was a large ginseng tuber.
Later I will make ginseng soup with tofu. It sounded delicious to my mind with its warm, onion-flavored broth.
When the ginseng young, the ginseng plant is a single plant, not forming group.
This is what the baby ginseng looks like. Oh really cute, right?
We can see that the ginseng plant is like a pest that looks like a bush forming. As ginseng plants get older, they will form clumps and flowers have many seeds.
This is the ginseng plant that has matured and grows into clumps. Some flowers and seeds make them look like pest plants.
The seeds are easy to fly in the wind and easy to grow. That is why ginseng plants quickly become numerous and form clumps.
To take ginseng tubers, we have to dig into the soil following the tubers' flow. We have to dig slowly so that the ginseng tubers do not break.
Ginseng tubers are not always in good condition. If the soil is not fertile, the roots of ginseng do not develop into tubers and remain a hard, not edible root.
If the area where the ginseng plant grows is often soaked in rainwater like the area where I live, the ginseng tubers may rot.
It is a ginseng root that is rotten and fails to develop into tubers. We can see the root fibers rot.
This is a healthy ginseng root. But I have to be careful digging the ground so that I won't spoil the tubers.
It took me a while and took patience to follow the flow of this tuber and I kept digging the ground.
I have to wait to get ginseng tubers which are beautiful and of course delicious and healthy!
This is a good quality ginseng tuber that I managed to get out of the ground.
I got a small basket of ginseng tubers. There are about 5 tubers of ginseng that I get, with different sizes.
Ginseng leaves contain flavonoids that can reduce swelling in boils and also act as antibacterial. We only need to squeeze a few ginseng leaves by hand until they secrete mucus, then stick them on the boil regularly twice a day, until the boil deflates.
Besides, in Indonesia, ginseng leaves are commonly used as an ingredient to increase appetite by making soup.
Then, ginseng tubers are believed to be able to improve sleep quality, maintain lung health, improve blood circulation, increase vitality, and maximize the performance of the central nerve which is believed to be able to prevent Alzheimer's diseases.
Nature does provide us with many plants that have natural medicinal properties. We can get them for free and it makes us grateful to be close and feel the beat of nature's life.
I will show you the results of my cooking using ginseng tubers.
A bowl of ginseng tubers with tofu and a sprinkling of fried onions. Perfect for warming yourself up!
I will post the complete Ginseng Soup recipe the next day. So stay tuned to my blog.
All photos are my personal properties and archives.
