So, once I got the ginger harvested in 2016, I started reading about preserving it, both for use and also for planting next year. I also thought back to the ginger plant I kept in a gallon jar for years.
I’d also had a plant in a pot for years.
So these were the ways I found to preserve ginger:
10 Ways to Preserve the Ginger Harvest:
- Refrigerate – this is a short term method as the rhizome soon gets rubbery
- Freeze – this works for normal use but not for pickling or candying
- Alcohol – ginger will keep a long time submerged in vodka or sherry
- Vinegar – ginger will also keep a long time in vinegar
- Drying – it will preserve it but with a big loss of flavor
To store rhizomes for planting:
6A. Air dry and store in a cool place
7A. Plant them in pots and keep them alive
8A. Plant them in pots and let them go dormant
9A. Hang in a place with good air flow and cool temps
10A. Put rhizome with stalks in a gallon jar of water
The first year I did #3, 4, 7A, 8A, 9A, and 10A.
Ginger in alcohol
Ginger in vinegar October 2016
I put these ginger roots in our
apple cider vinegar on October 10.
Look at the size of the mother that
grew in 17 days!
Planted in pots with stalks, and without.
The results that first year were:
#3: Storing in alcohol. This was the best way to store it for using. I primarily use it to make ginger water.
#4: The ginger stored very well in our own apple cider vinegar. It made HUGE mothers. The root is on the bottom.
#7A: Keeping them alive in the pots proved a problem. The stalks all eventually died. Some of the roots rotted.
#8A: Letting the root go dormant in a pot was somewhat more successful. The root didn’t rot.
#9A: Hanging in a cool place to air dry. The bedroom is cool most of the year but this root got forgotten and withered up to nothing.
#10A: Roots in water. This was successful and it wasn’t. I put too many roots in 1 jar and they started to rot. Once I separated them, the roots did well until early spring.