Category Archives: Food

Harvesting culinary ginger.

The first hard frost was this week. When I say hard I mean 25f. Our typical winter temps are about 25f to 30f at night and in the 30s or 40s during the day.

Frost has killed the foliage of the culinary ginger in the garden so it’s time to harvest the roots. It’s a shame, though, because one plant was beginning to bloom and its the first time I have had that to happen.

Below is the bud and a small pink flower was peeking out the day before the frost.

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The plants are now mushy from frost and have fallen over.

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I simply pull and the root comes up.

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I rinse the soil off in a bucket of water then pour the water and soil back into the garden bed.

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Now I need to trim off the roots and clean the remaining soil by hand.

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Ginger will last about two months in your vegetable crisper in a zip lock bag. You can also freeze it in small portions so its ready to use. Other methods are storing is to store it in jars of vodka as if its pickled. I might have to try that one!

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Namaste’

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Frost and popovers.

I was up early, as usual, so I took a drive to Cup A Joe for a latte and the paper. I had forgotten The Raleigh Christmas Parade is today so there was a detour around Hillsborough Street and through an old Raleigh neighborhood. I then realized there was a light frost on the some roofs. Note to self: house plants must be cleaned and brought inside today!

So much color in the yard. Trees are golden or red. Perennials are colorful, as well. Some are yellow. Many are brown.  Many are decorated with beautiful seed heads.

Some plants are still blooming:

Cosmos                                                             Rubeckia

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Autumn Clematis                                      Some kind of salvia/sage. I think it is                                                                             Salvia puberula ‘El Butano’

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Yellow leaves of a Kwazan Cherry

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All this seems like a good reason to make simple popovers!

I was cruising all the clearance end caps at Target one day and found a popover pan for $6.00. The recipe was simple.

1.5 tablespoons of melted butter
1.5 cups of flour
3/4 teaspoon of kosher salt
3 large eggs
1.5 cups of milk

Allow ingredients to warm to room temperature. Mix ingredients and pour into buttered pop over pan that has been preheated in the oven for a few minutes. Only fill the pans half-full. Cook for 30 minutes. The pop overs will pop out of the pan as they rise. They are very light and fluffy.

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Welcome to Fall!

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For the love of Wired Wednesday!

Nothing I love more on Wednesday than the Wired Wednesday iced double mocha lattes at Cup A Joe on Hillsborough Street near NCSU in Raleigh, NC. They really get me going to make it until Friday!

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