We have been growing ginger in a pot in the backyard. I love fresh ginger. This is our 4th year of growing ginger and it started from a piece of grocery store ginger.
I had to keep waiting to get a good piece for planting from the store, I think you might be able to purchase some for planting online. I had to find a piece that had nubs that were trying to sprout and I finally did one day and planted it.
So I took what I needed which was not a big piece. If I had dug around more I probably would have found some more plump.
I cleaned it up at the compost pile so I could put all the stalks and things I was cleaning off into the compost.
I chopped up the stalks so that they would compost down faster.
And added it to the compost pile.
On the left some ginger that has turned tan from the air and as you can see the new ginger is starting to get that dark tan dry skin.
This was the next morning what it looked like...
Anyway...
My husband caught a cold or it is allergies and has set off cold like symptoms from being out at someones farm in the cool wind with peanut dust blowing in the air due to the drought.
You may have heard in the past people would claim that they kept liquor in the house for medicinal purposes. Well that is true.
We keep a bottle of this apricot brandy for medicinal purpose and that is to make ginger and apricot brandy tea for a cold and cough. Of course this is for adults.
A long time ago our neighbors that were in their 90's told me about this remedy and we have used it sense.
So we slice some ginger, mine came from the garden but I have used fresh store bought as well and slightly pound it just to loosen it and put it in two cups of water. This was for two cups because I was going to have some tea with lemon and honey as a preventive and my husband tea with brandy.
If I use one cup of water I use less ginger. Bring it to a boil and turn down to simmer, put a lid on it and simmer for 15 minutes. Just like the lemongrass tea.
I strain the ginger tea and add one ounce of apricot brandy.
Sip as needed for cough and cold. I am not saying this is a cure and I am not giving medical advice. This is what we do since my friend Naomi gave me this recipe. They lived into their late 90's so it did not kill them since this was something that had done for many many years.
My husband sipped this tea before bed and he only needed a quarter of the cup and he went to sleep and did not cough anymore until he got up the next morning. We repeated this the next night and he was getting better the next day which was yesterday. The brandy has gone back up on the shelf. :)
I like a cup of ginger tea occasionally with lemon and honey. I have always heard it helps our body with different ailments and I believe it does.
I like growing herbs and ginger and lemongrass. Even at my age I am still learning and I plan on continuing that as long as I can.
Grandma Donna
