Woody Scents and Preserving Ginger

The garden has been full of aromas this week. Woody, earthy dampness with the scents of lavender and marjoram. Huge white fungi have sprung up overnight in the bed where wildflowers grew and are now dying back.

The fruit has been blowing off the trees and landing with a thud on the ground. The split and bruised pears are being feasted on by wasps and other insects. I don’t mind the wasps. They do a lot of good in the garden, taking caterpillars and other creatures that munch where I don’t want them. Everything has it’s place in an organic garden.

The rest of the fruit is not mature enough to pick yet but there is usually plenty left on the trees for us to harvest when the time comes.

Although it’s been wet the flowers and leaves look lovely bearing raindrops. Here are some I captured with my camera.

While it was wet I kept busy in the kitchen preserving ginger. It’s very easy to do and probably much cheaper than buying stem ginger. Never really worked it out but it provides so much delicious syrup as well as the lumps of stem ginger that I feel it must be economical.

If you love ginger, as I do, you can find many ways of using it. Although the syrup contains a lot of sugar it’s only used in small amounts so I don’t worry about that. I use it drizzled over shredded cabbage for a tasty salad to eat with an open sandwich. I add it to cake recipes. Sometimes I drizzle it over vanilla ice-cream or serve a little with greek yoghurt.

The stem ginger is so good chopped finely and added to a chicken and rice one-pan meal or added to my ginger cake and Christmas cake recipes. I’m sure I’ll find many more ways to enjoy it.

This is how I did it. ( Photographs to follow).

I washed and peeled the ginger root, being careful to remove all the skin then cut the ginger into small chunks. At this stage I pressure cooked the ginger in just over a litre of water at low pressure for 10 minutes. Then I turned off the heat and allowed the pan to gradually cool to release the pressure slowly.

If you want to preserve ginger it isn’t necessary to use a pressure cooker. Just simmer for about an hour in a litre of water in an ordinary saucepan until the ginger softens.

When the ginger had tenderised I added 800g of sugar and stirred well until the sugar dissolved. I brought it back to the boil then simmered in the syrup for about an hour. After a while the ginger becomes a bit translucent and the syrup thickens a little.

While the ginger is simmering in the syrup I wash and thoroughly rinse some jars and bottles then place them in the oven. I turn it to a low temperature to warm and dry the jars while the ginger is cooking. The lids are dried with kitchen paper or a clean cloth. I have a heater in the kitchen so I put them to warm on that.

I always have a wooden board covered with newspaper and kitchen paper next to the hob to prevent putting the hot jars onto a cold surface which might crack them. If I lift the heated jars out with a cloth, ladle the ginger and syrup in and screw on the lids while everything is hot they will seal. I hear the lids pop as they cool. Although the sugar will preserve the ginger it’s good to know air is excluded so the contents will keep indefinitely.

A funnel is always a good bit of kit when ladling into jars. It stops the sticky contents from touching the rim or outside of the jars. Saves a lot of wiping after the jars cool. I definitely don’t like sticky jars to handle.

The ginger syrup is amazing. The taste is out of this world. A good way to spend a couple of hours during wet weather and so good to have in the cupboard.

As you can see I’ve kept myself occupied but I haven’t been painting for a few weeks. Unusual for me but I expect when it goes dark early and nights seem long I shall pick up my brushes again. Meanwhile here’s another old painting I did of Stokesay Castle in Shropshire. Painted with gouache from a photograph I took on a visit. A lovely building with a pretty garden.

I hope you have the pleasure of a garden and if not that you enjoy hearing about mine. Another week has flown and it’s time to say goodbye . With you again next week when I will have a recipe for delicious cakes.