Journal March 24, 2015 - Planting from the produce section of the market

Ava and I are big fans of home made ginger ale, so we purchase ginger at the market when it is on sale.   As ginger grows well in pots I decided to grow some, as there is always room in the greenhouse for another pot or so.

While poking through the produce section of an upscale health food store yesterday, I came across yellow Kahili ginger at a few cents under ten dollars a pound!  Frugal as I am I purchased two small roots, with obvious buds showing, for a grand total of seventy cents.  At another market, I purchased a similar larger root of plain old ginger, for about the same cost.

The roots were soaked in water overnight and I planted them today in the same well draining soil mix that I use for olives, as ginger needs the same type of soil.

Yellow ginger is a LARGE plant, four to eight feet, so I will not be growing it to completion.  My purpose is to harvest and use the rhizome, using some and replanting some.  

Yellow ginger  has a very attractive flower, so people are selling rhizomes on eBay for $8.95 for a root,  exactly the same as I bought for less than a dollar.   It is considered an invasive species in Hawaii, so the state frequently destroys plants in state parks.  Go figure, ten dollars a pound in New York, garbage in Hawaii.

It is still very much winter here in New York, the ground is frozen solid with pockets of snow remaining. The weather service says the long range model shows that it will remain colder than normal, as it has for most of the winter, through April.   How depressing is that?

The bird in the photo is a turkey vulture, who dropped in this morning to clean up the remains of an unfortunate squirrel struck by a car.  These birds are a fairly recent addition to our area, I would say in the last fifteen years or so, however, I am not sure their arrival has anything to do with climate change.

Judging from the photo, it appears one of his buddies pooped all over him, but being a vulture he is probably loving it.  It is most likely a form of endearment with vultures: poop on me and I'll love you forever...