I dug up some of my ginger crop and started a ginger bug for making ginger ale.
You can definitely tell the ginger roots that just camped out in the sand vs the new growth. I'm not even upset that some of it didn't do anything. It stayed fresh and usable. Sand outside is the best storage system for ginger.
Over all between this and the previous harvest I have 50% more ginger than I started out with. A pretty good return. Next year I'll go bigger than a single square foot of planting.
I know in my heart that I could dry those leaves out and weave something with them but that's not a project for this year. But I'm always keeping an eye out for that function stacking ability.
Nice! What's your process for making ginger bug into ginger beer?
Grate about a tablespoon or three of ginger, add an equal amount by weight of some kind of close to raw sugar. Add 10 oz of distilled or other non-chlorine water, mix it up and put a breathable lid on it. Add new sugar/ginger each day for 3-7 days depending on how slow or fast things take to get bubbling.
I haven't settled on a ginger recipe for this batch but in the past I've used this yeast based one that I made to try and get a clone of Blenheim Red Hot Ginger Ale. It's pretty close but way too strong for most. For this particular run, I will probably be using something a little more Jamaican themed
Spicy Ginger Ale. 9.5 oz (net weight) of peeled ginger
1 cup sugar.
1 tbsp lemon juice.
2 cups + 6 cups water.
1/4 tsp yeast (white wine or champagne is best but bread yeast will do).