Ginger!

Where to begin? 

I guess from the beginning.  That's where most stories start anyways.  Last fall, this exact weekend last year actually, my friend Rebecca and I attended a conference session on growing ginger in our climate.  We were hooked.  So we ordered 30 pounds of ginger and some turmeric and waited with much anticipation for it's arrival in the Spring.

Well Spring came and the supplier had some problems and our order was cut in half and the delivery was a month late.  That's okay, it's our first year we thought.  Well then the rain came, and came, and came and never really left.  And for the first time ever, South Carolina didn't have a hot summer.  Really!  I don't know why, and I didn't like it.  Neither did the ginger.  It grew, but probably not as much as it could.

All season I adored my ginger and it's pretty shoots and new growth, but I adored it from a distance.  I didn't want to mess with it because I wanted it to get big, big, big.  But the time came when there was threat of a frost and I needed to get my babies out.  And then I couldn't stop.  They are so beautiful and intriguing.  Even if I couldn't eat it all or sell it, I'd want to grow 1,000 pounds next year just so I could have the joy of digging it up, smelling the fresh ginger in the dirt and then in my house while washing and weighing it, and just generally being amazed by the plant. 

Alas, we still don't have a new house picked up and our current growing location is in question.  But we'll figure it out and we'll be growing and selling even more ginger next year.