Grow ginger for traditional Indian chai, vegetarian cooking and ginger home remedies

Grow ginger for traditional Indian chai, vegetarian cooking and ginger home remedies:

Warm and healing Indian chai with home grown ginger:

Ginger is a root vegetable that grows underground and is called in India with the name Adrak, Ale or Adrakam is warming, grounding and good for cough, cold and digestion. It is used for Indian chai(although there might be some without it) and is a very important ingredient for Indian vegetarian cooking. Apart from this, it is important for many herbal and traditional remedies from ancient India. 

Almost everyone around the world is familiar or knows famous Indian Chai or Indian masala tea, most Indian restaurants everywhere whether in India or outside India serve chai or India tea. Fresh chai  which has ginger can be warming, freshing and is a mandatory ritual for many Indians, depending on the place where one lives and season there. Ginger can be added as fresh ginger or many even added as dried ginger powder to chai while making it. Ready made tea bags of Indian chai can also contain dried ginger powder depending on the type of chai they choose. Some of popular chai types are chai with ginger, cardamom or elachi chai, masala chai which has a mix of different spices with/without dried ginger powder in them. For many even outside the Indian community the Indian chai or Indian tea bag has gained popularity specially in Western counties like United Kingdom or some parts of Europe and others.

World of Indian cooking that can use ginger:

Indian cooking uses ginger in variety of ways depending which part of the country one resides. Some grate it on top of vegetables while cooking, while others mix it with other spices before vegetables or curries are prepared. For many Indians staying abroad in America, middle east, Europe, Australia or any part of the world use ginger or ginger-garlic paste that is available from Indian grocery stores while cooking Indian curries or vegetables or Indian dals(lentils).

For western cooking and sweets:

For the west, ginger can be used with Thai vegetarian curries, it can also be used with tomato sauce based Italian vegetarian pastas. It can also be used while making vegetarian crapes or pancakes. Ginger is also used widely in America and other parts of western world for making ginger cookies or ginger biscuits. 

Ginger for home remedies: 

There are many time tested ancient Hindu remedies in India that use ginger in them for things ranging from nausea, vomiting to digestion and cough and cold, many of which use fresh ginger or dried ginger powder in them. Remedies differ within India from place to place and region to region but dried ginger powder and ginger based sweets is widely used as remedy for cough and cold in many parts of India. Also traditional herbal medicines use ginger or dried ginger powder as ingredient in them.

Growing your ginger in home garden:

You can grow ginger in containers/pots be it a ceramic container or plastic container, choose the right container and right size. Ginger thrives in warm/hot weather. For those having shorter span for your garden since the weather may be getting cold, it may be a good idea to buy ginger sapling from a good nursery and plant it.  You can choose a good organic potting soil for your ginger plant. 

Common remedies for your ginger plant:

You can spray the ginger plant with Neem oil spray on the ginger plant leaves regularly. This will keep some of the garden pests away and keep the plant leaves shiny. Ginger plants are easy to grow and need little care except for in hot summer places, pests can become a issue. Using neem oil spray can help save the leaves and fruits. Banana peel powder is a good fertilizer and helps its growth. 

Thus growing ginger is very rewarding, for people following home remedies, you can use it for home remedies. For people doing Indian cooking, you can use it for vegetarian cooking and for the people who like chai, you can make your adrak ki chai or for the west a good cup of ginger tea is a good idea and finally the people who like non-alcoholic drink in summer, enjoy your cold ginger-ale(soft non-alcoholic drink) at home from your own garden!!!

                                                    Ginger plant in container or pots

                                                Ginger harvested that was grown in pots