Ginger in NYC: WTF?

[Guest guest]

To make a long story short, I dragged my sorry excuse for a corpse out of

the apartment today for the first time since Monday's fun with mold (big

mistake -- I'm still a lot sicker than I thought and I barely managed to

make it home even with a cab) and during my travels, I searched for some

decent ginger. I'm now out of even the anemic dishwater ginger juice I was

hanging onto a few days ago, and I could really use some more. But every

place I tried, whether a health food store or a conventional supermarket,

had the same awful faded stuff with hardly any yellow color to it at

all. Even the pesticide-ridden stuff was the same. I swear, there must be

a conspiracy afoot to steal the yellow out of NYC's ginger for use in paint

and magic markers or something. It's ridiculous, and it's been going on

for weeks now.

I confess I have no idea what the growing season for ginger is. Is this a

seasonal problem? I don't remember a plague of lily-livered ginger in the

past, but then again I never used to consume all that much of it, just the

odd bits for seafood and curries and the like. Or is this just another

sign of the downfall of modern civilization? (I'm only half joking.) I

gather this is only a problem for me, not for the rest of you? Should I

try mail-ordering some ginger despite the mold hazard, or is it just that

someone's following me around and replacing all the ginger when I'm not

looking just to piss me off?

-

[Guest guest]

,

>To make a long story short, I dragged my sorry excuse for a corpse out of

>the apartment today for the first time since Monday's fun with mold (big

>mistake -- I'm still a lot sicker than I thought and I barely managed to

>make it home even with a cab) and during my travels, I searched for some

>decent ginger. I'm now out of even the anemic dishwater ginger juice I was

>hanging onto a few days ago, and I could really use some more. But every

>place I tried, whether a health food store or a conventional supermarket,

>had the same awful faded stuff with hardly any yellow color to it at

>all. Even the pesticide-ridden stuff was the same. I swear, there must be

>a conspiracy afoot to steal the yellow out of NYC's ginger for use in paint

>and magic markers or something. It's ridiculous, and it's been going on

>for weeks now.

>

>

Too bad that you are still suffering, but your writing isn't. It's

witty as ever. The best ginger I find is from the oriental markets.

Same with Napa cabbage. The ginger is plump with thinner, more fresh

looking skin (? peel, whatever) than anything at the HFS, organic or

not. I'd phone around to local Asian markets and make sure they have a

good supply before you drag your corpse around looking.

May your health improve.

Deanna

[Guest guest]

,

that's an incredible tale of woe. The things I take for granted! I'm

going out now to pick up a large supply--might I send you some?

B.

[Guest guest]

--

Sorry to hear about your rough time.

> I confess I have no idea what the growing season for ginger

> is. Is this a

> seasonal problem? I don't remember a plague of lily-livered

> ginger in the

> past, but then again I never used to consume all that much of

> it, just the

> odd bits for seafood and curries and the like.

I'm getting great ginger here in NC at WF. Not sure why you guys would be

having trouble as Manhattan usually gets the best of everything. In fact --

I've never even seen ginger wrapped in plastic here.. Open bin and nice and

fresh looking almost all of the time. I use it weekly to make NT ginger

ale.

Ron

[Guest guest]

Ron-

>Sorry to hear about your rough time.

Thanks. I really made things a lot worse, unfortunately, by going out

today to try to get ginger and some other stuff. My experience with mold

certainly doesn't match well with the contention that early exposure to

pollutants/irritants/allergens/whatever is important to develop resistance

to said p/i/a/ws. I'm sure it's terrible to grow up in clean-room

conditions -- the immune system does need something to kick it into gear --

but that's a long way from growing up in a succession of extremely sick

buildings, as I did. When I lived with my grandparents, from before

kindergarten through third grade and on and off thereafter, I never once

breathed through my nose. My nose and sinuses were clogged by solid plugs

of fossilized mucous that were impossibly painful to dislodge, and on the

one or two occasions when I did shed a lot of blood to clear my nasal

passages, they were closed again within minutes.

I also tend to wonder about the children who are supposed to have been in

these " clean " conditions the studies have talked about, though I haven't

followed the issue up. " Clean " in researchers' eyes might mean sealed off

from nature but full of industrial contaminants, off-gassing from building

materials, etc. I keep meaning to check into it. One of these days.

>I'm getting great ginger here in NC at WF. Not sure why you guys would be

>having trouble as Manhattan usually gets the best of everything. In fact --

>I've never even seen ginger wrapped in plastic here.. Open bin and nice and

>fresh looking almost all of the time. I use it weekly to make NT ginger

>ale.

I wonder what the heck is going on, then. Whole Foods has been pulling the

shrink-wrapped organic (but loose conventional) ginger trick for quite

awhile now (and actually most of their produce here is conventional, not

even organic) but I was amazed today when store after store had nothing but

magically devitalized ginger.

-

[Guest guest]

Deanna-

>Too bad that you are still suffering, but your writing isn't. It's

>witty as ever.

Thanks, but my professional writing, which requires a lot more presence of

mind than mere stream-of-consciousness jokiness, has ground to a halt for

the moment.

>The best ginger I find is from the oriental markets.

>Same with Napa cabbage. The ginger is plump with thinner, more fresh

>looking skin (? peel, whatever) than anything at the HFS, organic or

>not. I'd phone around to local Asian markets and make sure they have a

>good supply before you drag your corpse around looking.

The problem I have with the Asian markets is that there's no indication

whether the produce is organic, and all else being equal, I'd really rather

not concentrate pesticides and whatnot by juicing.

-

[Guest guest]

,

> >Sorry to hear about your rough time.

>

> Thanks. I really made things a lot worse, unfortunately, by

> going out

> today to try to get ginger and some other stuff. My

> experience with mold

> certainly doesn't match well with the contention that early

> exposure to

> pollutants/irritants/allergens/whatever is important to

> develop resistance

> to said p/i/a/ws. I'm sure it's terrible to grow up in clean-room

> conditions -- the immune system does need something to kick

> it into gear --

> but that's a long way from growing up in a succession of

> extremely sick

> buildings, as I did. When I lived with my grandparents, from before

> kindergarten through third grade and on and off thereafter, I

> never once

> breathed through my nose. My nose and sinuses were clogged

> by solid plugs

> of fossilized mucous that were impossibly painful to

> dislodge, and on the

> one or two occasions when I did shed a lot of blood to clear my nasal

> passages, they were closed again within minutes.

Good god. I had no idea. I had not heard your history as I've come to the

list long after you needed to talk about it. Didn't realize you were sick

so much as a child. What an unpleasant experience! I had wondered why you

got so sick so quickly from such a limited exposure.

Seems to me that there is a certain level of necessary environmental toxin

exposure but that too much is overwhelming. And I also suspect that each

person has their particular threshold based on genetics, nutrition and, yes,

emotional/psychological environment.

An aside note on Kurasawa. One of the defining moments of my moviegoing

career was seeing _Ran_ back when I lived in Texas in the 80's. I went

because someone told me it was good but it was most certainly unlike

anything that I had ever seen before. At first I was tortuously bored but

as the film developed I became mesmerized by the slow beauty and incredible

aesthetic that he created. I never saw it again, nor have I ever seen

another Kurasawa film but I can still move back into that theater and

re-experience the feelings that that movie generated. It opened me to the

possibility that movies could be more than what passes for cinema here in

the US.

Ron

[Guest guest]

Ron-

>Good god. I had no idea. I had not heard your history as I've come to the

>list long after you needed to talk about it.

Actually I don't think I've ever really discussed my history here except in

bits and pieces when and as the subject has come up organically, so you

haven't missed that much.

>Didn't realize you were sick

>so much as a child. What an unpleasant experience! I had wondered why you

>got so sick so quickly from such a limited exposure.

Oh, I could go on about childhood about much greater length, but I'm not

sure how many subjects there are which could possibly be more boring. But

yeah, I'm extremely sensitive to mold, and this seems to have been a

particularly nasty strain, because in my entire life, I've only been this

sick once before (excepting various life-threatening asthma incidents in my

early childhood) and I was eating SAD (and a particularly sugary, starchy

form) at the time. The infection has spread to my lungs, my throat is in

mind-bogglingly bad shape, my right EYE is now infected, sleep is a distant

memory... it's ridiculous. The sleep part is the cleverest bit of the

bug's armory, I think, because it prevents me from mustering any real

defense. I was just in bed for seven hours, and I doubt I got two hours of

sleep, and what little sleep I did get was broken up through the night into

little bits and pieces, so it was pretty much entirely useless.

I know I made things worse by eating a lot of peanut butter on Tuesday, but

I failed to resist the attraction of comfort food, and I had no idea how

serious this was going to become.

Oh well. So it goes. I'm going to eat raw liver today, something I

normally do only after workouts, and with any luck a bottle of Echinacea

Plus and a lot of quality ginger will arrive and help effect a rescue.

>An aside note on Kurasawa. One of the defining moments of my moviegoing

>career was seeing _Ran_ back when I lived in Texas in the 80's. I went

>because someone told me it was good but it was most certainly unlike

>anything that I had ever seen before. At first I was tortuously bored but

>as the film developed I became mesmerized by the slow beauty and incredible

>aesthetic that he created. I never saw it again, nor have I ever seen

>another Kurasawa film but I can still move back into that theater and

>re-experience the feelings that that movie generated. It opened me to the

>possibility that movies could be more than what passes for cinema here in

>the US.

" Ran " is wonderful, and though " Dersu " is superior in my opinion I'd

definitely respect anyone holding the opposite opinion. Of the Kurosawa

films I've seen (not quite as many as I'd seen, but more will be on their

way eventually from Netflix) those two and " Rashamon " are my favorites by a

good margin with " Dreams " leading the rest of the pack. Don't bother with

" Kagemusha " , though. It's awful -- shallow, pointless, incoherent

garbage. The worse of his oeuvre I've seen.

As to cinema in the US, I agree, but only up to a point. Mainstream cinema

has its pleasures and its high points, but certainly a lot of it is

godawful dreck. The problem is that a lot of the best films don't get

distribution beyond a few select cities. Honestly, my favorite thing about

living in Manhattan by far is that it's the best place to see movies in the

US and possibly on Earth, though I understand Paris is pretty good in that

regard.

Oh well, back to trying to bake/boil/something-or-other my eye into submission.

-

[Guest guest]

,

>

>The problem I have with the Asian markets is that there's no indication

>whether the produce is organic, and all else being equal, I'd really rather

>not concentrate pesticides and whatnot by juicing.

>

Yes, this is a valid concern in general, and I have no idea what growing

ginger is like, what pests, soils, etc. However, even certified organic

produce has been shown contaminated in the past; the rocket fuel in

Earthbound farms baby greens comes to mind. ly, I would be

concerned about organically grown AND where it is grown. CA grows mucho

lotso produce, right next to or downstream from industrial complexes

sometimes. Organic or not, it can be tainted by nearby crap in the air,

water or soil. Also, unless there are pests, who would spray their

ginger crops for no reason? Of course, crops are rotated and this could

be a concern as well.

Unfortunately, I believe that until we get back to small, local living,

we just can never know what contamination lurks in our seemingly

pristine foods. Just because we associate and strive for the best

foods, doesn't mean we will always get them in our polluted world. What

kind of testing do organic farms undertake? If organic ginger is

radioactive, would you ever know it? What about the shipping problems,

radiation being one of them?

Ginger is a root. How difficult would it be to grow in pots? Garden

Goddess, do you know?

Deanna

[Guest guest]

At 02:28 PM 8/13/05 -0500, you wrote:

>Ginger is a root. How difficult would it be to grow in pots? Garden

>Goddess, do you know?

It's supposed to be easy as heck. People do it for houseplants.

MFJ

Everything connects. The universe is not THAT chaotic. Beauty can

still be found in the most amazing places.

[Guest guest]

>>Ginger is a root. How difficult would it be to grow in pots? Garden

>>Goddess, do you know?

>>

>>

>

>

>It's supposed to be easy as heck. People do it for houseplants.

>

>

Hey ,

Would we just plant it like a potato? I'll get off my butt and research

myself, but I thought it might be an easy growing plant. I'll

experiment in the sun room. Tanks.

Deanna

[Guest guest]

At 03:44 PM 8/14/05 -0500, you wrote:

>Hey ,

>

>Would we just plant it like a potato? I'll get off my butt and research

>myself, but I thought it might be an easy growing plant. I'll

>experiment in the sun room. Tanks.

>

>

>Deanna

Pretty much, yeah. Supposed to be fairly hard to kill, too. I have NO

idea, however, how long it takes to be able to harvest any sizable root -

could be a few years like echinacea, or one like horseradish.

MFJ

Everything connects. The universe is not THAT chaotic. Beauty can

still be found in the most amazing places.

[Guest guest]

>Would we just plant it like a potato? I'll get off my butt and research

>myself, but I thought it might be an easy growing plant. I'll

>experiment in the sun room. Tanks.

>

>Deanna

http://www.ehow.com/how_318_grow-ginger.html

Heidi Jean

[Guest guest]

Heidi,

>

>

>

>>Would we just plant it like a potato? I'll get off my butt and research

>>myself, but I thought it might be an easy growing plant. I'll

>>experiment in the sun room. Tanks.

>>

>>Deanna

>>

>>

>

>http://www.ehow.com/how_318_grow-ginger.html

>

You are quick! Thanks. Now on step two:

Plant ginger in spring when you can supply warm enough temperatures,

whether indoors or out. The dormant tubers will sprout only when the

mercury hits 75 to 85 degrees F.

Can I just do it now? It'll be 75-infinity for a few more months.

Maybe it's better to wait, though.

Deanna

[Guest guest]

>Plant ginger in spring when you can supply warm enough temperatures,

>whether indoors or out. The dormant tubers will sprout only when the

>mercury hits 75 to 85 degrees F.

>

>Can I just do it now? It'll be 75-infinity for a few more months.

>Maybe it's better to wait, though.

>

>

>Deanna

I'm not sure I believe them on THAT one ... they sprout in

my fridge on a regular basis.

I liked the soaking idea though ... I'm soaking one now, I'll

plant it in the AM.

I think my previous ones died because I put them in full sun.

My Mom's plants were in a very shady area. She never harvested

tubers though.

Heidi Jean

[Guest guest]

On 8/15/05, Heidi Schuppenhauer <heidis@...> wrote:

> I think my previous ones died because I put them in full sun.

> My Mom's plants were in a very shady area. She never harvested

> tubers though.

>

>

> Heidi Jean

Hi,

Yes, I think they take shade much better than they take sun. I had

several ginger and galangal plants in full shade, and they did really

well. The only downside is that they need a *lot* of water and

nutrients, especially if you're growing them for the roots. Last year

that was a problem here in Austin in the summer, but this year it's

been almost monsoonish here after an early dry spell.

Having some protection from the wind is also good. They're very

flappy and top-heavy. Galangal is even more so, as the leaves are

wider.

[Guest guest]

Deanna-

>However, even certified organic

>produce has been shown contaminated in the past; the rocket fuel in

>Earthbound farms baby greens comes to mind.

Oh, I understand organic is no guarantee of anything, but compared to

conventional, it's almost always better or at least less bad.

>Also, unless there are pests, who would spray their

>ginger crops for no reason? Of course, crops are rotated and this could

>be a concern as well.

Without the sort of soil that hardly exists anymore, pests are a problem

everywhere.

>Ginger is a root. How difficult would it be to grow in pots? Garden

>Goddess, do you know?

It'd probably be quite feasible, but why do it that way? Good nutrition

comes from a good soil ecology, which is almost impossible to create in pots.

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