Welcome Rain, Hawaiian Ginger & Antimicrobial Activity

Ginger farmers in Queensland, and the Gympie region in particular, have been worried about the drought-like conditions they have endured since the middle of last year. So they were relieved when it eventually started to rain with the arrival of the remnants of ex-tropical cyclone Oswald. And rain it certainly has. According to The Gympie Times the Langshaw ginger farm received 600mm (nearly 24") of rain in four days. This amount of rain falling in four days would normally indicate very heavy downpours but it was actually gentle rain. Because of this there was remarkably little erosion and the crops survived. Queensland produces about 80% of Australia's ginger.

Patrick Atanalian, the executive chef at the Sanctuary restaurant in Minneapolis, has created a simple but unusual dish. He has taken a classic potato soup and given it a bit of a bite with the addition of ginger beer.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations has revealed that Nepal has become the third largest producer of ginger in the world after India and China. In 2011 the country produced 216,289 tonnes of ginger. A continuing concern for the Nepalese government must be that India buys 98 percent of the country’s total ginger exports. (Source: The Kathmandu Post).

The Department of Botany at Gauhati University in North-East recently completed a research project entitled "Comparative Chemical Constituents And Antimicrobial Activity Of Normal And Organic Ginger Oils". It concluded that organic ginger oil was more effective than non-organic ginger oil at fighting Stephylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, E. coli and all the fungal strains except Penicillium sp.

The Ohio Breweries blog informs us that the Great Lakes Christmas Ale (which contains ginger as a significant component) was the top craft beer in terms of sales in Ohio and the ninth in the whole of the USA. And to think that it is only on sale for eight weeks. The brewery produced 359 batches (I don't know how large a batch is) which contained 7,000lbs of ginger.

For the last few years the University of Hawaii at Manoa has been conducting research into bacterial wilt of edible ginger in conjunction with Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education (SARE). Bacterial wilt (Ralstonia solanacearum) is the biggest threat to ginger farmers in Hawaii and many other ginger-growing countries. The aim of the project is to grow wilt-free ginger in pathogen-free soil. (Sources: University of Hawaii, SARE).

One of the participants in this research project is Hugh "Biker Dude" Johnson from Puna Organics in Hawaii. He supplies many of the ginger farms springing up in the eastern USA. Johnson was the first farmer in the world to export organic ginger.

Parts of Hawaii suffer from an infestation of Kahili ginger (Hedychium gardnerianum), an ornamental ginger which features in the top 100 of the World's Worst Invasive Alien Species. Interestingly, a strain of Ralstonia solanacearum has been used as a biological control against Kahili ginger.

The ginger harvest has started on time in the Nilphamari district of northern Bangladesh, according to The Financial Express. It is too early to speculate on the quality and quantity of this year's harvest but the district, which in the past produced enough ginger for the entire country, currently accounts for half of Bangladesh's needs.

Buderim Ginger announced recently that chief executive Murray Richardson had resigned for family reasons after just eight months in the role. I don't know what effect that will have on the company.

Old England, Ginger Port, Sustainability, Tourism & Salted Ginger

I was interested to find a reference in the Bosworth-Toller Anglo-Saxon Dictionary to Gingifran broþ which translates as ginger broth. I knew that the Romans introduced ginger to Britain but this is the first evidence that I've seen which shows that the Anglo-Saxons, who settled in Britain after the Romans, continued to import and consume ginger.

I also discovered Thomas Rymer's Fœdera, a sixteen volume collection of "all the leagues, treaties, alliances, capitulations, and confederacies, which have at any time been made between the Crown of England and any other kingdoms, princes and states". Rymer was a 17th/18th century English Historiographer Royal. One of the volumes contains a reference to an unnamed Genoese ship which was shipwrecked at Dunster, in Somerset, in 1380. Part of the cargo consisted of green ginger which today refers to young ginger but back then meant ginger cured with lemon juice.

It is only a matter of weeks before the Australian ginger harvest begins. To be precise it will be early harvested ginger. Ginger is normally harvested when the above-ground growth has started to die back or at least turned yellow but early harvested ginger will still have an actively growing green stem. Early ginger rhizomes are tender and fleshy with a relatively mild flavour and can either be eaten fresh or preserved in syrup or brine (known as preserved or stem ginger). Australia and China are world-leaders in the production of preserved ginger.

Still in Australia and Ginger Sundowner from Bell River Estate in central New South Wales. Bell River Estate produces table wines and fortified wines from its own grapes and grapes from the local area. One particular product I noticed was Ginger Sundowner, a white fortified wine flavoured with a natural ginger extract. Sandra and Michael Banks took over the business in 2000 and have since created a diverse range of wines. Ginger Sundowner was only introduced six months ago and sales have been good which shows the popularity of ginger. Sandra and Michael were looking for a product which would suit long, hot summers and came up with the idea of a ginger-type wine, something that would be good to drink both on its own and mixed with another drink. Sandra likes it with soda water at a BBQ but says it goes equally well with dry ginger ale, lemonade, as a dash in beer or mixed with whisky. She also recommends using it in stir fry dishes and marinated cantaloupe and watermelon.

Whilst researching and writing about Ginger Sundowner I discovered that the term "port", as a synonym for fortified wine, can no longer be used for Australian wines. Australian winemakers have been banned from using the words Port, Sherry and Champagne on their labels following objections from the EU. In return, 117 of Australia’s geographical indicators, including Barossa, Coonawarra and Margaret River, will be protected in Europe.

A week ago the 11th World Spice Congress was held in India to discuss the theme of "Sustainability and Food Safety: Global Initiatives". One outcome, reported in FarmingUK, has been the appointment of the Rainforest Alliance to adapt current sustainability standards to include spice production. The Sustainable Spices Initiative has asked the Rainforest Alliance (a non-governmental organisation) to incorporate spices into the Sustainable Agriculture Network. The first phase of the project will run from 2012-2015 and will target seven spices (including ginger) from Vietnam, India, Indonesia and Madagascar.

The Sustainable Spices Initiative (SSI) is an international spice consortium founded by a number of Dutch spice businesses and now includes Unilever and McCormick. It seeks to reduce the use of pesticides and chemicals, conserve biodiversity, increase yields and training farmers on appropriate food safety requirements. This, according to the SSI website, should lead to an "economic boost for farmers, processors, traders and retailers, and to securing the future supply base of natural spices".

The Sustainable Agriculture Network is an international coalition of leading conservation groups which aims to link "responsible farmers with conscientious consumers by means of the Rainforest Alliance Certified™ seal of approval".

Over recent years India has pioneered the concept of the model tourism village. These villages are allocated extra funding to help them provide tourists with a memorable experience. The first model tourism village in India was created in 2003 in Kumbalangi, an island-village in the state of Kerala. Tourists can go fishing with local fisherman, visit the paddy fields and walk in the mangroves. The village made the news last week when IBNLive reported that the Kumbalangi Model Tourism Development Society will introduce ginger and turmeric (a member of the ginger family) cultivation. The report stated that this could be the first time that these traditional hill farm crops are being cultivated in a flat coastal village. These crops will be planted as an intercrop between rows of coconut trees to give even more interest to tourists.

Strong demand from Japan and the US for salted ginger has enabled a Vietnamese company to expand and create jobs. dailymaz.com reported that Thanh Lan Enterprise in Kon Tum City is performing so well that it has built a new ginger processing factory.

You're not going to believe this but I found a patent application for a salted ginger toothpaste. Filed in 2004 by China's Chengzhi Co, there is no evidence that I can find that the toothpaste actually reached the shop shelves.

Next month will see Greenlight Beverages launch its Chronic Ice Ginger Ale in the US alternative drinks market. The drink will be made from real ginger extract, cane sugar and hemp seed powder. I'm not entirely sure what the alternative drinks market is. Is it anything new? Is it anything natural? Is it anything that is not a cola? Let me know.

A recipe containing ginger leaves made me realise that I know very little about this part of the plant. It seems to be quite popular in the Far East which probably explains why I've yet to see it in the UK. It could be that ginger leaves don't travel that well. I did come across a report on the antioxidant properties (AOP) of ginger leaves which indicated that the majority of leaves tested had significantly higher AOP values than in the rhizomes. Interestingly, the report mentioned that the ginger plants being tested came from three plant tribes, all of which belong to the ginger family (Zingiberaceae).