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.

Husband Creches, Ginger Fraud, Giant Snails & Low Calorie Ginger Beer

Crabbie’s, famous for its ginger beers, is opening “man sheds” or "husband crèches" in a number of UK shopping centres for men to relax, drink ginger beer and play with gadgets during the Christmas shopping rush. The idea is that wives and girlfriends will leave their partner at a shed, spend some time shopping unhindered and unencumbered, and then collect him when it is time to go home. What an excellent idea. Clever people, these Crabbie's folk. (Source: Talking Retail).

The BBC carried an unusual story regarding a company who imported what it claimed was ginger into the UK but actually turned out to be garlic. The company informed HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) that it was importing thousands of kilos of ginger. But when the UK Border Agency checked a particular consignment it found 7,000 kilos of garlic. HMRC later checked previous shipping records and found that the company's importation of garlic had stopped. Over the same period the company's importation of ginger had increased five-fold. So why did the company pass off garlic as ginger? If you import garlic into the EU you have to pay an import duty imposed to protect EU garlic growers. Ginger does not incur any duty. The owner of the company, who has since disappeared, has now been found guilty in his absence of avoiding £2m in import duty.

FoodManufacture.co.uk carried a feature on the increasing competition and developments in the UK brewing sector. Recent research from the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) has shown that there are now 1,009 breweries plying their trade in the UK. Much of the output from these breweries, many of them microbreweries, is aimed at the growing number of 18-24 year olds who are interested in trying flavoured beers. And a popular variety in this flavoured beer range is ginger-spiced real ale.

Concern is growing amongst farmers in Antigua who are losing their ginger and other crops to an invasion of Giant African snails, according to the Antigua Observer. Unfortunately there isn't an effective means of control or eradication so we will have to wait and see. Hopefully this isn't the end of the story.

I don't know much about ginger on Antigua but I do know that it was introduced to the island by the settlers and that the Antigua Brewery produces a ginger ale.

Good news for Fever-Tree, the British premium mixer drinks brand. It has won a listing with Tesco for its Naturally Light Ginger Beer. The low calorie drink contains 60 calories per serving and is made with the same ingredients as Fever-Tree's signature Ginger Beer with the exception of the sweetener where natural fruit juice is used instead of cane sugar. (Source: The Grocer).

The inhabitants of Kazakhstan drink about 3 billion litres of tea a year. This puts the country in the top five tea-consuming countries in the world. Much of this tea is black tea and much of this black tea is consumed with something added such blueberries or cranberries or, you've guessed it, ginger. (Source: Kazakh TV)

The Himalayan reports that in the last fiscal year Nepal exported Rs74.26 billion worth of products and that in the current fiscal year the target is Rs100 billion. Although ginger contributed a mere Rs280 million last year, for a lot of small farmers and their families it is the only source of income. Is a Rs1 billion target achievable as has been mooted? I sincerely hope so.

Swedish Gingerbread, Indian Prices & Ginger Real Ales

I do enjoy watching foreign language dramas with subtitles on TV. My Saturday evenings are not complete without a weekly dose of crime from Italy or France or, as happens most weeks, Scandinavia (The Killing, The Bridge, Borgen & Wallander come to mind). According to The Observer, it is not only Scandinavian drama which is proving popular with the British. The UK shopping delivery service Ocado has launched a Scandinavian Christmas Shop and one of its top sellers is Nyåkers Pepparkakor. This Swedish gingerbread biscuit has seen sales jump by 73% over the last three weeks.

Nyåkers Pepparkakor is the oldest gingerbread biscuit bakery in Sweden. Pepparkakor is the Swedish word for gingerbread. The biscuits have been produced for seventy-odd years and are still made to the original recipe. They are very popular in the USA (and now the UK it seems).

This coming Friday (Nov 30th) and Saturday (Dec 1st) will see the Fall to Winter Fest in Boston. This event, organised by Drink Craft Beer, will feature offerings from 25 New England craft brewers and cider makers (sounds like the CAMRA beer festivals in the UK). The official festival beer is from Peak Organic and has the rather unusual name "Nut Your Average Ginger". This is a harvest brown ale brewed with malt, hops, honey, chestnut puree and Massachusetts-grown ginger from Old Friends Farm.

If you do go to the Fest have a look for a gingerbread stout called Merry Mischief from the Boston Beer Company and a pale ale with honey and ginger called Honey Gingah Pale Ale from the Cody Brewing Company. Let me know your views on these beers.

Old Friends Farm is an organic farm in Amherst, Massachusetts. It grows a ginger variety from the Biker Dude Organic Ginger Farm in Pahoa, Hawaii. Because the climate in the US Northeast is not as good as Hawaii, the ginger is harvested at five to six months. This results in young and tender ginger which is perishable. Fortunately, it can be frozen.

The Hindu Business Line reports that the price of ginger in India is rapidly increasing because demand is exceeding supply now that winter is here. Ginger consumption during winter in India is always high as people attempt to protect themselves from the cold and damp. And demand will continue to exceed supply as many farmers, disappointed with the low prices in recent years, have decided not to grow ginger in the new season. I'm sure that this is a decision they are now bitterly regretting.

When I started reading the article I wondered why India doesn't import ginger to cover the shortfall. According to the article the existing import duty on ginger still makes Indian ginger, already an expensive commodity on the world markets, the cheaper option. So old ginger stock is being released to the local markets.

A standard comparison measure of world commodity prices is the concept of price parity. This benchmark price is calculated by taking an average of prices over a period of time. For example, the USA uses a period of ten years. If we assume that India uses the same period as the USA, its ginger price parity is an average of the price of ginger over the previous ten years. India's current ginger price parity is the highest of all the ginger-producing countries.

A Small Selection Of Ginger-Spiced Beers From Around The World

If you like your ginger and you like your real ale and you like the combination of both then this post is just for you. Ginger-spiced beers and ales are springing up all the time all around the world and this is a small selection of those new beers I've encountered just over the last few days.

Starting at home and last Saturday saw the launch of Adnams Ginger Beer. The brewery uses the pale ale malt wort used for its Broadside offering and then adds ginger, orange peel, lemon and lime zest. At 2.5% abv, this appears to be an extremely quaffable drink.

In the spring, Oxfordshire Ales started producing a limited-edition range of unusual beers. Under the name 'Baby Ox', these beers will be produced at the rate of one a month using rare hops and obscure ingredients and recipes. This month's offering is Ginger Ale Baby Ox, a rich copper ale with a hint of ginger.

Over to Italy. one of my favourite countries, and the Birrificio del Ducato brewery from the village of Roncole Verdi in the province of Parma. Here they produce New Morning, a Belgian Saison with added ginger and coriander. It is amazing how many brewers are producing ginger Saisons now. As a bonus, here are a couple of pieces of trivia: the beer is named after a Bob Dylan song, and the village is the birthplace of Giuseppe Verdi.

Across the pond to Arizona now and a seasonal beer which is making an unseasonal return. San Tan Brewing Company's Winter Warmer will make an appearance on July 14th at the brewery's Christmas in July celebration. This ale is based on a traditional English Old Ale recipe and then spiced with 10lbs of fresh ginger and 10 gallons of Arizona orange blossom honey. Take care if you decide to pop along - it is 9.5% abv.

I may be a little to late with this one. It was early June that the Dogfish Head brewery released Konichiwit, a 4.9% abv Belgian-style wit bier made with fresh ginger root and wasabi. Availability is limited so it may well have already gone.

Up into Canada now and the Garrison Brewing Company in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The brewery is celebrating its 15th anniversary by brewing two special beers. The first is called 15th Anniversary Hops, Mango & Ginger and it is made with real mango, shaved fresh ginger and 15 varieties of hops.