ginger tea

I have twice now actually dug up a piece of my ginger plant to make something! Fresh ginger is the best. I just push aside soil with a finger until I find an outlying piece of root

and slice a bit off with a knife. The scent is strong and heady, even just out of the pot still covered in dirt. Rinse it off thoroughly and grated,

I'm using it to make masala chai. My brother-in-law shared a recipe.

The other ingredients are: black peppercorn, anise star, green cardamon pod, cinnamon stick. Mint leaf optional, which I skipped because I don't have any mint in the garden right now. It also calls for whole cloves but I didn't have that in the cupboard so used powdered form. I don't have loose-leaf black tea either, so I'm using tea bags (which is great for this, as I don't really care for black tea and these have been sitting in the cupboard for ages. Normally I like an herbal tea- mint or rosemary, sometimes green tea or korean barley tea which I get in restaurants).

This made-from-scratch chai is fantastic. So far I make the chai only once every few weeks- it is a detailed process that takes some time, and if I cut too much ginger root too often, I won't have any plant left! Perhaps I should start another pot of it so I can harvest regularly. It did its best ever this summer, by the way, kept in nearly complete shade under the deck. Near the edge of things, where it received plenty of indirect light.

Now it's near a window going into winter dormancy.