From Garden to Table | Mango Ginger Preserve

From Garden to Table | Mango Ginger Preserve with Video Tutorial

The concept of, “From Garden to Table’ starts from creating your own garden. Plant, grow, harvest and eat fresh fruits, veggies and herbs. Use them to cook simple, healthy meals. In these days of packaged, ready to cook foods, growing your own organic veggies, fruits and cooking them fresh is catching on. I am sharing From Garden to Table | Mango Ginger Preserve Recipe.

‘This post is part of Blogchatter’s CauseAChatter’ 

Benefits of Growing your own Produce

• Fresh produce from your home kitchen garden will keep your menu healthy and tasty. Most veggies we use every day in the kitchen are the easiest to farm. Carrots, tomatoes, okra, ginger, turmeric and most leafy greens are easy to grow at home.

• Is there any comparison between the taste and crunch of a home-grown tomato and a store brought one? The vitamin content in a fresh veggie is much higher than a day’s old grocery vegetable.

• Your grocery bill is going to dip. Home grown vegetables are much cheaper than organic store bought ones.

• Growing your own food gives you a great sense of achievement and increases one’s self worth.

• A garden requires lots of patience, hard work and attention. But growing your own gives you great satisfaction and peace of mind. You know exactly where your meal came from – and the pride that you cultivated something wholesome and worthy, from your garden to your kitchen table.

My garden has many vegetables and fruits growing, organically. I am not yet self-sufficient but I am in the process of growing as many varieties of vegetables that I can. My prized possession is growing Kale. A superfood that is growing and flourishing. Another favourite is Mango Ginger.

What is Mango Ginger?

• It is neither related to a Mango nor to ginger. Instead, it belongs to the Turmeric family –Curcuma amada. A few years ago, I randomly sowed a rhizome of mango ginger in my backyard and forgot all about it. In a couple of months, I saw long leaves sprouting from it; it takes almost a year to harvest. Now every year, I have a hoard of mango ginger to harvest during the harvest festival of Sankranti.

• The rhizomes are akin to ginger but have a raw mango flavour. It is known by different names; Ambe Halad in Marathi, Amada in Bengali and Aam Haldi in Hindi.

• It relieves pain, digestive problems and is good for diabetics.

Luckily it is not fibrous like ginger and can be sliced and chopped easily.

This year’s harvest has been huge and I have distributed most of it to family and friends. My share has gone into a preserve with just lemon juice and salt.

 I remember my mom chopping long slivers of ginger and dunking them in a lime solution with slit green chillies. I used the same recipe to make this Mango Ginger preserve.

Do look up the Andhra style Mamidi Allam Pachadi or Pickle which is much more spicy and tangy.

If you are into growing your own produce then do check out 10 Organic ways to get rid of Garden pests

Mango Ginger Preserve Recipe

INGREDIENTS

500 gms of mango ginger

20 lemons juiced

3 tbsp salt

METHOD

Firstly, wash and dry the mango ginger rhizomes.

Next, peel and cut into slivers.

Juice the lemons and set aside.

Transfer the julienned ginger slices into a clean mason jar.

Add the salt and the lemon to the sliced Mango ginger.

Finally, shake well.

Let the pickle rest for a day and then From Garden to Table | Mango Ginger Preserve is ready to be eaten.

https://youtu.be/tMBN8Jrcx5c

This blog post is part of the blog challenge ‘Blogaberry Dazzle’ hosted by Cindy D’Silva and Noor Anand Chawla, and generously SPONSORED BY Bugshield Clothing – Enjoy Outdoors More!