One of our best plant finds has been Zingiber mioga, myoga ginger or Japanese ginger. It is way more cold hardy than the common root ginger (Zingiber officinale, USDA Zones 8-12), yet it still has that classic ginger flavor. Myoga ginger has thrived in our Zone 7 garden with shade and heavy mulching. The foliage dies back in winter, but a thick layer of mulch protects the roots. It’s crazy how resilient myoga ginger is. I’ve seen reports of it growing in the ground as far north as New York! The native range of this species is southern China, Vietnam, Japan, and Taiwan. It was introduced to Korea.
Myoga and root ginger look very similar aboveground, but you harvest different underground structures for the “ginger”. With root ginger you harvest the knobby, dense rhizomes. With myoga ginger you harvest the young flower buds that poke up from the ground all around the base of the plant. You have to keep an eye out during the summer, or you might miss the window. Ideally harvest right when they start poking up and before flowering - although the flowers are pretty tasty too and make gorgeous garnishes. Once the crop is starting to come in, you can gently dig around each one and extract with a knife.
Because myoga flower buds are more tender than root ginger, quick preservation seems necessary. A typical way of preserving myoga in Japan is by pickling. The pickled buds are crispy and fleshy with a perfect ginger flavor - not too subdued, not too spicy. A lovely pinky red tinge develops after pickling, too! Pickled myoga can be sliced and used in so many ways, raw or cooked. Look to Japanese and Korean recipes where ginger is used to glean some inspiration. I’ve experimented with making a peach and fresh myoga ginger ice cream, which turned out just so-so. I’ve also tried candying the myoga. It didn’t turn out nearly as well as the pickling :)
Pickled Myoga Ginger
INGREDIENTS
- 15 myoga ginger (or enough to fill 1 pint jar)
- ½ cup rice vinegar
- ½ cup water
- 1 TBSP sugar
- 2 TBSP kosher salt
- ½ tsp pink peppercorns
INSTRUCTIONS
- Pack myoga ginger into a clean pint jar.
- To a saucepan add rice vinegar, water, sugar, and kosher salt. Simmer over medium high heat until the salt and sugar dissolve. Remove from heat and toss in the pink peppercorns.
- Carefully pour the pickling liquid over the myoga ginger in the jar and screw on the lid.
- Allow the jar to cool then store in the refrigerator. Enjoy after a couple of days.
- These are refrigerator pickles, which means they should be kept in the fridge and eaten within a few weeks for safe consumption.