Myoga

This has gotten a little bit late, but we harvested the backyard myoga a few weeks ago and pickled it! Myoga is a member of the ginger family I believe, and it sends up little bulbs at ground level. This is what you pick and eat. Our neighbour's technique is to push the plants over like in the photo above, so that's what we do too, but apparently the correct way is to just forage around and not push the plants over. Can you see the myoga in the photo below? They blend in a little bit, but you should be able to see about three little bulbs.



Once they've flowered, like the one in the photo below, they're not edible. Pretty though! It's tough getting the timing right, and last year I got blasted by the neighbour for letting too many flower! He was a bit nicer once I explained that we don't have myoga in Australia. Incredulous, but slightly more understanding.



And here are the pickles, ready to be eaten! No photos from along the way, but here's what I did, just in case you're wondering:

washed the myoga
boiled it for 1 minute
covered it in salt for 5 minutes
brought a mixture of sugar and vinegar to the boil, then cooled it
washed the myoga, dried the myoga, put the myoga in sterilized jars
poured the pickling liquid over the myoga, lid on, then in the fridge for 3 days.

When you first make the pickles, the liquid's a yellow colour, but by the end of the 3 days, it turns a lovely rosy pink.



Unfortunately it this type of pickling only keeps for a week. If you want to keep it longer, you need to pickle it in salt or miso. But I like this better. You can also make really great salads with raw myoga, for example, natto, cucumber and myoga salad! I made it a few weeks ago, but yes, forgot to take a photo. It was too good, we couldn't wait that long!