Lemongrass harvest

[pepperhead212]

I always wait until a freeze is eminent to harvest my lemongrass, and from what I've heard, we are in for it! So I dug it all up today, and got more than even I am going to be able to use in the next year! And I had already removed one of the six clumps for a Filipino fellow I work with that I give a bunch to ever year.

Anyone else out grow this, or cook with it?

[imafan26]

Well, I just cut my lemon grass, it was getting up there at least 8 ft tall. Lemon grass has a lot of uses especially in asian dishes. Many Thai dishes use it.

If you are going to make your own curry paste, ground lemon grass is an ingredient
https://thaifood.about.com/od/thaicurryp ... npaste.htm

lemon grass tea
https://juicing-for-health.com/lemongras ... ecipe.html

Lemon Grass coconut rice. I put the ingredients in a rice cooker. Rice cookers are used just about every day. Some people will cook rice twice a day.
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emer ... ecipe.html

Lemon grass chicken
https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/spic ... er-chicken

lemon grass soup
https://www.ming.com/food-and-wine/reci ... n-soup.htm
https://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/c ... grass.html

When you roast a whole chicken, place a stalk of lemon grass in the cavity. It will get rid of the chicken smell.

Thai salad
https://pinchofyum.com/chopped-thai-sala ... c-dressing

Chicken, Beef, or Pork Satay
https://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/l ... satay.html
https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013 ... ecipe.html

This is a link to more lemon grass recipes.
https://www.babble.com/best-recipes/10-l ... s-recipes/

If you can get a copy of Keo's Thai cuisine, it has authentic Thai recipes
I do warn you that if you do not have access to kaffir lime leaves, ginger, lemon grass, cilantro (including roots), and hot peppers, you will only be able to make two recipes in this book. Galangal can be replaced with Jamaican ginger, the flavor is different but acceptable. It is hard to replace kaffir lime leaves in the recipes. I grow all of the above except cilantro which is seasonal for me, so I could make a Thai dinner anytime. Coconut milk is another common ingredient, but it is easy to find that here. Thai food is fast to cook, but takes time to do the mise in place. Everything needs to be prepped in advance, once you start cooking there is no time to chop anything.

[pepperhead212]

Thai food is why I grow lemongrass! I am obsessed with it, which is why
I also grow kafir lime (not to mention all the , peppers, garlic and shallots) - another essential Thai ingredient, which I just brought indoors for the winter. I tried galangal, but it doesn't grow here. I used ginger when I first started cooking Thai, not knowing what galangal was, but once I found the galangal in the Asian market, I never went back.

You are right about Thai food being fast to make, as long as you have things like curry paste and nam prik pao made in advance, as well as all of the ingredients on hand. People are always amazed that I always set my rice cooker up before I even start anything else, and often I am usually finished before the rice is done.

I have countless Thai cookbooks, as well as some Vietnamese, Cambodoian, Laotian, Burmese, Malaysian, and Indonesian CBs. All of these cuisines have their own signature flavors, but all use lemongrass! I guess it's because it tastes so good, plus it grows so well in those regions, like where you live! I can't even imagine an 8 ft tall lemongrass!

[JC's Garden]

I was out cutting lemon grass this morning. My wife needed some for guess what.......Thai food.
I'm right in the middle of zone 8. I can leave mine out all winter. I have had some in containers freeze to death but my in ground plants always pull through. I make sure there are plenty of leaves and straw protecting them.
I only cut what's needed and I cut as low as possible. The stub will grow back. When my wife trims the bottoms off the stalks, I plant them and most will sprout.
My is a personal chef. Once she used some of the smaller stalks for stir sticks in an adult beverage. They were a hit.

[imafan26]

There are only a couple of bad things about lemon grass.
1. The blades can easily give you a paper cut if you are not careful
2. The ants are always in them.
3. When the clump gets really big the center dies out and then you know you have to divide.
4. Although lemon grass rarely blooms, mine does regularly.
5 Mine was in a 5 gallon pot, I don't think it is anymore and I can't budge the pot.

A few good things about lemon grass
1. It is easy to grow
2. It has a lot of uses. I have used it for mosquito control. Rub the juice on you skin to keep them away. Citronella is in the same family as lemon grass.
3. It hard to run out of it.

[applestar]

I'm so glad you reminded me that I had one more clump of lemongrass I'd forgotten to harvest.
With upcoming forecast of mid-20's next week, absolutely EVERYTHING needs to be harvested.

I can add bad thing #6 -- I have to be very very careful about where to put the lemongrass after harvesting because the kitties think I brought grass inside for them to eat and puke, even though lemongrass is way coarser. They've learned what lemongrass smells like and will even go after browned blades and ends that I've tossed into the paper grocery compost bag -- just about the only times they try to rummage in the bag (Fresh beans is another irresistible attraction).

(I put the last minute harvested clump with roots in a plastic grocery bag and hung it up. I'll have to clean and sort it tomorrow)

[pepperhead212]

Speaking of the blades of lemongrass, here is a delicious recipe you can use them in:

Thai Lemongrass Lemonade

2 cups tops of lemongrass; coarsely chopped
4 cups water
1/3 cup sugar

Dissolve sugar in 1/2 c of water, microwaving 1 1/2 min., to help dissolve. Set aside to cool. Place remaining 3 1/2 c water and lemongrass greens in blender. Blend on high speed 1 - 2 min., or 'til ground fine. Strain into a serving pitcher, discarding the mush. Add sugar syrup, and serve over ice.

Original recipes called for sweetening with a simple sugar syrup, so if you keep this on hand, use some to taste, and omit some water.

[imafan26]

I saw dried lemon grass leaves in the store with the Mexican seasonings. I don't know what they use it for.

[Susan W]

I have my lemongrass in containers, and bringing those in. (we are getting temps like NJ or even colder. Brrr) I put a couple in the half basement, mostly ignore. I need to use it more. I don't cook Thai, but have used it with chicken. NumNums.

Apple, do you divide and put a few in gallon containers to plant next season?

[applestar]

Yep usually two or three stalks -- I keep them in one room of the house which is maintained cat-free, otherwise... well, see thing #6

[pepperhead212]

I saw dried lemon grass leaves in the store with the Mexican seasonings. I don't know what they use it for.

I'm just guessing, but since I have also seen dried lemongrass in a Mexican grocery where they keep all of their medicinal herbs and spices (I asked a lady one time what all of it was, since I had never seen any of them in a CB, and that's what she told me), maybe they use it as some sort of medicine, as do the Indians and Chinese. Dried lemongrass really has little flavor, compared to fresh.

All of this lemongrass I harvested I clean up, and prepare it just as if I were going to use it right now - peel off the fibrous outer layers, cut the base off until the woody stem is gone, and I have purplish circular layers, and I keep about 6" of the stalk. Then I make up narrow strips of Foodsaver pouches, and vacuum pack them in batches of 3-6 (what many recipes call for), then freeze them. After doing a bunch like this, I Foodsaver the rest in one bag by themselves, and use that later on, if necessary. Here is a photo I took one time of these batches I make up for the freezer:


This makes it so much easier to use lemongrass in a dish - just snip it open, and that's it! A lot of work all at once, but only once! LOL

[imafan26]

You can make lemon grass tea with it as well.
Lemon grass is sometimes used as medicine and the juice can repel mosquitoes.
Citronella is actually a relative of lemon grass.
I don't remember if I mentioned this, but you can stuff the cavity of poultry or a whole hog with lemon grass and other herbs.

[pepperhead212]

Here are two photos of the lemongrass this year, showing how fast they grow.
Lemongrass, in front of some large sage and rosemary plants. 7-27 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Here's that lemongrass just under a couple of weeks later, showing how much more it has grown.
Lemongrass, 8-9, almost 3 months from harvest. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[pepperhead212]

Today, I finally harvested all of my lemongrass - got 95 stalks, and only a very few small ones! I was surprised, for sure, as in the past it seemed that half the mass was small stalks, but you can see how few there were, even on the smallest clusters.

As I've done before, I trim these now, so when I thaw them, nothing is thrown away - it's already been done! Well, not really - all those trimmings (other than those greens I saved) are in the garden, as mulch! I took photos showing the woody centers in the stalks, and the first one trimmed to the purple rings in the center. Some I only had to cut a small amount from, while the ones in the center (the oldest stalks) I sometimes had to cut up to 3" from. Good thing is, I won't need to do this again for quite a while! I still have a few from 4 seasons ago, from 3 stalks - I couldn't find anyone that wanted my 4th rooting, so I planted it!
All 4 lemongrass clusters, showing the size difference. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Here's the largest cluster, with the stalks cut through, with a cleaver, showing the outer ones already with the purple rings in the centers, but most needed some trimming.
Largest cluster, stalks cut off, showing the woody center of most of the the stalks, which will need to be cut off. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The smallest cluster still had few small stalks, and had more of the ones that didn't need trimming at that end.
Smallest cluster, still with few small stalks. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I didn't save all of the greens - only half. These will be cut more, then Foodsavered, and the volume will decrease greatly.
Lemongrass greens, from 2 largest clusters, about 46 oz., filled a plastic bag from a store. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

And the 95 stalks I got from the 4 clusters:
95 stalks saved, and rinsed, draining, before vacuum sealing them, in the Foodsaver. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

And here's that lemongrass 5 days before I harvested it. And a photo of the huge sage and rosemary plants, that didn't look like much, behind the lemongrass.
4 lemongrass clusters, next to a large sage and rosemary plants. Ready to be harvested soon, 10-25 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Sage, 4 ft across, and rosemary, almost 4 ft tall, that were dwarfed by that lemongrass! 10-30 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[imafan26]

Wow. that is great. My lemon grass needs life support. I have neglected it a long time. It has already gone to ground from the pot and I am not looking forward to trying to pry it out of the pot.

[pepperhead212]

Here's how I stored all that lemongrass, using the Foodsaver.

I first cut a bunch of strips from a 6" wide roll, sealing it twice, and cutting down the center. That roll ran out, so I cut some strips from an 8" wide roll, cutting it into thirds. I was only 1 strip short, by the time I finished, which wasn't a bad estimate!
A 6 in wide Foodsaver strip, with 3 sealed strips, ready to cut up the center, to make 2 strips. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

An 8 in Foodsaver strip, sectioned into 3 narrower strips, ready to slice into strips. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Some lemongrass in packs of 3, some in packs of 4. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Here's the stack of sealed lemongrass strips. 5 of them went in the upstairs freezer, but the rest went into a 2 gal ziploc, and into the downstairs freezer.
Finished stack of Foodsavered lemongrass. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[applestar]

Looks amazing! Lots of work but now you’re ready for all your culinary inspirations!