We’re not talking about a Spice Girl here, you know.  We’re talking Ginger, the spicy-spice herb, the great nausea-healer, tummy-settler, Punkin-pie spicer, Oh Ginger!  So sweet and hot and strong…

When I was a kid I had a dog named Ginger.  She was a spicey one, all right.  Lots of energy, lots of fire and excitement and joy.   I’m not meaning to babble about my dog here either, I do want to get to the plant eventually—but it’s interesting how Ginger-pup did have that gingery temperament.  I wonder if we named her somehow knowing how she would turn out, or if she turned out that way because of the energy of her name?

Or maybe it was just dumb luck.

In any case.  Ginger the plant.  Last spring I was in Long Beach CA with my friend Tami, visiting her friend Samo who lives in a lovely little bungalo on a quiet street filled with flowers.  It was my first sojourn to the LA area, and staying there, quietly soaking up the sun in Samo’s pretty garden, I understood finally why it is that people put up with LA’s traffic.  It is BEAUTIFUL down there in April and May!  I’d left a snow storm behind in Great Falls, and every part of my body was thoroughly enjoying soaking up the balmy weather and sweet air.  Samo told me that one of the best things about living in Long Beach was that she has something blooming in her garden all year round.  Imagine that!  Tami showed me her favorite plant, which unfortunately was not the one blooming just then.  It was a ginger plant.  Wow!  I’ve only ever seen ginger in the produce section of the grocery store, those big knobbled knotted chunks of rhizome.  Somehow I’d never imagined it as a growing living thing. 

Well, you know.  Remember when you were a kid and (unless you grew up on a farm) thought that milk grew in cartons and meat just came that way, neatly wrapped in packages?  What a disconnect, to put together that cow grazing in the field with the hamburger on your plate, or the milk in your glass. 

So I guess it was kind of the same thing with the ginger plant.  I mean, intellectually I knew it was a plant that produces a flower and grows in tropical areas, and the part used is the rhizome (which is kind of like an addendum to the root system).  But to actually see one growing was like a miracle.  I wish I’d been there to see the flower.  From what I hear, it’s a lovely mellow creamy yellow and it exudes a fresh, sweet, spicy scent.  I can imagine, given the wonderful sweet zinginess of the rhizomes.

I carry dried Ginger in my store, both powdered and chopped.  I like to use the powdered herb for recipes (like pumpkin pie, of course, among others) and the chopped herb for teas and also some recipes like the beer and wine recipes I mentioned earlier.  I also like to use fresh juicy ginger rhizomes grated in salads, sprinkled in my morning oats, and sometimes sliced into my bath (it’s awesome, you should really try that sometime!).

Once a couple of years ago I was helping a friend move and she gave me a huge bagful of frozen ginger rhizomes.  I chopped them up into chunks, threw them in a double boiler with a bunch of turbinado sugar, and simmered it practically all day long.  What I ended up with was some of the tastiest, spiciest, yummiest candied ginger I’ve ever eaten.  I imagine you could do this with raw unfrozen ginger as well, but I haven’t tried that yet.

Stay tuned!  More about Ginger in my next post!