Lately, more and more people have begun to understand just
how limited—in both variety and nutritional
value—our "modern" diets have become. This
realization has sparked a new and widespread interest in
the culinary and therapeutic uses of herbs . . . those
plants which—although not well known
today—were, just one short generation ago, honored
"guests' on the dinner tables and in the medicine chests of
our grandparents' homes. In this regular feature, MOTHER
will examine the availability, cultivation, and benefits of
our "forgotten" vege table foods and rem edies . . .
and—we hope—help pre vent the loss of still
another bit of an cestral lore.
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Ginger can be any of various perennial plants of the
Zingiberaceae family (which includes cardamom and turmeric,
among others), but Zingiber officinale is the "proper" or
commercial product most familiar to us. Unfortunately for
gardeners In the temperate zones, ginger grows only in hot,
wet, tropical areas of the world . . . such as parts of
India, China, Nigeria, Queensland (Australia), and Jamaica.
North America hosts unrelated plants, known as wild ginger
(Asarum canadense and other species), with a
similar—though milder—odor and taste, which can
be used for medicinal and culinary purposes.
Reedlike and somewhat exotic-looking, with its
leaf-sheathed stem and spikes of yellow flowers, ginger
grows three to five feet tall and has 6 to 12-inch pointed
leaves. The thick rootor rhizome—is whitish or
buffcolored, aromatic, and knotty.
According to some authorities, ginger was brought from Asia
to the Mediterranean by Roman soldiers around the first
century A.D., and all agree that the spice had become quite
popular in England by the eleventh century. The Spaniards
introduced it to the West Indies shortly after the
discoveries of Columbus, and the spice was carried to
continental North America by the Pilgrims.
From the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, ginger was
a common—and sometimes overwhelming!—ingredient
in everyday meals. The spice was used in such quantities
that people must have sometimes found it difficult to
identify the underlying substance of a dish. One entree,
for instance, specified that two kinds of ginger be chopped
up with the meat, which was then cooked in a batter of . .
. more ginger.
