Today we reach the end of our apothecary shelves! This series started way back with episode 170 on Achillea & Acorus, and today in episode 227 we’ve finally come to Zingiber.
Today’s entire episode is all about ginger. (Yes, it deserves its own entire episode. If you don’t already believe it, we will convince you!)
We discuss Katja’s evolving preference for fresh vs dried ginger in our tea blends at home, and some of the variations in activity between fresh vs dried ginger. We talk about quick topical applications of this wildly accessible herb, to relieve muscle aches, joint pains, and other musculoskeletal discomforts. Ryn takes time for an ode to candied ginger – yes, it’s sugar, but there are plenty of reasons why it’s excellent to have! You can easily make your own, too.
Maybe you could put some chopped candied ginger into some ginger-chamomile cookies, eh?
You can even grow your own ginger, if you’re up for it!
Finally, we mention some relatives of ginger, members of the Zingiberaceae: turmeric (Curcuma longa), galangal (Alpinia galanga), cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum), grains of paradise (Aframomum melegueta), korarima (Aframomum corrorima), “shampoo ginger lily / bitter ginger” (Zingiber zerumbet). These are all worth experimenting with and comparing to ginger – they have a lot in common, with some individual nuances. Watch out for “wild gingers” of the Asarum genus, though – those have risks of liver toxicity.
Ginger’s an herb we love so much, we probably mention it in every course we teach… but especially in the Digestive Health course! Learning to care for digestion is a critical skill for herbalists, and a place herbs can do so much good.
Like all our offerings, this is a self-paced online video course, which comes with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, lifetime access to current & future course material, twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more!
If you enjoyed the episode, it helps us a lot if you subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!
Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
Today we reach the end of our apothecary shelves! This series started way back with episode 170 on Achillea & Acorus, and today in episode 227 we’ve finally come to Zingiber.
Today’s entire episode is all about ginger. (Yes, it deserves its own entire episode. If you don’t already believe it, we will convince you!)
We discuss Katja’s evolving preference for fresh vs dried ginger in our tea blends at home, and some of the variations in activity between fresh vs dried ginger. We talk about quick topical applications of this wildly accessible herb, to relieve muscle aches, joint pains, and other musculoskeletal discomforts. Ryn takes time for an ode to candied ginger – yes, it’s sugar, but there are plenty of reasons why it’s excellent to have! You can easily make your own, too.
Maybe you could put some chopped candied ginger into some ginger-chamomile cookies, eh?
You can even grow your own ginger, if you’re up for it!
Finally, we mention some relatives of ginger, members of the Zingiberaceae: turmeric (Curcuma longa), galangal (Alpinia galanga), cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum), grains of paradise (Aframomum melegueta), korarima (Aframomum corrorima), “shampoo ginger lily / bitter ginger” (Zingiber zerumbet). These are all worth experimenting with and comparing to ginger – they have a lot in common, with some individual nuances. Watch out for “wild gingers” of the Asarum genus, though – those have risks of liver toxicity.
Ginger’s an herb we love so much, we probably mention it in every course we teach… but especially in the Digestive Health course! Learning to care for digestion is a critical skill for herbalists, and a place herbs can do so much good.
Like all our offerings, this is a self-paced online video course, which comes with free access to twice-weekly live Q&A sessions, lifetime access to current & future course material, twice-weekly live Q&A sessions with us, open discussion threads integrated in each lesson, an active student community, study guides, quizzes & capstone assignments, and more!
If you enjoyed the episode, it helps us a lot if you subscribe, rate, & review our podcast wherever you listen. This helps others find us more easily. Thank you!
Our theme music is “Wings” by Nicolai Heidlas.
You can find all of our online herbalism courses at online.commonwealthherbs.com!
<silence>
Speaker 2:Hi, I'm Katya .
Speaker 3:And I'm Ryn . And
Speaker 2:We're here at Commonwealth Holistic Herbalism in Boston, Massachusetts,
Speaker 3:And on the internet everywhere, thanks to the power of the podcast.
Speaker 2:Woo . Yes, <laugh> .
Speaker 3:So this is episode 227, and , uh, we are gonna complete our herbs A to Z series. Remember, this is not all the herbs in the entire alphabet <laugh> , because ,
Speaker 2:Uh ,
Speaker 3:We would literally never end. We would
Speaker 2:Never end <laugh> . Um ,
Speaker 3:But , uh, this is the, the herbs on our shelves back here in our home apothecary, the ones that we keep , uh, ready to hand so that we can make a cup of tea at a moment's notice. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>.
Speaker 2:Um , we have , we have, we have some more herbs than this, but they're the ones that we don't turn to quite as often, and we just have a round . Yeah . Because once in a while you need 'em or, you know, whatever. But these are the herbs that we really work with on a, on a weekly basis.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And maybe we should even say like, as dried of plant matter. 'cause I've got some particulares just as tincture, you know? Yep . Uh , I don't keep that as a tea herb, but that's definitely once
Speaker 2:In a while we have a little bit as tea, and it's very special and
Speaker 3:Exciting. It's , it's nice. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we've been on this series since episode 170 , uh, back when we started with Accola . And here we are at Zinger.
Speaker 2:Yeah. <laugh> .
Speaker 3:Zinger . Yeah. Ginger. Ginger. Is it , uh, this is no, you know, herb and friend , uh, herb episode today. This is all about Ginger all the time, because Was there even a question freely ?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Ginger definitely deserves its own episode. We did not plan it that way. Um, it just happened that way naturally, because naturally that is what would happen. Yeah, of course.
Speaker 3:Yeah,
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So , uh, we're gonna talk about Ginger, but first we're gonna remind you that , uh, we have online courses for you, <laugh>
Speaker 2:<laugh> . Yes. We are not just podcasters. In fact, we run a whole herb school. It's pretty good. And you should try it out.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Uh, we'll talk more about it a little later, but you can find all of our courses@online.commonwealthherbs.com. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> . And I think we mentioned Ginger in all of them.
Speaker 2:I bet that we actually do. We we probably do . Trying to think of a single course that doesn't have a reference to Ginger in it. Yeah .
Speaker 3:I don't know . It's a , it's a hard ask, honestly.
Speaker 2:Possibly. The Integumentary health course. The skin health course.
Speaker 3:I don't know . Sometimes you get revitalized tissue and you wanna warm it up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah . It's probably in there too. I'll find out to be sure. But yeah ,
Speaker 3:It's , well, we'll have to think on that one. But , uh, for now, we also want to remind you that we're not doctors. We're herbalists. We are holistic health educators.
Speaker 2:The idea is discussed in this podcast do not constitute medical advice. No state or federal authority licenses herbalists in the United States. So these discussions are for educational purposes only.
Speaker 3:We wanna remind you that good health doesn't mean the same thing for everyone. Good health doesn't exist as an objective standard. It's influenced by your individual needs, experiences, and goals. So, keep in mind we're not attempting to present a single dogmatic right way that you should adhere to.
Speaker 2:Everyone's body is different. So the things that we're talking about may or may not apply directly to you, but we hope that they'll give you some new information to think about and some ideas to research and experiment with. Further
Speaker 3:Finding your way to better health is both your rights and your own personal responsibility. This doesn't mean you're alone on the journey, and it doesn't mean you're to blame for your current state of health. But it does mean that the final decision when considering any course of action, whether it's discussed on the internet or prescribed by a physician, that's always your choice to make. Mm-Hmm, <affirmative> . Yes. Ginger,
Speaker 2:Ginger,
Speaker 3:Zing. Bear of fish in la
Speaker 2:You know, I'm actually
Speaker 3:Zing . Zingy bear
Speaker 2:Zing . Zingy bear, zingy bear, zingy bear. There
Speaker 3:You go. Yeah . That's right up there with your , uh,
Speaker 2:Silly bum. Yeah . Yeah. That's the , yeah , exactly. <laugh> , um, <laugh> , zingy bear. Why would you not, why would you miss the opportunity to say zingy bear? You know, I mean, we don't know how they said it in Latin, however, many thousand years ago. Maybe they did the ,
Speaker 3:The entire field of historical linguistics would like a field, would like a , a chat.
Speaker 2:But there's a small part of me that is like, hi , you have a degree in knowing that that is not how they said it, but okay. Yes . <laugh> , <laugh> . Uh , I'm really excited to talk about Ginger in this moment because perimenopause, y'all is ramping up and <laugh> my body is changing a lot. Um, and that is not super fun. But like any , uh, like any good herbalist who gets sick or has some other kind of health experience, it is pretty exciting from the perspective of, Ooh , now I get to experiment in with plants in different ways.
Speaker 3:It's instructive
Speaker 2:<laugh>. So , you know, it's that weird , it's that weird thing of like, that every herbalist has at some point experienced of like, ah , man, I'm sick. Oh, yay . I get to try that tincture out. You know, like, whatever. Yeah. So, okay. So that's happening for me with Ginger right now. Um, and I can remember , uh, filming videos for the Aria Medica course about ginger and feeling very strongly about dried ginger. And that dried ginger was the only thing worth making tea out of , and , um, was the only thing that felt good in my body. And I mean, it feels different for all people. And obviously I acknowledged that back then, but I felt very strongly about what felt good in my body at that time. And at this time, I have made a 180 degree change from all of that <laugh> . Um, and now I feel very strongly that fresh ginger is the only true ginger for me. <laugh>. <laugh> .
Speaker 3:Yeah. You did , you changed your to a bit on that one. Yeah,
Speaker 2:I really have.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Well, we noticed at first when you were like, I think that Ginger's giving me some heartburn or something that's never happened before. What's going on here? Yeah. And then you just kind of backed off on, because we would, you know, make chamomile and ginger tea, for instance, with
Speaker 2:A lot of ginger
Speaker 3:Most nights. And they might be, you know, not exactly equal parts 'cause chamomile is so fluffy, but maybe like a hand scoop of ginger and a couple of hand scoops of chamomile flowers . Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> . And then you were like, no, you gotta dial it back. No , dial it back a little further. Actually, <laugh> <laugh> . I'm getting too hot inside here. Uh , and then it was a while later that you came back and were like, well, fresh ginger. That feels
Speaker 2:Different. Yeah. Yeah. And I ha I mean, like, to be fair to my esophagus, it's not like real heartburn. Exactly. It's like baby heartburn. It's like, it's like just this super awareness of like, that is too hot. And also that like, I mean, the two hotness has changed a lot in my body. Um, I've gone from a person who always wore two sweaters to like, Hey babe, can we open the window? And he looks at me like, you wanna what? It's
Speaker 3:Just very surprising. <laugh> , this has never happened before. <laugh> , will we accomplish this? Yeah.
Speaker 2:<laugh> . Yeah. And , um, so, so it, there's just, there's a lot going on in my body and, and coming to that realization that like, holy cow, ginger is just way too hot for me. It is just putting my whole system into overdrive when it used to be that I needed ginger just to get me going at all, you know? Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> . Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. Um, and, and, and part of that was why I felt so strongly about dry ginger for my body, because the dried ginger is much more intense. Um, and
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's a, there's a bit of , um, phytochemical transformation that occurs as the ginger dries. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> . Um, one way to talk about it is that in the fresh ginger, there's these constituents called ginger s ginger s and then as they dry, they convert into SGAs . It's a hard word to say. SGAs
Speaker 2:<laugh> .
Speaker 3:Um, and it's, it's like, it's like, it sort of gets a little condensed and it acts a little more intensively , uh, at that, at that, at that, you know, at that time, at that , uh, at that stage. So it's often been observed that Yeah, the, the fresh ginger, it gets the blood moving and it can disperse the blood out to your fingertips and all of that. And that's great. But it's not as centrally heating as the dried ginger is dried. Ginger is like, we go to the furnace, we shovel in the fuel, we stoke it up, right? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> , we get a good hot fire going. And that will ultimately like spread out from there and come up to your skin and give you the stimulant diaphoretic effect and the circulatory stimulant effect out to your periphery and everything. But it's more, there's more heat in the middle of you with the, the dried ginger than the fresh.
Speaker 2:I also can remember this discussion years ago and like hearing you theoretically when you say stuff like that and, and you know, talk when other people say like, I find ginger more dispersive and whatever, but in my body, that was not true in my body. Fresh ginger was not hot enough to disperse anything. Right. Every, like, fresh ginger came in and everybody was like, yeah, no, we're still stuck in the mud. We're not going anywhere. You are not motivating enough. And I really needed the shovels of dry ginger to get the fire going warm enough that anything was available to disperse, you know, kind of like coconut oil when it's not warm enough <laugh>, you know? Um, and, and so I in my body never found fresh ginger to be particularly dispersive simply because there wasn't an , there wasn't really any heat to begin with in order for anything to disperse, I had to first heat up the core. Yeah. And now that is just not true.
Speaker 3:Right. Right. Yeah. I've seen folks post , um, like heat, heat , uh, like a thermal imaging scan. Uh, and they had like a side-by-side comparison. Like, this person was given a dose of fresh ginger and this person was given a dose of dried ginger. Mm . And you can just kinda like see the difference in the degree of warmth <laugh> Yeah .
Speaker 2:Visible different places of the body
Speaker 3:Yeah . On , on the body or, or has like moved to the skin after so many minutes, past dose time or whatever. But yeah, it's, it's really cool to see that. And it's, it's , uh, it's an interesting way to just note that plants do change when they've been processed. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> one way or another. Their influence change, their, their degree is what we would be talking about here. The degree of heat in the ginger Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> that that changes , um, as it's very simply processed through drying.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I am having a lot of fun with this right now because, you know, we say every time that we record a podcast, and basically if our mouths are moving, we probably are saying this, that everybody is different. And so people experience herbs differently. And this is a huge part of the reason why we're always like, you know, people will ask, well, what's a good herb for a DHD? What's a good herb for, you know , like, whatever psoriasis. And, and we are like, Hmm . It depends like, I, there I have to know more about you to, to help you find the herb that's gonna help you in this situation. Because I don't think about herbs in terms of this herb matches to a DHD because that's just not how herbs work. 'cause every body is different. And so, okay, yeah. We say it all the time, but it's pretty fun when your own body becomes different and you get to feel the ways that other people maybe feel when they're experiencing this herb. And obviously this doesn't happen all the time. Um, you can't just be like, oh, it's Tuesday and I'd like some new herbal data. I think I'll just induce menopause for a day and just try it. You know, <laugh> like that's not gonna work. Um, but, so, okay, so you have experiments with your friends and you invite people over and ask them to try stuff and specifically try to invite your friends who have bodies that are really different than yours so that you can get lots of different perspectives on what you're trying. Um, and you just have to keep your mind really open that you experience with a plant is not the only experience that human bodies can have with that plant, because human bodies are all so different. Um, and so, yes, I am enjoying this pretty much is what I'm saying.
Speaker 3:Yeah. It's been good. So, you know, what we've been doing is just , uh, to go to their grocery store and find some nice , uh, organic ginger roots and keep 'em in the fridge. And then when we're making tea , slice 'em right up and put 'em in there. And that's good to say because like, not everybody has access to an herb shop that they can walk into and get, you know, the cut and sifted, the chopped up confetti pieces of dried ginger. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> . Um, you don't always wanna work with ginger powder. Uh, but the fact that this herb is so widely available, like at the bodega, at the corner store, whatever. Yeah . Like it's just around, you can find ginger pretty readily and it's such a helpful plant. We were saying a minute ago, we mentioned it in almost every course that we teach one way or another. And if it's not like directly because of the specific powers of ginger to relieve nausea and warm up digestion and, you know, relax, cramping in the belly and stuff like that, it may just be, 'cause ginger tastes nice and it's a familiar flavor. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> . And you can put it together with other herbs and make it more palatable. Or you can take a formula that's a little too cooling for somebody and you can add a touch of ginger to it and warm it right up. Um, and now it suits their constitution better. Right ? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> . Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> . So it's just an extremely useful plant. Uh, it's an extremely versatile plant, has a lot of talents and it's, you know, a great friend.
Speaker 2:It is . Yeah. I'm really excited that the fresh ginger is easier for my body to handle right now, because the idea of not having ginger chamomile tea , um, is like an identity crisis for me. Yeah. <laugh> . That's real. Um, and so , uh, so I am really grateful . Like for a while it was just no ginger at all. 'cause it just was too hot every time, but now it is. Oh, okay. No problem. We just have to put in fresh ginger. Right?
Speaker 3:Yeah. One other cool thing you can do with fresh ginger is you can take it and use like a, like a vegetable grater , um, and you can grate it on that and have a pile of, you know, kind of wet <laugh> Yeah . Like, you know, ginger grates, I don't know , whatever you call those little bits. <laugh> ,
Speaker 2:Shredding bits, shredding bits. Yeah. Yeah, yeah .
Speaker 3:Right. And then you could take them and , uh, you could microwave them for a little minute and heat them up, wrap them in a cloth, and then put that on a tight tense muscle or like your lower back where it's really cramped up and painful. Um, and especially places where there's like, there's tension and it's clear that things aren't, aren't moving. Like the blood isn't flowing through that area. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> . Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> , maybe I keep gesturing to my, my neck and shoulder area here for all of the you who are on the, the audio. Um, and I'm thinking of folks who have had like a lot of tension in the neck and shoulders, and then they're getting like poor blood circulation to their fingertips and they're getting tingles or Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> pain or whatever. Um, but yeah, you could take that ginger, make a, essentially this is a polus from fresh plant material. Put that right on. It'll warm the tissue, it'll release the tension, it'll encourage the blood to flow, and it will directly have some anti-inflammatory activity that'll just pass straight through the skin and get in , get into there. Um, so that's a simple topical preparation with ginger. Um, and again, think about the accessibility factor. Think about the availability. How difficult is it to find that versus like, you know, kava infused coconut oil. Yeah. <laugh>, <laugh> or some other thing, which would be fantastic and great, but isn't so easy for, you know, 49 of the states to get their hands on. Right.
Speaker 2:<laugh>, <laugh> . Um, you know, another way to work with that ginger poltus is to take those shreds and like wrap them in a cheesecloth or something so that they're kind of contained loosely. Yeah. Um, and you don't even have to heat it up. You can just put it right on the area, but then put a hot water bottle Yeah . Um, on top of it. Or like, you know, one of those rice heat , uh, pads or even , uh, like a , an electric heating pad. Some of them are, you can use them with, with water. Um, and so it isn't so much that you have to heat the ginger itself, but like you're just putting the heat on top of the poltus and that will bring heat to like the whole area and slowly warm up the ginger. Um, and so then you're getting like a kind of larger area of heat and circulation and the ginger is able to kind of seep in , um, and disperse that way. Um, yeah . And, and like if you're sore or you , you have a sports injury or you've been just working all day or whatever else, like just get on the couch with a show that you really like or an episode of a podcast you love, I have a suggestion. Um, and just put that pelus on and lean against the heating pad or the hot water bottle or whatever and just stay there for a while and just allow yourself to just be a potato for a little while . Ginger potato for a little while. It is okay. It is permitted. You are allowed to be a potato. Your kids can make the dinner tonight. Your husband can make the dinner tonight. Your whatever. You can eat cereal for dinner tonight. That's okay. <laugh>. But like, it just, whatever you need to do to take a half an hour to take whatever you need to just be a potato for a little while. I feel like, I feel like in our culture, that kind of rest is kind of like, we don't really allow it anymore. And if, if you just lay down and , and say, well , I'm just gonna lay here on this pulis for a little while because my shoulders are really aching from working on the computer all day, it's like, well, oh, that's not a very justifiable thing to do. I shouldn't be doing this. I should be doing some other thing. And so I just wanna take a minute to be like, you should be doing this. It is okay. You are allowed. It is good for you and it will help. And if there's something else that needs to be done at that same time, maybe somebody else in your household could do it. Or maybe you could just do it tomorrow. Yeah. Yeah .
Speaker 3:Right. Yeah. So don't neglect your topicals. That's sort of a running theme for us. We try to bring that up whenever we can. Talking about turmeric, about echinacea. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> , you know , um, but let's not leave Ginger out of the topical party. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I also today wanted to make a little time for an ode to candied ginger , um, because Okay, yes, it has sugar. Yes. We're all holistic here. We're all trying to reduce our sugar consumption. Yes. There's big problems with, you know, insulin resistance and prediabetes and, and all of that. And I don't wanna ignore any of that, but if you want something sweet, you could do a lot worse than candy ginger. Right, right . <laugh>. And, you know, there's different, different kinds you can get. There's the kind that's like covered in the big sugar crystals and sometimes that's really nice. Like if you have say a birthday cake and you want to put something very pretty on top of there. Yes. We're having cake. Come on, don't worry about the sugar <laugh>. And then there's the ones where it's like the naked ginger, you know, and it's been candied in sugar syrup, but they brush all the crystals off and it's <laugh> , you know, just these nice little cubes. That's really good stuff. I, I like to have that around. Um, sometimes because it's very portable and not messy. And I'll talk about our homemade candy ginger in it in a minute, but that sometimes there's a little bit of mess , uh, involved <laugh>, I'm , I'm thinking about air airplanes, right. Um, I'm thinking about travel. I'm thinking about like a long car trip or a bus ride or whatever. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> , you know, across the country , uh, motion sickness is entirely likely. What if you get seated too close to the bathroom, there's different reasons that you might not feel so great in the belly <laugh> and Having some candy ginger available, you know, you can get it through customs , uh, through the security line, the TSA, whatever. Yep . Um, and you know, it's just easy. And when your stomach is upset, sometimes you don't want to eat anything. You might not wanna drink even a whole mug of tea, but like, I could nibble on a piece of this a little bit at a time. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> , you know, or I could just hold it in my mouth and let the flavor and the juice kind of come down. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> sometimes that's really, really helpful. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Now you can do that also by taking a piece of fresh ginger and like slicing a piece of it and just holding that in your mouth too. But, well , you might not like, that's not necessarily travel hardy because like it'll last a couple days outta the fridge, but then it's not really going to anymore. Um, whereas Candi ginger is like, it is totally preserved. You can take it anywhere. It doesn't need any preparation and it's really helpful. It comes in fairly large chunks. I find them to be too large for me. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> . Uh , so, you know, if that is the case, it's okay to buy some, chop them all up smaller and put them back in the container. And that way when you need one, you have a smaller piece. Yeah . Um, yeah.
Speaker 3:Or you can chop them all up small and then you can cook them into your cookies that include chamomile powder and you can have ginger chamomile cookies
Speaker 2:And they're really good <laugh> , they're really good. You don't even need to put like, sugar in the cookies really, because the sugar and the ginger takes care of it. Um, or you can put like just a tiny bit of sugar in the cookie. Uh, but it's, those are really good.
Speaker 3:Yeah. We have a recipe for those and we'll put them into the show notes. Yes. Yeah, you can make your own candy ginger. You can take a ginger root, you can just have any, any old ginger root from the store. You can chop it up , uh, into some cubes or whatever shape you like and , uh, put it in a jar, cover it with honey, let it macerate in there for what we often end up doing is like a couple days on the counter Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> and then move it to the fridge.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. We leave it on the counter until it's, until it gets pretty syrupy. Like it thins out quite a bit. And , um, if the ginger is pretty fresh, that happens faster. And if the ginger is like older and pretty dry, that happens more slowly. So there's not like a, a specific number of days that is like the standardized number. You just have to kinda watch for it to turn therapy. Yeah. Um, and then put it in the fridge. And the reason is because it can ferment if you leave it on the counter, which is not the end of the world, but is also maybe not what you're going for. So Yeah.
Speaker 3:Right, right. Um, it's a little nicer when you prepare this with fresh young ginger roots. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. If you can get them Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> , they are the ginger roots that are still like yellow with red tips as opposed to like having the brown papery skin. Right. Um, and usually you can only get that if there are , um, farms around you who are growing it. And believe it or not, here in Massachusetts, lots of farms grow ginger and then you get that, that fresh young ginger , um, and it's just not as fibery and it , it , yeah , that's a big difference. It's a lot juicier. Um, and so it makes a much nicer, candied ginger ultimately. But the, the key here is that you're putting it in honey and , um, letting it macerate for a month maybe or longer. And ultimately you're gonna end up with some fantastic ginger syrup. Okay, good. So pour the honey into its own jar, and now it is ginger syrup. You're gonna do wonderful things with that, but don't throw the ginger chunks away. Instead, I usually leave them in a strainer over some kind of bowl so that the last bits of honey can drip down and I put them back in the fridge because that's a little bit dehydrating. And once all of the last bits of honey have dripped off, that takes a few days. If you really are in a hurry, you can put them in the dehydrator. Um, or you can just leave them in the back of the fridge that way. Um, like put a little cover over them or something. But , um, they will slowly dehydrate themselves until they are chewy ginger candy. And in that case, it's all honey that is in them. It , uh, okay. Honey is still, it is sugar. Sugar like Yeah . <laugh> . But it's, it's better for these. Um, I would ke I would not store them on the shelf. I would store them in the refrigerator all the time. I would not consider these to be travel stable . No. Yeah. Um, but
Speaker 3:They're really lovely,
Speaker 2:But they're really lovely and they're fine in your fridge for a long time.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And of course, you know, when you do that process, you get the ginger infused honey and the honey infused ginger bits. Yes. <laugh> .
Speaker 2:Right .
Speaker 3:And so, you know, we can be drawing off that honey and mixing it with sparkling water, or we can be mixing it in with herbal tinctures to make a nice elixir. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> , maybe you take some tincture combo and you wanna warm it up a little bit. You want to maybe make it a little touch more palatable to somebody. Okay. Ginger syrup. Ginger honey syrup is a fantastic way to accomplish that. Um, so it's just a nice thing to have around. And then, yeah, now we have these candy bits of ginger. You can eat them by themselves, you can bake them into things. You can marinate meat with it, whatever, you know, you've got a ton of options.
Speaker 2:They're really
Speaker 3:Good. It's really nice to have. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Uh, you know, if you don't have farms around you that provide that fresh young ginger, ginger to your local stores , uh, you can become your own ginger farm. It is actually not hard at all. So get yourself some organic ginger from the grocery store and you literally can plant it, make sure it stays, you know, damp. But when you look at the ginger, you'll see that it has some little nubs. Um , you know, it's got the thumb parts, but each thumb part has like a little nub that if you look at it, you're like, you know, that kind of looks like it could be a little sprout. And you might think that it looks like the sprout of a root, like the tip of a root coming out. It is not. Um, it is, it is more like the sprout on a bulb, you know, like the just a , a a shoot that is about to come up because that is in fact exactly what it is a shoot . So you'll put your ginger pieces in the dirt, keep it damp, and that little shoot will find its way up. Even if you accidentally put it facing down, it's okay. I mean , try to face it up, but even if you don't, it will still figure it out. Plants are pretty smart. Uh, and it will grow a ginger plant and it d it doesn't take a lot of work. Ginger doesn't like harsh direct sunlight. It prefers like, it's like an understory plant. It prefers , uh, kind of a more gentle sunlight. So if you've got a tree, put it outside in the summer in a place where it gets some shade from that tree some portion of the day. It's not just the whole day in the direct sunlight. Um, and it will just keep growing. We have, we have three pots of ginger that are like, by now, the root system or the rhizome system underneath is like the whole pot because every year it's adding to the rhizomes. It's making the rhizomes bigger and bigger. And after a couple years you've got, or if you start off by planting a lot of ginger, then it'll happen much faster. But you'll get enough ginger that you can harvest it, maybe not to be all your ginger for the whole year, but enough to, to make candied ginger with the fresh young ginger. And then over time , uh, you may grow more and more, especially if you have a , a bunch of window sills that want to have ginger plants in them. Or if you have a greenhouse , uh, it is, it is not a high maintenance plant and it gives you some leeway in terms of watering. Like if you forget to water it, it will tell you for a little while before it's sort of catastrophic. Um, so it's, it's just not a hard plant to grow. And you might not think that you can grow it in a cold climate, but you really can. Yeah. It is dormant through the winter, though. It is dormant through the winter. That's totally fine and great. Um, you do, you do have to bring it inside , um, or you know, if you have a greenhouse, but it'll flower even. And the flowers are, are fascinating. Um, they're kind of, they kind of remind me of orchid kinds of flowers. They're very pretty. Yeah . They're layered. Yeah. Yeah . Um, and not the colors that I was expecting. I don't know what I was expecting, but they are , um, kind of like a speckly sort of yellowy thing going. They're , they're really cool. And , um, anyway, this is not an intimidating plant. You might think that initially, but it's really worth growing your own , um, because the ginger that you get from it is tender and delicious and Yes. <laugh> .
Speaker 3:Yeah. Pretty cool. Yeah . Pretty nice to be able to do that. Well, I wanted to, I wanted to talk about a couple of the relatives of, of Ginger just for like comparison and for connection. Um, so, you know, it's, it's got a whole family, right? The Jinja , Breier , the Ginger family is the, the group that that's in. Um, and that group includes probably most famously at this point, turmeric. Uh, turmeric is, what'd you say? The most famous relative of Ginger?
Speaker 2:Yes. Uh , in terms of like the most, well-known, well maybe cardamom , but card don't realize that cardamom is a ginger relative. Yeah. So I think that turmeric is probably the most identifiable ginger relative especially. 'cause when you look at the rhizomes, turmeric just looks like a small orange ginger. Yeah. You know, they look, they look so similar that you're like, oh, these guys are related.
Speaker 3:Yeah . Yeah. You can see it. Gal is like that as well. That's another one where what people consume is the rhizome . And basically in the same ways and most of the same dishes Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> that you might be inclined to put a ginger or a turmeric. Right. Because all of these are gonna have in common the basic energetics of the ginger, right. Being, being warming , uh, having a drying impact. Um, there's some variance in terms of like how relaxant versus how kind of tifying activity you can get. I think turmeric has some tonification to it, especially on like your gastrointestinal mucosa , um, a bit more there than, than what you get with ginger. Um, but as far as like the muscular layers go, these are all gonna get a relaxing activity going for you. Mm-Hmm . You know , um, cardamon like you said, another important relative, but there , you know Yeah. You don't think of it the same way. 'cause we get the seed pods, right . And we take those Right. So
Speaker 2:You don't, like, visually you don't identify that as ginger as much.
Speaker 3:Yeah. But of course, every time you make chai and you start with ginger and cardamom, it's a little family reunion.
Speaker 2:<laugh>,
Speaker 3:We like to have those. Similar to cardamom is grains of paradise. 'cause that's another one where people work with the seeds primarily. Um, and also one called Choma . So the two of those are, are , um, they're species of Afro aum. Is there , is there a , their genus name there? Yeah. So those ones, I, I haven't actually gotten to play with coma . Um, but we have ordered grains of Paradise a few times, and I quite like them. They're, they're most similar to when you take the little black seeds out of your caram mom pods. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> . And you, you have those separate , um, the grains of paradise seeds are really similar to that, but , uh, but yeah, it's a slightly different flavor. So sometimes it's fun to like set up several plants that are all really similar, or in this case, like closely related and kind of taste them one next to the other. It's a good way if you're trying to build up your, you know, your herbalists tongue , um, <laugh> your capacity to , to note small differences between things and have that, that, you know , uh, that that gustatory attention to detail. Yes.
Speaker 2:<laugh> , yes. It's a fun game, right? If you get a bunch of herbalists together and you want to have some herbalist party games, one of them is let's get a bunch of herbs that are closely related and look really similar. And you have to guess which one it is, right?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can do it with fresh herbs or with tinctures or, or , or all kinds of stuff. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> just yesterday , um, one of my , um, uh, pharmacy school students was asking me , uh, about a plant called Zinga Bears Debit , um, which has a couple of common names. One is the shampoo ginger or the shampoo Lilly Ginger. Um, and another one is Bitter Ginger. Um, so isn't
Speaker 2:Bitter ginger calamus
Speaker 3:Or turmeric that's got a bigger element to it. Yeah , yeah, yeah. Yeah. But it did make me curious about this plant. And so I , I dug into it just a little bit. Um, and it does , you know, it is true that people will take the flowering structures and do like water infusions of that and then rinse their heads with them. I think it probably produces a little bit of saponin or something like that. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> . Um, but you can't also consume the roots of this. It's just that it has a bitter note to it. And so most people are like, oh, you don't want that, but me, I'm like, oh, really?
Speaker 2:<laugh>,
Speaker 3:How much does that taste? Like Calamus ? How much does that taste? Like turmeric? I wanna try that
Speaker 2:Actually. <laugh> . Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So anyway, it's cool to, to sometimes stop and look at the relatives of your plants. And I think we did something similar way back when we were talking about Artemesia. We were talking about mug wart primarily. Yeah . Referencing to warm wood and to Sweet Annie , um, and tarragon for that matter, right? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. Uh , so yeah, it's a , it's a fun way to kind of take plants, you know, and explore the wider world.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah . It's funny about the, that relationship because relationship , when you look traditionally, ginger and Calamus and also Angelica all have a really strong relationship in terms of substitutions. Even though now we're talking about three different families. Um, they, like, these are plants that are frequently substitutes of each other because they have such similar properties, which you can see as an herbalist, you can be like, well, yeah, medicinally, I see where the properties are really similar, but the flavors feel really different to me. But , uh, traditionally they were not so different. And often , um, like I, there are , there are early American recipes, by which I mean like early colonizer recipes in North America where they didn't have ginger. And so they substituted calamus , um, in the recipe. And I think to myself, wow, that's a really different flavor. They must have put a lot of sugar or something in there to, to like boost up the sweetness to try to get that substitution. Mm-Hmm . But , uh, but there are, there are quite a few recipes like that. So
Speaker 3:Yeah. One thing that they might have also done in some cases was to work with another plant , um, uh, called wild ginger or sometimes Canadian wild ginger. Mm-Hmm mm-Hmm. <affirmative> . This one is not a relative of ginger. It is a, a fleshy root , rhizome structure that you can dig up and it has a pungent flavor and smell and all of that, and warming quality. Um, the species on this is Asam and there's a bunch, but the most common one, or the one people write about most often is Asam kind ofa . Right. So again, Canadian wild ginger. Um, this one is not a great substitution for ginger , um, especially because we like to have ginger frequently. Yes. Thank you very much. Yes , <laugh>. Um, the trouble is that this plant, this, this whole genus of Asam , um, it contains both a chemical called Serone , uh, and another one, which is even more dangerous, called aristo loic acid. Both of those are pretty bad. <laugh> <laugh> . Uh, the thing is, it's not like you're going to make a tea out of this root and feel terrible immediately. It's not gonna make you vomit. It's not gonna give you dizziness or blurry vision or headaches or something like acute. Right. But they can damage the liver. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> . And especially if somebody was to make a habit of consuming this root frequently, they could really end up with some, some liver toxicity and some damage there. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> . Um, so I can remember when I first learned about this plant and I was like, wait, there's a ginger that just grows in the forest right here where I live. Let me get that <laugh>.
Speaker 2:Um ,
Speaker 3:But shortly afterward I was cast down into despair because of the <laugh>, because of the hepatic toxicity of it and Right. Yeah. Better not to go that way,
Speaker 2:But Calamus
Speaker 3:Calamus . Yeah . Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> . Yeah. Yeah . Right. So just a little warning on that one. <laugh> . Yeah . To round it off. All right . Well those are some , uh, miscellaneous thoughts on Ginger for today. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> , uh,
Speaker 2:Oh,
Speaker 3:Ginger. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, before we go, we wanted to give you a little advertisement. Um, like we said, we mentioned Ginger in basically every course, but probably most frequently in the digestive health course because again, it's so, so helpful for , it's the nausea, the slow digestion, the incomplete digestion, the low, low stomach fire , um, the feeling like cramping spasms.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And just feeling like your whole gut is heavy and slow and not moving and Yeah . Yep .
Speaker 3:The cold patterns of constipation, you know? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> . Um, and then again, to warm up a , a formula to improve the flavor of a formula. All these reasons. So, so helpful. Um, but that course is a really fantastic one. If you struggle with some gut upsets, if you have some discomforts in the bathroom, you know, I'm sure you don't wanna talk about it. <laugh> probably don't wanna hear me talk about it too much, but hey, like that's a part of a lot of lives. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> and there's a lot that herbs can do to help.
Speaker 2:Yes. Yeah . It's amazing how much of a difference ginger can make throughout the entire digestive system, even if you don't make any other changes. And obviously there are so many other things that if you do a little of everything, you will have even more success. But if there's like literally only one thing you can do to improve digestive health and it was ginger, you really would make a big difference. Yeah. Um , but you can learn all of the interventions for di Digestive health , uh, everything from occasional heartburn through to Crohn's and Celiac and IBS and everything in the middle. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> , uh, in the digestive health course, which you will find in , at online dot commonwealth herbs.com and like all of our courses, <laugh>, <laugh> ,
Speaker 3:Like all of our courses, that's includes video lessons. That's the primary format for what we're giving to you. Each lesson has an associated MP three, so you can download that content and take it with you while you walk in the woods to find some as Cana , see if it's out there <laugh>. Um, there's PDFs of , uh, key content and , uh, quick guides to remind you about what you're learning. Each lesson has a discussion thread attached where you can post up your questions and get a response from faculty. Uh, you get access to our community of other students and learners so you can share what you're up to. Um, and , uh, see what other folks are doing with their, with their herbs and their herbalism. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> . And there's access to twice weekly q and a sessions with us.
Speaker 2:More than twice weekly by now. Right. Because of that . Yeah . Because we also have international sessions and clinical sessions and there's so many live q and a sessions is what we're saying. Yeah . So you are not out there learning by yourself. Uh , you can come anytime you want to be learning with the whole rest of everybody and also with us live. Um , and you get lifetime access. So , um, not only can you go at your own pace and never worry that it's gonna get taken away, but also , uh, every time we add updates to the courses, you just get them for free, magically included in your account. Like, you don't even have to do anything. It just shows up magically for you. Uh, which is pretty cool. Yeah.
Speaker 3:So again, you can find that and all of our other courses@online.commonwealthherbs.com. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> . Okay. Well, that's it for us. Uh, thanks for listening, <laugh> . And next week we're gonna do something different.
Speaker 2:We're gonna do something different because
Speaker 3:You know it's time.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I'm pretty excited about it. Yeah . Yeah.
Speaker 3:All right . Well, take care of yourselves. Take care of each other. Drink some tea, drink some tea, and be a zingy. Bear
Speaker 2:<laugh>.
Speaker 3:Bye .
Speaker 2:Bye. Bye-Bye.