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Is all ginger edible?

12 years ago

I recently bought a home with several ginger plants. While weeding one of the beds I pulled up some of the root and it smelled *wonderful*. Would it be ok to use it in cooking or are there some poisonous gingers? Is it ok to harvest a portion of the root at any time or should I only harvest during specific times of the year?

The yard has quite a few edibles, so there is a chance these are plain culinary ginger anyway, but I don't want to try unless I'm sure it won't kill me :P

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Comments (5)

georgew79
12 years ago
Hi, not all Ginger is edible and some could make you sick, If you could post a photo of it,I'm sure some one could ID it for you. I would guess that it might be a type of flowering ginger most of which are not edible.
George W. Z5-6 MO.
cougiecat
Original Author
12 years ago
My camera is kaputz right now, but I found this picture online. The flowers look like mine. The site with the picture didn't really confirm that it was culinary ginger, just that it was a ginger flower.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:843750}}
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georgew79
12 years ago
Hi that variety is not edible, I have the same thing growing in some pots. There is a website that talks quite a bit about Ginger varieties and touches on some of the edible one. If you want to grow some of the edibles ones you can start buying some rhizomes from the market. I have a few that are groing in large pots and I harvest enough each year to keep me in plenty of ginger. There are some gingers that the seed pods are used as a spice, but I can't remember all their names.
George W. Z5-6 Mo.
trianglejohn
12 years ago
George - you're thinking of Cardamom or Cardamon. As far as I know they never bloom anywhere outside of the tropics, but their leaves do give a nice spicy scent to foods or rice.
bobncat
3 years ago
I know this ia an old discussion but are these gingers edible

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