Wild Ginger Is the Designer Imposter of the Rhizome World
Photos by Simon Brothers—Powerline Films

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Food

Wild Ginger Is the Designer Imposter of the Rhizome World

In the final installment of our spring foraging series, we turn to wild ginger. It might smell and taste like the stuff you can find at any market, but this untamed rhizome isn't related to proper ginger at all.

We've already tackled the delicious whorls known as fiddleheads, and the seasonal crack-like allium known as ramps (a.k.a. wild leeks). In the final installment of our spring foraging series, we've once again asked Steve Stacey—forager and director of the Local CFC, a community food center in Stratford, Ontario—for his thoughts on finding wild ginger, a rhizome that tastes and smells like the regular stuff but bears no relation to it.

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Whether you're searching for a local foraged version of this rhizome for your favorite ginger-based sex acts or want to up your forager ante by hunting down some of this buried treasure, here's everything you need to know about finding, harvesting, and cooking up some wild ginger of your own.

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MUNCHIES: Hi, Steve. So, where do you typically find wild ginger? Steve Stacey: I look for snowmobile and ATV trails in the forest, so it's easy to get around once you get there. I knew that we'd be looking for a hillside for the wild ginger. And then we came across the ginger, and the wild leeks were actually in the exact same space—they were in between each other.

So wild ginger typically loves hillsides? In my experience, that's always been the best spot for wild ginger. I don't know if it needs to be on a slope that's been eroded, but it's usually on the side of a hill near a ravine, just out in the middle of the forest.

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How do you harvest the wild ginger? You'll see a bunch of what looks like individual small plants coming out of the forest floor, but when you move the leaves away and take a little bit of the dirt away you'll see that it's actually one root that's connecting them all. It's called a rhizome system. It's just a matter of lightly raising the root and disconnecting it from the ground. And with the good ones—the long ones—you'll actually start with one plant and end with another. So you'll basically have a root with two plants on each end. You don't eat the plant, you just eat the roots.

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What's the difference between wild ginger and cultivated ginger? Wild ginger's neat. It smells just like ginger and tastes just like ginger, but it's not part of the ginger family. The ginger that we use normally and think of isn't even from America originally. It's strange that two things that are so far away from each other in origin would have these similar properties but not be related.

What's the typical time of year for foraging it? I don't think you need to have a season if you know where to look. The only thing is that the plants die off, but the roots are still there. You just won't know where they are, because the plants are how you see them.

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What do you typically do with the wild ginger? You can actually use it as ginger. I'm going to pickle the wild leeks and put a bit of the wild ginger in each jar to see how that works out. But the best thing that I like to make with them is wild ginger and rhubarb compote. I put it on ice cream.

What's the best way to store your ginger? Just in the fridge works fine. If you want to keep some for later in the year, the best way to keep is to freeze it. You can just freeze it as is.

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How did you first find out about wild ginger? When I moved to Stratford, I was into foraging. But the thing about foraging is that if you don't know your area, then looking for something is like a needle in a haystack. Each region and area is so different. I went on a foraging workshop for the area and learned about some of these little spots. It was the first time I'd seen wild ginger before, so it was cool to have an intro to something new in the foraging world and get to know the land around my new town better. I definitely suggest doing that if you want to get to know your area.

Well, we just might have to do that. Thanks, Steve!