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Thursday 3 January 2013

gingerbread in post-Christmas sales

Yes Christmas is over but where I live there seems to be a lot of packaged gingerbread treats for sale. Here is some info on ginger from Marilyn Zink, the herblady
Ginger - the Digestive Spice
This aromatic spice is best known for its use on the gingerbread man at Christmas time.
I love the story of the gingerbread man – fast as fast can be, you can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread man.
Well, we all know what happened to the saucy little fellow, don’t we?
When we use ginger for the festive season, we tend to use it as the powdered spice in baking and of course to make the gingerbread house.
The first gingerbread houses were made in Germany, becoming popular with the tale of Hansel and Gretel when the two lost children stumbled  across the gingerbread house known as the Hexenhauschen or Witch House, as the evil witch lived there to catch and imprison children.
The large pieces of gingerbread are known as Knusperhaeuschen (houses for nibbling at).
Whew! That one’s a mouthful to say.
The first ginger cakes were brought to Europe by the Crusaders returning home in the Middle Ages.
They soon became popular with different varieties of the gingerbread cakes appearing throughout Europe with sweet, dark, spicy, soft or crusty varieities.
They became so popular, in fact, that guilds were formed which gave bakers exclusive rights  to make and sell bread.
The famous 'Christkindlesmarket' became known as the 'Gingerbread Capital of the World' in Nuremberg, Germany.

Ginger is best known for its anti-nausea effects and for helping with digestive problems.
Candied ginger is one great way to enjoy the healing effects of ginger during the festive season.
The word ginger comes from the zingiber, which according to Sanskrit means horn-shpaed based on the shape of the rhizomes or root stalks.
Learning about ginger is a great way to use herbs in An Herbal Christmas.
Read about it today or get a copy for a friend.