The Chinese use it for stir frying veggies. Just put about a tablespoon of oil in a pan, heat oil then add baby ginger (thumb size, cut into thin strips or julliened), stir until ginger is tender (the aroma will be so heady and fragrant), add veggies you are stir frying, stir until veggies are cooked to your desire, add a teaspoon of soy sauce or oyster sauce and some ground pepper. Voila! Dinner...
Consult some Asian cookbooks, Southeast Asians love cooking with ginger. Japanese also make pickles with them that you can eat with sushi. Oh, Indian cooking uses a lot of ginger too. It is an ingredient for a marvelous curry.
Where did you get the mother plant/rhizome? I'd like to try and grow some in my garden. Thanks.

Dee

are all gingers edible?

The common ginger used for cooking is Zingiber officinale, it's the root you see in the grocery stores. You can grow the ginger from the roots that you get from the store, the plant isn't anything special. There are other gingers used for culinary and medicinal uses. There should be much information on the web about these gingers. A good book I would recommend to anyone interested in growing hardy gingers is Hardy Gingers by the Royal Horticultural Society, Great book!

a girl of Persian descent recently told me that in her country they put a little piece of raw ginger in their mouth for a sore throat (whew! that would be hot!), we had so much fun talking about it we've been friends ever since

If it is to hot for you keeping ginger in your mouth,
then try puting it in your tee or coffee. For added benefit
put some honey in your beverage. Honey is also good remedy for sour throat. You may also add milk. A triple combination.
Ginger is also good to relief abdominal pain. Add it in hot boiled water. You may also add , again , honey or sugar.
Whatever your choice.

Turmeric ( the Indian food flavoring) is a ginger that makes a very attractive plant. You can also grow it from roots you get at the grocery store (stores that cater to Asians will probably have it.)

Zingiber officinalis is also recommended for nausea. Alas, when I was having chemotherapy, the irrational side of my brain kicked in and every time I even thought about ginger I felt sick. Luckily that went away and I love it again.

As stated there are several edible and medicinal types of ginger many are carried by asian or chinese markets, The really pretty flowering gingers are not edible, although I wish they were as some are really wonderful smelling. There is a Japanese variety that produces a flowering head that is cut up and added to sushimi, picked dishes, salads and for stir fried vegetables, although regular ginger can be used the same way.
George W.

Most garden forums make me want to go out and play in the dirt. This one makes me want to eat! :o)

Please see my inquiry of July 2, 2009, on the ginger forum. Is baby ginger the same thing as the ginger "fingers" that I was asking about? Ginger fingers are used in Chinese cooking and are the young shoots of sprouting ginger.