History and Lore

Ginger, the best-known member of the ginger family (Zingiberaceae), is a tropical herbaceous perennial with large leaves rising from underground creeping, branching rhizomes. It is believed to have originated in northeastern India or southern China and has been cultivated in tropical Asia since ancient times. It was one of the first spices—and the most prized—carried along the Silk Road from China to Europe. Although it was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans and was available throughout Europe by the tenth century, it did not become popular in Europe until the Middle Ages, when it was the second most coveted spice, after pepper. The Portuguese took ginger to the western coast of Africa in the fifteenth century, and the Spanish introduced it to the New World a century later, carrying it to Jamaica and Mexico. By the end of the sixteenth century, Jamaica was exporting big shiploads of ginger to Spain.