Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is a delicious and healing ingredient we can easily incorporate into many of the things we eat and drink daily. According to Thomas M. Newmark and Paul Shulick, authors of Beyond Aspirin, this herbal powerhouse has at least 477 active ingredients, and considerable research confirms ginger’s effectiveness against a variety of digestive problems, including nausea from morning sickness and chemotherapy.

Donna Massaro, owner the Freight House Café, suggests the following ways to get a daily dose of ginger:

1. Use the back of a spoon to peel the skin off a piece of ginger root. Dice it into small pieces, sauté it with garlic, and add spinach, red pepper and salt.
2. Swallow pill-sized raw nubs of ginger if you feel like you’re coming down with a cold, or chew on it if your stomach is upset. (It’s spicy, so chew slowly!)
3. Throw it into your juicer with your morning juice.
4. Combine ½ cup sugar, 1 cup water and some cubed ginger (the amount should be about the size of your thumb), and boil it until the sugar dissolves. You now have a simple ginger syrup to add to your coffee or iced tea or any other drink you’d like sweetened and flavored.

Recipes from Donna Massaro, the Freight House Café, 609 Route 6, Mahopac, NY. For more info, visit TheFreightHouseCafe.com or call 845.628.1872.