You can buy cardamom in several forms: the green whole pods (please do not use the white bleached cardamom), decorticated (the small black seeds in the pod), and ground. I use the whole pods for tea and rice dishes and buy the decorticated (seeds) for other cooking. I have a little coffee grinder that I use to grind my own spices. (We’ll talk about the purity (yeah, right) of store-bought ground spices another time.) Cardamom is in most markets, natural food stores, and Indian markets. It’s one of the more expensive spices. You will get the best price in the Indian markets.