I spent an interesting morning today at a workshop on “Exotic Herbs and Spices to Grow at Home” given by Annette McFarlane as New Farm Library.
This was something new for me. Raised in England I know a lot about growing mint and parsley!
It was an opportunity to learn about the sort of herbs and spices that we can grow in South-East Queensland, except for saffron – you would need to move to Tasmania or New Zealand to be successful with that. We covered garlic, tamarind, cloves, cinnamon, turmeric, ginger, galangal, peppercorn, coriander, saffron, vanilla and horseradish.
I already have a bed of garlic and coriander at the allotment but I’m certainly going to be more adventurous after what I learned today. After morning tea we went outside into New Farm Park and potted up turmeric and ginger and were able to take them home. So that’s a good start.
If you want to know more about growing these exotic herbs and spices you can check out this link to Annette’s website where she has posted a PDF of the workshop.
Allotment Adventures with Jean 
Sep 09, 2012 @ 11:03:08
I just bought some turmeric roots (organic) from a local health food shop and am going to pot them up for the glasshouse. We love using herbs and spices on Serendipity Farm but living in Tasmania might be great for the bulbs, the camellias and the rhododendrons BUT not much in the exotic herb and spice range :(. We have a little coffee bush struggling its way through winter in our glasshouse and 2 bananas that are now into their second year living in the glasshouse on Serendipity Farm. I so envy your ability to “grow” Jean, your climate is amazing! I wish we had a bit of it down here so that we could extend our growing season and use the fierce growing power of the tropics to beef up our Permaculture efforts. I guess a lack of fruit flies and a plethora of stone fruits and apples gives us back a degree of satisfaction (and the berries…can’t forget them…) but I would kill to be able to grow pecans and Pistachios here
Sep 09, 2012 @ 18:08:36
With our different climate you wouldn’t think we lived in the same country would you. Thanks for the comment.
Sep 12, 2012 @ 18:46:29
Really interesting Jean…so what is it about the climate of NZ and Tasmania that makes it more suitable for Saffron?
Sep 15, 2012 @ 06:44:01
Hi Tanya. The climate in Tasmania and NZ is so much cooler.