I don’t usually welcome watching the leaves of my plants turning brown but turmeric is the exception. These dying leaves tell me that before too long it will be ready to harvest once again.
Turmeric has so many health benefits and it has got to be one of the easiest plants I have ever grown. An allotment neighbour gave me a tiny rhizome, the size of my little finger. I popped it into the ground and had a huge harvest from it last season. And this year it’s going gangbusters again.
Dwarfed by my turmeric plant this morning
I call it Turmeric Gold because as well as the wonderful rich golden colour of the rhizome, it saves me heaps ($49 a kilo in the shops) by growing it myself. And it’s guaranteed organic. Even the colour when I grate the fresh turmeric makes me feel better!
For such little effort, this is well worth growing in your garden, and reap the health benefits. I grate a little each day in soups, stews, over salads, stir fries, in smoothies. And you can check out this link to learn more seven ways to eat (and drink) turmeric.
Happy Gardening.
Apr 19, 2016 @ 19:19:35
Hello Jean! Ivenot been blogging for a couple of years now, since I had my baby – now toddler! I’ve started reading again and I do enjoy your posts! Especially this one! I’ve never thought to grow turmeric but agree with you on the health benefits. Try half a teaspoon of turmeric mixed into a paste with a teaspoon of honey for a natural cough remedy. Just swallow the mixed paste down, it’s delicious!! I will try to work out how to grow my own turmeric plant, it will be a good use of space in my allotment! 🙂 Anna.
Apr 20, 2016 @ 06:29:23
Hello Anna, thank you for visiting. I let my blog lie fallow for a while too. Especially during our long hot summer where it’s so hard to keep a garden growing in Queensland, unless you can tend it every day. Thank you for the ‘recipe’ for a natural cough remedy. I see that your allotment is certainly large enough to take a turmeric plant. I have 16 square metres of land (and that’s made up of two 8 sq metre sites next to each other) our allotments are quite small over here. But I still manage to fit it in. I just have to make sure it doesn’t take over as it seems to have grown even bigger this year. But I can keep everybody I know in fresh turmeric ! Congratulations, lovely that you now have a little toddler. Looking back on your blog I see baby was once just a little bump. How time flies.
Apr 19, 2016 @ 23:59:24
What part of the plant do you use? They look very like the plants that used to grow either side of our front steps in Bulimba but I thought they were a flower plant.
Apr 20, 2016 @ 06:07:16
Lovely to hear from you Carol-Beth. You use the rhizomes lurking under the ground. You can use them fresh, finely grated, or they can be dried, ground, and used in a powder form. But that is more a commercial way of using turmeric. I just use it fresh and grate it.
Turmeric is the same family as ginger. You may well have had a ginger plant at your place in Bulimba.
One way of finding out if a plant is turmeric or ginger you can do a bit of “bandicooting” – sticking your fingers into the soil and grabbing a piece of what was growing underneath. Cut it open and if the rhizome is bright yellow it’s turmeric and if it smells of ginger – it’s ginger.
Apr 20, 2016 @ 07:05:17
I like turmeric and use it a lot.
Apr 20, 2016 @ 08:27:53
I love turmeric and you’re right about it being expensive. I also grow it but it is no where near as spectacular as your plant Jean!
Apr 21, 2016 @ 05:58:16
I was given 3 chunks of turmeric and put them all into a large pot on the deck so that I can overwinter them in my glasshouse. They all grew, albeit slowly, so I don’t think your enormous harvest would be possible here but if I give my turmeric the best growing conditions that I can (find the right microclimate here) then I might just be able to harvest our own turmeric given enough time. Lovely stuff and very good for you to. I LOVE your harvest 🙂
Apr 21, 2016 @ 14:14:32
A little turmeric goes a long way.
Apr 21, 2016 @ 16:06:35
Thank goodness for that as I have a sneaking suspicion that’s all I am ever going to manage to grow in our climate 😉