Turmeric is a wonderful spice that is good for cooking and good for you. A main ingredient in curries it gives food a lovely yellow color (and when using it fresh a lovely stain on your hands if you aren't careful!). Turmeric is also a wonderful anti-inflammatory in both its fresh and powdered forms. The leaves also can be used for cooking.
I've been using the powdered form for both cooking and medicinal (mixed with honey and black pepper it is a good addition to tea for my arthritis pain) and decided I wanted to try it in its fresh form. The problem being, I live in North Idaho and finding the fresh is this side of impossible. So off to the internet I went and ordered a pound.
Found a place thru Amazon online that sells it fresh and is organically grown, placed my order and had it in my hands within a couple of days.
I divided the rhizomes up. Some I put in a plastic bag and popped into the freezer for use in cooking later. 5 rhizomes went into a pot of soil and into my kitchen window to grow and the rest I ran thru my food processor and divided it into two jars. One was filled with some good vodka I had on hand and the other with apple cider vinegar.
I had read up on growing turmeric and everything noted it takes a while to grow and produce, 8-10 months. So I figured it would be a while, but I didn't expect it to not sprout for 5 months! But I kept plugging away at it, keeping it watered and in the sun as much as possible.
I was starting to give up hope and was considering just giving up and tossing the whole thing into the compost pile. The I saw the tiny bit of green. I was happy and now I need to find bigger homes for all the plants that have popped up. I am going to need a bigger window ledge!
Ugly little buggers, but packed with goodness.
Turmeric tincture made with good vodka ready to steep in a cool, dark cupboard for a couple of months. This will be used for medicinal purposes.
Surprise! The first one to poke up thru the soil after 5 months of just watering a pot of dirt.
Once it appeared it just started growing like crazy. This is just after a few days.
The 2nd one makes its appearance
3 and 4 showed up. Now hoping #5 will show up soon.
