How to grow turmeric: A lesson in patience

How to grow turmeric; a lesson in patience for those eager to plant the spice in their own gardens.

Having discovered how inferior powdered, dried ginger is compared to the Real Thing (whilst brewing wheat beer^[1] during Covid), we started wondering at Our Green Home if fresh or frozen turmeric too might not be far superior; but where to get it? I had never seen the rhizomes for sale, neither to eat nor to grow.

We had been using dried turmeric in our cooking for several years for its many health benefits and for seasoning our food. Who living in South Africa has not come to enjoy this spice from our many contacts with the Indian community?

There are many good reasons to visit Farmers’ Markets, if only occasionally. At Reko Hilton I was browsing through iThemba’s nursery of seedlings when I finally spied a turmeric plant. And it was cheap, about R35 if I remember correctly but that was five years ago. It was in late spring, I dug a hole, added plenty of compost and firmly set my find; and watched with interest. This was the beginning of another new journey, little did I know it; and an exercise in patience.

The plant thrived; we watered it during dry periods and fed it periodically with worm wee; and watched and wondered. Then the most beautiful flower emerged, every bit as lovely as ginger but quite different. And then we had a very cold winter and it even snowed all around our turmeric. It was gone, dead, within a few days. But deep underground another story was unfolding.

Months passed, we had given up all hope when unexpectedly on my daily “forest bathe” through our garden, I noticed a little unknown shoot, not dreaming that it might be our beloved turmeric. But yes, up she had sprung, three or four times the size of the original. That winter we began to experiment with fresh turmeric in our cooking, grated with a kitchen micro-planer. What a delight it was but we never seemed to have enough.

• The joy of forest bathing
  

So after several seasons by which we had perhaps half a dozen plants, I decided to split the rhizomes. We dug them all up in the winter when they had died back, cut the fleshy roots into thumb-sized pieces and set out perhaps 20 bits into more richly composted soil.

A medicine chest of L-dopa, capsaicin and curcumin.

Then came the second lesson in patience. First there was alarm; after three months not a sign of any growth. I gave up, thinking I had destroyed our precious turmeric; or the moles had taken the rhizomes. I admonished myself for not leaving well alone and letting nature do its natural expansion; and paid Reko Hilton another visit but in vain. There were no plants for sale.

Frustrated I started to think about other things, growing potatoes or some such and forgot all about my turmeric. We resorted again to the dried root; definitely inferior.

Life is strange. Chatting to a friend who I had not realised was a gardener, for some reason we got around to discussing turmeric. Oh, she would give me a plant but be patient, hers hadn’t sprouted yet. That must have been October or November, at least four months since I had split the rhizomes. Within weeks, the first few shoots came through and a message from my pal that she had a small gift for me. Suddenly there were enough for a whole shrubbery; and then the most gorgeous bouquets of flowers appeared.

I have seen reports that after flowering you can start to harvest the rhizomes. In my case, it proved fruitless. We wait patiently now for winter, having learned that nature will not be hurried.

“Rush and hurry are not of the Devil,” declared the famous psychologist Carl Jung; “they are the Demon incarnate himself.” How right he was.

Scrub, clean and cut off the suspect roots; use a glass chopping board.

I had carefully cleaned the rhizomes from about a third of the crop from last winter using a coarse laundry brush, snipped off the rootlets and frozen them. The little kitchen planar works like a charm, straight from the freezer; there’s no need to peel them. I use a glass plate as it stains plastic chopping boards; eventually it will fade if you put them out in the sun. And your fingers will make you look like a chain smoker!

We enjoy the grated turmeric daily in Eggs Hilton, our variation of the Florentine recipe, using whatever is in season from the garden; and always half a dozen frozen broad beans to control that nasty tremor in my right hand. Without them tea, coffee and soup are a nightmare.

• What foods prevent Parkinson's Disease?
  

Proven benefits of turmeric

Finally is there any science to back up the many claims made about turmeric? It’s long been used in herbal medicine for controlling blood sugar, the inflammation of arthritis and a heap of other conditions.

The active phytonutrient in turmeric is curcumin, the bright yellowy-orange phenolic compound that is so characteristic of the rhizomes. Just type “research proven benefits of turmeric” into Google and you will be astonished at the prodigious number of scientific papers concerning this marvellous spice.

• Does turmeric help with inflammation?

It is purely anecdotal since there are many other factors that have come into play but we give turmeric much of the credit for the fact that the good wife’s hands, horrible with rheumatoid arthritis, give her no pain; and she is even deeper into gardening that I am.

And for the fact that I have got my raised blood glucose entirely into remission with an A1_c of 5.4. But like I said there are other changes that I have made; like chocolate is gone but luckily there is an even better alternative. And I’ve started walking or cycling after starchy meals.

• Is drinking hot chocolate good for you? Yes, if you have access to raw honey.
  

How to grow turmeric: A lesson in patience

How to grow turmeric is a lesson in patience but worth every moment for those with rheumatoid arthritis and type 2 diabetes. It's not a snake oil though that will cure everything from alopecia to athlete's foot; anti-inflammatory and low GI foods remain very high on the list of priorities.

Newsletter

Our newsletter is entitled "create a cyan zone" at your home, preserving both yourself and Mother Earth for future generations; and the family too, of course. We promise not to spam you with daily emails promoting various products. You may get an occasional nudge to buy one of my books.

Here are the back issues.

Did you find this page interesting? How about forwarding it to a friendly book or food junkie? Better still, a social media tick would help.

Address:

56 Groenekloof Rd,

Hilton, KZN

South Africa

Website:

https://www.bernard-preston.com

Create a Cyan Zone at your home; one which complements blue areas for longevity with green for protecting Mother Earth.