My first growing turmeric plant

Turmeric is one of my favourite spices. It can be used in curries, in soups and cooking of all sorts. Turmeric has an intense yellow orange colour, due to curcumin, a chemical that the plant produces and they make a naturally good food dye for many cultures in the world. Just add a little into our cooking and the colour would transform to a sunshine yellow.

But that would also mean that our cooking utensils (such as the chopping board) and our fingers would turn into cheery yellow too. It is always good to be mindful when dealing with turmeric because the colour can stain porous surfaces.

My chopping board and kitchen table surfaces are still yellow from cooking with turmeric a few weeks ago. I think it will be there for quite some time.

Turmeric spice comes from the root of a turmeric plant, similar to ginger and not suprisingly, it is part of the ginger family. Just like ginger, we can slice up the root of a turmeric plant and add them into an appetizing soup or grind the root to be used as a marinade for any seafood or poultry or meat or the other option would be the prepackaged turmeric powder.

Turmeric powder when used as marinade for frying gives a delicious taste and aroma to the food. Turmeric root on the other hand, when sliced and cooked in soup, has a slight bitter, pungent, gingery and grassy taste but it adds a certain sophistication to a dish. For a new consumer, it may take a little of getting used to and it can be an acquired taste.

Some years back, I tried planting turmeric. When the root started to sprout, I put it into the soil and see if it grew. At first it grew and then it died. I suspected that I watered it a little too much.

Then I had another batch of turmeric which sprouted and I tried again. This time, I was more cautious with watering and I gave it more love and care compared to the one that didn't survive.

It took a few days or maybe a week, before the leaf poked through the soil. It was such a lovely sight to see. When the leaf grew taller, my heart leaped with joy. I watered just enough for the soil to be a little damp, not too much. I used rice water usually. I also gave it a bit of goat dung nutrient.

After another week, more leaves unrolled but I was a little upset when I saw a hole on the first leaf. Who dared to eat my precious turmeric plant? I didn't manage to investigate. I let nature take its course, who could resist the tasty turmeric leaves. Come to think of it, I have not tried eating turmeric leaves but I have read that the leaves can be used in cooking too.

At this point, the plant was about 15cm tall and was looking quite gorgeous. I like the way the leaves roll up as it grows.

And just like a butterfly, the new leaf spreads itself wide like a sail. Another happy sight for my eyes. It was gratifying to see the leaves grow.

Today, the plant has grown up to about 30cm tall with 3 fairly large leaves plus the little leaf which has been munched by nature and I patiently wait.

I hope nothing is gorging the turmeric roots inside. I had posted about a potato plant earlier but alas, when we harvested because the leaves were turning yellow, everything was gone! No potato, zilch, nothing. There were only little creatures happily eating up everything. What a bummer.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turmeric

https://specialtyproduce.com/produce/Turmeric_Leaves_11168.php