What to do with turmeric?

[eco4560]

My turmeric leaves are starting to die down, and I've heard that is when I should lift the bulb for harvesting.
But what do I do with it? I can't use it all fresh this week. Any tips on home preserving? I don't have a dehydrator.

[ppp]

hi

you can leave it in the ground. Preserve it there.. particularly while it remains fairly dry... you can as a minimum wait until it dies right down to nothing.

We have tumeric in the freezer which we just scrubbed then put it in.. keeps well there.
The other option which I am yet to try, but am currently using for jerusalem artichokes is storing in soil. This method is (i think) also sometimes called "heeling in".
THe coolness of the soil in a wooden box (or bucket in my case) supposedly stores root crops well.
We have eated jerusalem artichokes a month after harvest which were simply stored in soil in the shed, we are also storing there for replanting material.. perhaps freeze some, use some and heel some in (keep some for next year!)

[aroideana]

Very good crop of turmeric dug up end of July last year .
You could make a large batch of Burmese curry paste , and try this recipe for Fish Curry.

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BURMESE FISH CURRY

This base paste takes a lot of work so its best to double or triple qtys.
And store some for later use , it keeps very well in the freezer or just covered in some oil.

1. 3 large onions , roughly chopped .
2. 1 complete bulb of garlic , peeled and crushed.
3. 1 handfull of Turmeric , peeled and grated .
4. 1 big bit of ginger , peeled and grated .
5. 1 cup of oil .
6. fresh chillis can be added [ I don’t ]
7. cook on low heat until all moisture is gone .
Ingredients can be put in food processor , but turmeric will stain it forever .
This last step takes forever , it must be stirred frequently.
It will be a very dark red brown colour ,
Finished when the oil separates .

Now for the Curry ..

1. Heat up 1 teaspoon of prawn paste.
2. Add 1 or 2 finely chopped stalks of lemon grass.
3. Add approx 1 cup of paste.
4. Add 1 tablespoon vinegar
5. Add 1 tablespoon of fish sauce
6. Add 1 cup diced tomato
7. simmer for ten minutes
8. add fish fillets skin up , and fry for 1 minute
9. turn and cover in paste
10. simmer another 10 minutes
11. add handful finely chopped parsely and coriander .
12. nice option is a dash of sesame oil .
13. mild fish is best , fillets are good , cutlets ok


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[eco4560]

MMMMMM that sounds wonderful!

[charlesinnaloo]

Thats a truck load a tumeric, mine is dying down So i dug out one to hothouse and see if it over winters. It had .........the original tuber I grew it from.....I guess I had little love and Perth might be a bit cold and hot rather than tropical.

[aroideana]

Very good harvest when well grown in the tropics . Plant a little finger , and then dig up a few handfulls .
i MIGHT EXPERIMENT using some fresh turmeric in pickles .
Will have to process some cinnamon branches also I suppose .
Grated and then boiled in vinegar with cloves and allspice .

Mate down the road just grates several fingers into his daily salad.

Imagine a pretty heavy duty machine would be needed to grind up dried turmeric into powder .

[seed savers]

Love to hear how you do it. For turmeric we boil for three hours till we can put a skewer in it easily, then dry for ten days back in at night (the fingers reduce their size amazingly) put in jars that stay good for years and crush when we need. We even used in the past a blender but bad for the blades. ok to use mortar and pestle also but it does not grind fine enough.
We add to curries we make from scratch with japanese mustard seeds, coriander seed we harvest ripe and fennel seeds. we keep the largest seeds for next season replanting. that is the basis for seedsavers for generations. We have replanted the best for yonks. For turmeric we replant the mothers only.

[Tropical food forest]

i love turmeric

grate the fresh root
mix with lime juice
press through a sieve into glass with some palm sugar
dissolve
serve over ice

for the byron crowd think ginger nekta - using turmeric
its a traditional balinese/javanese herbal drink

except they dont have ice

[aroideana]

Excellent , plenty of local limes , so will try this for sure . Thanks

[eco4560]

ooooo I'm so glad I asked this question. My fresh stuff is going to beat the heck out of yellow powder from the shops.