Turmeric (Curcuma longa) is indispensable in the kitchen and easily grown in a frost free climate. The tasty leaves and rhizomes and edible flowers are useful for flavouring and colouring food. In some countries, turmeric is used to help manage post traumatic stress disorder. After gardening in the heat and humidity of a Brisbane summer’s day, I find turmeric tea, a Javanese speciality, very refreshing. Some years ago, an Indonesian friend said “Drinking turmeric daily reduces body odour, helps keep you healthy and may prevent cancer”. Another favourite use I have for turmeric is making sfouf, aka turmeric cake, a delicious Middle Eastern recipe.
Tag: Turmeric
Petal Power: Edible Flowers
Edible flowers have a long history of being grown for making dyes for food and fabrics, or as decorations for cakes, salads and garnishes. What’s surprising is how many commonly grown flowers are edible.
In Production Today, May 2014
May 2014 was the 351st consecutive month of above average global temperatures. Or put another way, any gardener under 30 years old will never have experienced normal growing conditions. This month’s weather has been surprisingly sunny, dry and so warm my ‘Java Blue’ and ‘Pisang Ceylan’ bananas and Sugar palm – tropical plants – are…
Pretty And Productive Plants For Brisbane
I was asked by a client to prepare a list of ornamental productive plants that can be grown outdoors in subtropical Brisbane.
In Production Today – April 2012
I’m getting fewer summer crops, but my Asian greens are growing very fast indeed. Now that the nights are cooling down, I’ve begun sowing early winter crops, like salad vegetables and tomatoes. My native Midyim (Austromyrtus dulcis, aka Midgen Berry) has only a few fruit this year. They’ve got introduced Myrtle rust, a debilitating disease…
In Production Today – March 2012
March is generally when summer productivity slows and diversity decreases in my garden. But pawpaw have surged ahead, jute and all the basils are brilliant, and I’m picking the last plump figs. Rats beat me to my first two autumn pineapples… Rather like my strawberries, I’m waiting for the nights to become a bit cooler…
In Production Today – February 2012
One regular question I get asked by subtropical gardeners is what to grow during summer. Summer is when I grow the smallest range of crops. It’s not because you have to regularly control grasshoppers and caterpillars, I just stick with ones that fare well if we get baked…or flooded. Jute (aka Egyptian spinach, left) provides…
In Production Today – January 2012
This is what’s ready to eat in my garden this month. The two year-old Italian flat-leaved parsley is flowering profusely, and the triple curled parsley is just beginning to flower. Despite reading that ‘Red Gauntlet’ strawberry is unsuited to the subtropics, it continues fruiting, in fact they haven’t stopped since May. The 300 sq metre…
In Production Today – December 2011
I think I have found an alternative to parsnip for the subtropics. Yesterday I had fun cooking my first Hamburg parsley roots (Petroselenium crispum var. tuberosum). I haven’t grown this herb/ vegetable since I was fifteen and gardening in London. Hamburg parsley is a cool climate crop that, historically, was displaced in favour of the…
In Production Today – November 2011
It’s been a hot, dry, sunny, windy month. The celery and celeriac have only survived as a result of getting two drinks a day… It seems like my 300 square metre productive garden is growing a long list of edibles. Main crops are indicated by an asterisk *. However, it doesn’t take very long, or…
Jerry Coleby-Williams 