The good and the bad of harvesting Tumeric

Kind of falling behind on the blog posts again but a few weeks ago the healthy tumeric plants wilted up and kind of fell over which meant that they were ready for harvest.  Tumeric is a root plant so they were all dug up and the nodules or rhizomes as they are called were harvested.

Quite a few were harvested so about 20 of them were re-planted in pots for next year.  The others were washed and then boiled for about 15 minutes to remove any harmful bacteria.  The next step is to cut the tumeric into small pieces and place into the dehydrator.  After about 24 hours the tumeric is dry enough to turn to powder.  We used the same technique we used when we converted the dried Moringa to a powdered form which is to place it into the nutra bullet and powderize it with the milling blade.

So far so good except for one thing.  All that touches tumeric gets stained a yellow color.  The stain is permanent too.   Our cutting board, the nutra bullet plastic cup and even the dehydrator trays were stained.  All in all it was quite a bit of work for a jar of pure powdered tumeric but a good learning experience too.

Turmeric is the spice that gives curry its yellow color.  There are many health benefits to eating tumeric.  Curcumin is the main active ingredient in turmeric.  It has powerful anti-inflammatory effects and is a very strong antioxidant.  However it is not absorbed into the bloodstream easily so many mix black pepper with it which enhances absorption by 2000%. 

For more information about the health benefits of tumeric read this article.

A House for Bernard (our Lion) and Summer Gardening

With all the rain we've been experiencing plus the fact that lions are in the news lately, we decided that our lion Bernard (distant relative of Cecil) should have a covered shelter to get out of the rain if he wants.   Plus where he was previously hanging out got so overgrown with flowers and weeds that he was pretty much hidden.  A watch-lion needs to be seen, not hidden like a cowardly lion in the undergrowth. 

Bee farm watch-lion (Bernard)

Happy with his new home and his proud mama

Now that the sun is shining, it was fun working in the garden again.  We pulled weeds and transplanted a few potted plants and moved several others.  It's amazing how some of our plants grew so much in the last month.  Our Okra is doing well and is quite healthy. 

Okra

My two Moringa and numerous Papaya plants are also doing well.  Unfortunately in the heavy rains, I lost a dozen or so Papaya's that fell over in the water saturated soil.   But most of them are still doing well. 

Moringa and Papaya plants

A few months ago at a rally against Monsanto I was given some seeds that I mistakenly thought were Moringa plants.  When they sprouted, they didn't look at all like Moringa so I went to a gardening facebook page and asked what the plants were.  Turns out I received a handful of Tumeric seeds that are now quite healthy and ready to go into the ground.  Yvonne transplanted them into our new Tumeric garden.  Tumeric root and Moringa plants are loaded with excellent nutrients and are very good for you.

Tumeric garden

It really felt good getting out into the garden and working.  It's such good therapy getting your hands dirty while working with plants and the earth.  Our bees were very good and seem to have really calmed down now that they have good weather.  The Queenless hives are now back to normal with their new queens and gardening around the hives no longer brings out the guard bees.