TURMERIC | How Does it Grow?

[Music] turmeric ancient medicine or modern fad however you think of it I can promise you this after watching this episode of how does it grow you'll never look at turmeric the same way again you may have noticed that I say turmeric not tumeric even though no dictionary recognizes tumeric as a primary pronunciation it's somehow thrust itself into common usage however there is contrary to popular belief and are before the M therefore I pronounce it turmeric the original way now if you speak Arabic or Spanish Italian or German then your word for turmeric is a version of the word curcumin mm-hmm that's supposed to be a you-now curcumin is the main healthful ingredient in the spice the thing that gives turmeric its antibiotic and anti-inflammatory properties we in the West have only recently woken up to the superfood powers of turmeric something our Eastern brothers and sisters have known for centuries in India and Southeast Asia turmeric native territory it's used as medicine as much as a culinary ingredient in Indonesia Jammu is a popular tonic made with turmeric and ginger and tamarind while in parts of India Bangladesh and Pakistan warm milk laced with turmeric is a mother's elixir to fend off children's colds and other ailments and now we Americans and Europeans are lapping up the turmeric golden lattes in fancy coffee shops too now India is the world's top producer and consumer of turmeric it's deep golden color has elevated it into the realm of the divine turmeric water is used to anoint deities turmeric paste is rubbed into the skin of brides and grooms before marriage to represent purity fertility and prosperity buddhist monks robes were once dyed in turmeric now in 1947 when India became an independent nation it had to design a flag it shows green for its fertile land it shows white symbolizing truth and to represent rifice it shows an indigenous and sacred color turmeric only they don't officially call that color turmeric they use turmeric other name Indian saffron turmeric grows underground it's the subterranean stem of a plant in the ginger family saffron on the other hand comes from the thin delicate stigmas of the autumn crocus only three to four saffron threads grow in a single flower which makes saffron the most expensive spice in the world saffron and turmeric have been connected throughout history thanks to their similar golden hues when dried and ground the two spices are easily confused sometimes innocently sometimes deceitfully the fraudulent sale of turmeric as saffron is a problem as old as the spice trade in 15th century Germany they really took it seriously the crime was punishable by death you'd be either burned at the stake or buried alive but enough about punishments let's talk rewards I've got a holiday discount code that gets you 20% off all hats t-shirts mugs hoodies totes baby onesies everything in the true food TV store go treat yourself or someone who loves food to a rethink your food sweatshirt or a loaf the pomegranate t-shirt it's super easy just click on the link in the description below this video and enter TFT V 2019 at checkout voila you get 20% off while also supporting the growth of this channel because yes all proceeds go to the making of these episodes so get chopping but first go find out how turmeric grows today food makers use turmeric to cut corners and trick the eye they use it to add a golden color to margarine mustard cheddar cheese or chicken broth but to me the worst offender are packets of yellow rice but that's not doing turmeric that justice it deserves Tariq's qualities go way beyond it's sunny color ask any Indian in fact over 100 of you answered in my You Tube community section that Indian dishes are incomplete without turmeric turmeric alone has an earthy mildly bitter flavor but when it works in concert with other ingredients it can help balance a dish but I know I know what you want to know you want to know turmeric how does it grow and can you eat it fresh amazingly here in the mid-atlantic region of the United States far from its native tropical habitat this wind is so cold turmeric is a specialty crop rising in popularity and I happen to live near a firm that's been growing it for a few seasons [Music] at two Gander farm in Downingtown Pennsylvania wife and husband Deirdre and Trey Fleming grow ten acres of organic specialty crops [Music] they use high tunnels to extend the growing season enabling crops to get started earlier in the spring and to keep producing deeper into the fall the Fleming's dedicate an entire tunnel to ginger and turmeric plants in the same botanical family they both grow a root like structure that we eat but that's where the similarities end look at these giant leaves some of them are taller than me turmeric requires true commitment it takes from early March all the way through to October before you get a crop worth harvesting here and unlike ginger turmeric spends most of its energy growing these massive leaves only when ginger is already being harvested does turmeric transfer its energy from what's happening above ground to what's happening below ground bulking up its rhizomes rhizomes I didn't say roots what's the difference let's go meet train the greenhouse to find out kind of cool so this is how it all begins yes okay first I want to know what's the difference between a rhizome and a root a rhizome is the part of the plants where it's storing the energy the rhizome is also the part of the plant that we eat while the inedible roots those thin wiry looking things work like straws sucking up water and nutrients from the soil turmeric farmers don't plant seed they plant seed pieces or mothers they're pieces of mature rhizome that will sprout into new plants and grow a new crop of rhizomes now Trey and Deirdre get their seed pieces from a grower in Hawaii whose methods are so controlled that he can guarantee the seed pieces are disease-free it's important because there are diseases that can come in with ginger and turmeric that you don't want to spread into your soil it's impossible to get rid of them so you have your seed pieces what do you do with them well we want to get them into some soil mix here so we can pack them in really tightly we'll put them in a single layer they need just enough soil to keep them moist they need to be really warm to break dormancy so we're getting this in February and not warm no it's not even warm enough in here in the greenhouse right away so we put this into a special chamber and keep it at 85 degrees and for the turmeric it might be up to six weeks before we start to see any signs of life it is completely nerve-racking the first time I ever grew this I ended up calling them in Hawaii and asking them like is this ever gonna happen am i doing something wrong and they said no have patience go ahead and plant them even if they're not sprouting yet put them in the greenhouse and yeah they came up ok so then once they start to sprout that's when you transplant them into the high tunnel yes okay so then let's go over there sure all right let's go okay so what do you look for to know that the turmeric is ready to be harvested well what we want to see at the base of the plants is that we have a lot of new shoots coming up and that's a sign that underneath of that shoot you'll have the rhizome spreading out that far so how do you harvest this thing well we're still doing everything by hand so we want to get our digging fork we're going to want to go in right along the base of the plant here get close to it but not too close we want close enough to pop out the whole root mass we put our digging fork a few inches away we want to go straight down so we don't accidentally stab the roots or the rhizomes and then we should be able to get in and pop it loose all is one cluster and you can see it's a little difficult to tell what's in there because the rhizomes have all of these roots which hold the soil really tight we never get to see turmeric in this state so young and so vibrant like that right well it's like most crops that are grown and shipped long distances you only can ship it once it's reached this mature stage that is the mother piece yet so you can see how small of a mother piece we had to grow this yeah you cut into here you'll see the top of the how much usable part of the root and the smell all the fragrance coming off is immediately yeah I wish you could smell what this smells like right now I mean as soon as he cut that off there was such like a vibrant fresh smell it's amazing I did taste a chunk of fresh turmeric and wow it's spicy its bitter it's crunchy and I'd much rather eat it cooked [Music] [Music] try and deirdre sell their turmeric at a farmers market into a few local wholesale clients that's why they can harvest their crops so young most of the world's turmeric is picked in a more mature state with a protective skin around it and then it's cured which means that it's boiled for about an hour which kills off some of the microbes and creates a more even color by gelatinizing the starches it also loses some of that fresh spicy smell after its cured then it's dry it in the Sun or in air dryers and then it's polished which means it goes in a rotating drum that kind of smoothes out the rhizome if it's destined to become powdered turmeric it then goes into a grinding machine [Music] I have to admit it's rather strange looking out on this quintessentially American looking farm and then squaring that with this tropical plant growing in a place so far from its natural habitat at first it seems strange Trey and Deirdre are devoted stewards of this natural landscape why not focus on growing foods that are native to here and then I realized that's a preposterous idea pretty much all they'd have left to grow our pumpkins and cranberries and blueberries because almost all the food we grow here in the u.s. originated someplace else potatoes and tomatoes in South America oranges and peaches in Asia and besides the most important thing is not origin its impact the people around here can purchase locally grown turmeric they can experience what it tastes and smells like when it's freshly picked they can meet the farmers that grew it what a gift oh and if you need tips on what to do with turmeric well then my friends in India the Philippines Indonesia Malaysia and beyond leave your tips and recipes in the comments below let's get cookin together [Music]

Channel: TRUE FOOD TV

Views: 296,757

Rating: 4.8653083 out of 5

Keywords: food, food literacy, food education, food history, food facts, turmeric, turmeric latte, spice, farming, how turmeric grows, how turmeric made, fresh turmeric, nicole jolly, turmeric harvest, two gander farm, ginger, golden latte, indian food, jamu indonesia, haldi

Id: gTpjNtAs31Q

Length: 14min 54sec (894 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 12 2019