The Pongal harvest

Earlier last year I had posted about planting turmeric in our garden. The planting was planned so that we could harvest the mature rhizomes during Pongal festival. Well last week was Pongal day and so it was time to check what the plant had produced. 

All these six months the turmeric plant had always surprised and stunned us in its luxurious growth and vigour. So we were expecting a good harvest and we were not disappointed at all. In fact we were overjoyed for having produced such superior quality rhizomes and reasonable quantity from one single plant. Apart from the initial manure added in the pit, we did not add any additional fertilizer and the only thing we did is to ensure that it was always watered. 

All goes to show that a good seed definitely produces a good harvest. Having had such good harvest I did not want the rhizomes to go wasted.Normally we do not use the rhizomes as such in our household.So I pestered my mom to allow me to make them into turmeric powder. I knew the process but the general feeling was 'why go for all the trouble for such small quantity'. But my argument to have this as a trial run won over and so I started the process of powdering the rhizomes based on information I had gathered from the various organic food related websites.

The steps are as follows:

1.Clean the rhizomes thoroughly

2. Boil the rhizomes in hot water for over atleast 45-60 mins

3. Cool down and cut the rhizomes into small pieces

4. Dry the pieces in direct sun till they are completely dry and then grind them using a mixer until they become a very fine powder.

It took us over 4-5 days to get all the steps done and finally after 4-5 runs in the mixie here is the (completely organic) turmeric powder we achieved.

It had a very strong aroma (the entire house was filled in its divine smell) .. and on our trial attempt just a small pinch was enough to flavor the curry. Now we are all inspired and have already planted four bulbs from the harvest batch for the upcoming year.