Turmeric powder is a superfood which is most effective when it is freshly-grown and prepared by hand at home. You can use it on your protein shakes, curries, or just prepare it as a tea.
You can grow your turmeric indoors. All you need to have is a big rhizome and several pots with rich organic soil. Break the rhizome into smaller pieces that have two to three buds on them. With the buds pointing upwards, plant each smaller root about two inches deep into the soil.
Keep the soil in each pot slightly moist but not soggy. If you live in a cool area, water your crops every couple of days, with longer intervals. Make sure that the soil drains well. In order to encourage the plants’ growth, add a compost tea or organic fertilizer twice a month. It usually takes seven to ten months for the turmeric to mature.
Drying Turmeric
After harvesting your own crop of turmeric, it’s now time to turn them into useful powder.
Gather up a vegetable peeler, a mixing bowl, a spice mill or coffee grinder, a mortar and pestle, a mason jar with a lid, a fine mesh sieve, a kitchen knife and cutting board. Food dehydrator and a parchment paper for its trays will also be needed.
Turmeric stains on your hands take days to wear off, that’s why you should also put on a pair of comfortable gloves.
Use soap and water to wash of turmeric rhizome. Rinse them well before patting them dry.
Peel off the outer skin of each root. Throw the skin into the compost heap. The nutrients and healthy properties are found in the orange flesh of the rhizome.
Then, cut each turmeric root into thin slices. The slices must be of similar size so that it can evenly dry in the dehydrator.
Use the parchment paper to cover the dehydrator trays before placing the turmeric slices on them.
The slice shrinks a lot as they dry-out and the paper will keep them from falling between trays.
Set the dehydrator to 105° Fahrenheit. At this low heat, the important enzymes and nutrients in the spice will be preserved and will take four hours for turmeric to dry.
Grinding Turmeric
Cover your mixing bowl with the fine mesh sieve. Then, place small amounts of dried turmeric in your coffee grinder or spice mill. After you’ve ground each batch, pour the powder onto the mesh sieve. Use a large spatula or spoon to move the powder around the porous surface.
The fine powder will be collected at the mixing bowl and the sieve will stop large pieces that escaped from the grinding process. Alongside with a new batch of turmeric, you can return those large pieces to the mill or grinder for further processing.
You can use a mortar bowl and pound with the pestle to properly pulverized those stubborn little bits that refuse to be ground down by the grinding machine.
Transfer all the powder into the mason jar for storage and see to it that that lid fits tightly over the mouth of the jar.
You now have your homemade turmeric powder for your cup of an amazing turmeric tea. Congratulations!
