We started planting turmeric or olena as it is known in Hawaiian a few years ago. Turmeric is known for its antioxidant and anti inflammatory properties. There has been a lot of research into this pretty impressive spice and its benefits – preventing cancer, treating arthritis, controlling diabetes, reducing cholesterol, healing wounds, lowering risk of brain disease and heart disease, helping with depression, and slowing aging. There are tons of articles on turmeric and its benefits. You can use it fresh or dried. It can be used in almost anything from stir fry to smoothies. Because we have so much, we dry ours and then grind it into a powder. We processed about five gallons of fresh turmeric. From that we got a little over a gallon of dry turmeric. First you clean it, then boil it, then dry it it, and when dry, grind it into a powder. We dry ours in a dehydrator. You can sun dry it as well, but it’s been so rainy lately this wasn’t practical.
I’ve been making golden milk at night to help with some lower back and leg pain. It’s a recipe I found on line. Instead of stevia, however, I put honey in it. I’ve made golden milk before, but really like this recipe.
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/golden-milk-for-insomnia-5803a4ea07c738d85fd9d618
I keep a jar of powdered turmeric on my stove top and sprinkle some in whatever I happen to be cooking from eggs, to soups, and in my rice (it makes it a pretty dark yellow). I even put some in my coffee grinds before I make a pot of coffee. You can put it in what you like to suit your taste.
We’ve also been growing ginger. We dried and processed some for the first time this week. It’s a lot easier than working with turmeric. There’s no boiling necessary. You simply wash it, peel off the outer layer, and dry it. It also dries a lot quicker than turmeric. The dried ginger smells heavenly.
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