SPRING

March

In the garden

Some years ago a friend brought me several packets of vegetable seeds from India: pusa navbahar (cluster beans), brinjal (aubergine), dudhi (bottle gourds), palak (spinach), pusa sawani (okra), chilli and mooli (white radish). They were beautifully packaged, the plant names spelled out in old-fashioned typefaces and illustrated with drawings of vegetables. Too beautiful to use, they sit on my desk, now long out of date, but the idea of an Indian allotment stayed with me.

First came the idea of a windowsill packed with bright-red, orange, yellow and purple chilli peppers. Then came the discovery of fresh turmeric, a buff-coloured rhizome that looks like a grub, but is a deep-orange colour under the skin. Grate the fibrous root and pour over a little boiling water and you have a bowl full of fragrant, orange liquid with an oily sheen. The taste is earthy with a citrus tang. You can use it in place of dried turmeric or drink it as a tea (but not if you are pregnant or have diabetes). Think of how much stronger and tastier fresh ginger is than dried and you’ll get an idea of how to use it. But watch out, as it stains fingers and surfaces yellow; it dyed my pumpkin soup a rich, egg-yolk orange and makes a fine-coloured kedgeree (smoked haddock, egg, spices and rice).

Flavour aside, the rhizome is believed to have powerful health benefits with anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-inflammatory properties. It’s not hard to grow and you can also use the leaves to flavour curries and stews. Take a fresh rhizome and pop it under 5cm of potting compost and you should see growth fairly quickly. Keep moist and feed every two weeks.