How To Grow Spice Plants In Home Garden

Spices are well known and mandatory Items In Cooking. These Spices aren't just using for cooking. These are helpful to improving immunity system in Humens and some of creatures in the World.

How To Grow Cardamom In Home Garden

Cardamom, Elettaria Cardamomum

Cardamom is native to Sri Lanka and southern India. It has been cultivated and traded from these locations for more than 2500 years and is often called the Queen of Spices. It can also be found growing in parts of eastern Asia, Mexico and Guatemala.

• Cardamom is not just all about food; it has a long history of ceremonial significance and medicinal uses as well. It was thought to be one of the most valuable spices traded along the spice routes. 
• Cardamom is in the ginger family and in typical ginger fashion has lush, large, sword-shaped dark-green leaves that, when crushed, are quite fragrant. The plants can grow several metres tall. 

Growing and Harvesting Tips at Home Gardening

As a tropical plant, cardamom requires temperatures to be consistently above 20°C to flower and fruit. It likes a protected, lightly shaded location, ample water and organically rich soil. It can also be grown in containers. 

• The flowers are white and green with purple veins and in tropical regions can appear all year round. 
• The prized pods follow these flowers and are green-yellow in colour and oval in shape, around 2cm long. It's these fruits that have the much sought-after aroma and flavour. 
• Plants will start to produce pods after two to three years and will remain productive for about 15 years. 

Culinary uses Of Spices

The seeds can be used whole or ground. 

• Cardamom has a sweet, warming, aromatic and distinctive flavour, not unlike a combination of ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. 
• It's used in both sweet and savoury dishes and is a common ingredient in curry sauces and spice mixes.
• Cardamom can be used in a variety of vegetable and meat dishes as well as dhal and pilau recipes. 
• In India it's coated with sugar and eaten as confectionary. 
• It's also used in cakes, waffles, biscuits, rice puddings, smoothies and ice-cream as well as teas. 
• Cardamom is mixed with ground coffee beans to make the Arabian drink, gahwa. Cardamom essential oil is used to flavour mulled wine, liquors and other drinks.

How To Grow Ginger In Home Garden

Ginger, Zingiber Officinale

Records indicate that ginger has been used for culinary and medicinal purposes for some 4000 years. Its popularity grew predominantly in Asia for many centuries, but it eventually found its way to Greece and other Mediterranean locations. 

• The Spanish took it to the Caribbean and South America and it was only relatively recently that ginger made an impact in northern Europe. 
• It's a perennial clumping plant with tall, fleshy stems and spear-shaped glossy green leaves.
• It's fast growing, having its growth spurt throughout the warmer months of the year in subtropical and tropical locations. 
• The flowers are rarely seen on this edible ginger, but if they do appear they are fairly inconspicuous compared to their more spectacular ornamental cousins. 
• The flowers are yellowish with purple/ yellow tips.

Growing and Harvesting Tips at Home Gardening

Ginger likes a semi-shaded location in organically rich soil that's free draining. 

1. In saying that, ginger plants need regular watering and are nutrient-hungry, so ensure regular liquid fertilising and compost applications during the growing season. 
2. As a subtropical species, ginger requires regular temperatures around 24°C in the warmer months and is not frost hardy. It can be successfully grown in containers, though.

Tips:

• You can harvest the roots once the plant has been growing for at least three to four months. 
• Dig up the rhizomes in autumn and early winter when the foliage has died down. 
• Storing them is easy if you carefully dry them and place them in a dry, cool, dark location. 
• They can be used as needed and some can be replanted in early spring. 

Culinary uses Of Spices

Its the fragrant, many branched, clumping rhizomes that grow underneath the soil that we use to flavour everything from teas to curries to biscuit, cakes and desserts. 

• Ginger beer is a very popular traditional beverage, originally an alcoholic drink loved by sailors.
• The ginger rhizomes have a fine beige-coloured skin and the flesh within can be white, yellow or red, depending on variety. 
• Young rhizomes are juicy and fresh in flavour, while older roots are drier, more fibrous and spicier. 
• Ginger also has many medicinal uses, especially for its anti-inflammatory, anti-nausea and cafhminative,actions. 
• It has  been found to help morning  sickness, and travel sickness. as well as arthritis and other inflammatory conditions. 

How To Grow Juniper Berry In Home Garden

Juniper Berry, Juniperus Communis

Common juniper grows naturally in many parts of the northern hemisphere and is cultivated in more varied climate zones than any other plant species. It can be found in Alaska, Siberia, Iceland, North Africa, Arizona, New Mexico, Europe, North America and northern Asia.

• Juniper has a long history of being used for flavouring by the Greeks, Romans and Arabs. 
• During the Renaissance the fruits were used to treat plague and pestilence and the foliage was often used on floors to scent houses in ancient times It's best known as the main flavouring in gin. 
• A member of the Cypress family, juniper is a bushy, densely branched evergreen conifer that can grow 2-4m tall. 
• It's very slow-growing but very long-lived, with specimens often reaching 100 years; some individuals are thought to be more than 500 years old.

Growing and Harvesting Tips at Home Gardening

• These are very hardy trees and will tolerate conditions from very cold to very hot, but they're probably not that fond of heat combined with humidity. 
• They are tolerant of not only drought and wind, but of variable soil pH levels, happily growing in acid or alkaline soils.
• The foliage is needle-like and the male and female flowers are tiny and green in colour. 
• The flowers are followed by the prized berries (not true berries), which initially look like small green cones but ripen over the course of a year to blue-black with a white bloom. This ripening occurs in autumn. 
• Juniper can take seven to 10 years to start flowering and fruiting. Grow in full sun or light shade. 

Culinary uses Of Spices

It's the small indigo-coloured berries that are used to flavour gin. 

• Theses fruit are sweet and fresh but somewhat pine/ turpentine in flavour. 
• When used for other culinary purposes, only a small amount is needed because they are so strong in flavour. 
• They are usually cooked before being eaten and marry well with herbs such as rosemary, sage, thyme and bay leaves. 
• They also mix well with onions, garlic and shallots. 
• Juniper berries can be added to a huge array of dishes, from stuffings, gravies and soups to casseroles, wine sauces and a variety of meat dishes, in particular game meat. 
• They're also used in pâtés, pickles,sauerkraut and even in sweeter dishes such as fruit salad, fruit pies and strudels.

Note: 

Pregnant and breastfeeding women should avoid juniper berries because of their podophyllotoxin content. Although the levels are fairly low, it's better to err on the side of caution. 

How To Grow Saffron In Home Garden

Saffron, Crocus Sativus

Saffron crocus is a member of the iris family and is thought to have originated in the eastern Mediterranean region and western Asia. 

It has been used for culinary purposes and for its fragrance, pigment and religious significance. The Sumerians were using saffron 5000 years ago. It was also grown in Crete and Egypt 3500 years ago and is mentioned in the Bible. 

The Romans appreciated its culinary properties and Buddhists in Asia used it to dye their robes. It has also been used to dye hair and has myriad medicinal uses. The three tiny threadlike female stigmas can only be collected by hand from the delicately beautiful mauve and white crocus bloom as it comes into flower.

These stigmas are the treasured reddish golden spice - the most expensive spice in the world, in fact. The fragrant blooms are produced in autumn with the foliage soon following; the whole plant then dies down in late spring.

Growing and Harvesting Tips at Home Gardening

• Crocuses like hot, dry summers and cold winters to perform at their best, and need a sunny location with free-draining soil. 
• Strong winds and heavy rain can damage the precious flowers. 
• They will grow happily in pots. 
• Harvesting saffron is fiddly and getting the timing right is key as the flowers don't stay open for long. 
• Harvesting is usually done daily and the stigmas are gently dried. 
• To maintain their colour and flavour they must be kept in an airtight container and stored in a cool, dry spot. 

Culinary uses Of Spices

When using in cooking you only need the smallest pinch to colour and flavour your dish. The flavour is subtle, so be careful not to add too many other strong flavours or the saffron will be lost. 

• Many cuisines use saffron as a flavouring ingredient, including Spanish (think paella). 
• French (bouillabaisse) and Indian (biryani). 
• It's also used to colour and flavour cheeses, butter, sauces, rice and milk. 

How To Grow Star Anise In Home Garden

Star Anise, Illicium Verum

Star anise hails from eastern Asia, in particular eastern China, Vietnam. Japan, India and Indonesia. 

1. The fruits have been used for thousands of years in these countries for their culinary, aromatic and medicinal properties. 
2. A small, slow-growing, evergreen tree, it has aromatic foliage but the fruit/seedpod has the flavour we love. 
3. Reaching around 3-5m star anise can be easily grown in small gardens and even containers. 
4. The leaves are small and oval with a heavenly anise scent. 
5. The inconspicuous flowers borne in spring are greenish-yellow and look like tiny sea anemones. 
6. The compound anethole, in its essential oil, gives it its aniseed scent and flavour. 
7. Star anise is also reputed to have potent anti-bacterial properties.

Growing and Harvesting Tips at Home Gardening

• Star arils prefers to grow in a warm temperate to subtropical climate zone and, once established, will tolerate light frosts. 
• The trees like full sun to light shade and free-draining soil - they detest poorly draining clay soils. 
• Add adequate organic matter at planting time and water regularly during the drier months. 
• The fruit is a distinctive star shape with eight to 12 points, each segment containing a seed. 
• It's picked unripe and dried in the sun. 
• As the fruit dries out, it turns a rusty colour, splitting along the length of the capsules to release the seeds in autumn. 
• It can take five-plus years to fruit. 

Culinary uses Of Spices

It's the dried seedpods that are widely used in cooking, especially in Chinese, Vietnamese. Indian and Indonesian cuisines. 

• It's an essential ingredient in five spice and garam masala. 
• With its sweetish, spicy and warming flavour it's often used in curries, pickles, soups and many meat dishes. 
• The essential oil is used to flavour liquors (in particular Galliano), confectionary and desserts. 
• Both the seedpods and leaves have been used as incense and in pot-pourri. 

Note : 

The fresh fruits are poisonous in quantity but excess consumption would be very unlikely.