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Post by ladymarmalade on Dec 28, 2017 17:47:36 GMT -5
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aqua
Pro Member
Posts: 295
Zone:: 8b9a
Favorite Vegetable:: all of them
Joined: March 2012
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Post by aqua on Dec 28, 2017 18:26:16 GMT -5
Is chocolate a spice?
I do have a vanilla orchid, but it will probably never bloom.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Dec 28, 2017 19:24:58 GMT -5
Some of the spices grown in northern India may be doable by us, ladymarmalade. However, the space we would have to plant, and the labor involved, would make them not really worth it, to me. And, of course, the perennials in the tropics are not an option for us!
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Post by brownrexx on Dec 29, 2017 9:07:22 GMT -5
I had about 20 saffron crocus bulbs given to me over the summer and I harvested about a dozen stigmas in the late fall. Only a few of the bulbs bloomed since it was their first year and we also got a cold snap right after they started blooming. Next year I might actually have a decent crop. The neighbor who gave them to me says that she gets lots from her crocus bed. A few years ago we visited Costa Rica and went to a vanilla plantation. It was high in the mountains and it was beautiful. As aqua , said vanilla beans actually come from orchids and they had LOTS of orchids blooming. They were also harvesting cinnamon which comes from underneath the bark of a tree (or shrub, I forget). I bought some cinnamon and it was wonderful. They were producing it by hand. It was a fun place to visit but we certainly couldn't grow either of those items here.
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Post by spacecase0 on Dec 29, 2017 19:49:48 GMT -5
dill and cilantro are the only ones I grow here
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Post by Gianna on Dec 30, 2017 0:17:14 GMT -5
I once tried growing cumin, but the plants were too puny to survive my care. I do grow peppers and like to have powder with moderate heat to season things. I also have cilantro/coriander come up ever year, but I rarely get around to saving the seed.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Dec 30, 2017 16:04:12 GMT -5
Do ginger and turmeric count as spices? They like the hot, humid, rainy summers here in North Florida (but prefer some shade). Both culinary ginger and turmeric usually survive the winters here, too.
I don't have an ginger planted now (though I plan to plant some in the spring). I have some turmeric out there, but it was planted fairly late in the summer, so while I plan to separate it because it's crowded, I don't expect harvestable roots yet.
I wish I could grow saffron crocus here, but I'm 99% sure our summers would kill it.
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Post by spacecase0 on Jan 1, 2018 13:59:35 GMT -5
I have grown turmeric in full sun (no clouds in sight), in hard clay soil with single digit humidity and 100F to 110F days, and I still got a harvest, so I am pretty sure it can take full sun and heat. ginger failed in full sun here. and it is absolutely a spice
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Post by ladymarmalade on Jan 1, 2018 15:34:53 GMT -5
Watching the Rose Bowl parade made me smile and think about spice growing again. The fact that those floats are totally decorated with natural plant materials amazes me every year!
I totally think it's impractical here to grow spices in the states for the most part. If I ever get the ability to travel to other countries, I would love to dig into the spice culture and visit some plantations.
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Post by Gianna on Jan 2, 2018 22:44:29 GMT -5
Watching the Rose Bowl parade made me smile and think about spice growing again. The fact that those floats are totally decorated with natural plant materials amazes me every year! Many years ago good friends who worked for GE invited me to go help decorate 'their' Rose Parade float. It was so much fun. Not the work so much, nor the cold early morning. But walking around and seeing the barrels of different colored lentils and other seeds, and walking through the large tents filled with all kinds of flowers lined up in buckets on the ground, row upon row, waiting to be nipped and tucked onto the various floats. The floats themselves were being constructed in a large hangar-type building, which contained maybe 3-4 floats and their workers.
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