New Harvest Turmeric

Burlap & Barrel's turmeric is grown organically in southern India by Dr. Salunhke, an expert farmer specializing in sustainable agricultural techniques. It has a sweet, floral flavor without the metallic bitterness found in lower quality turmeric, and is perfect for both sweet and savory applications, in curries and other dishes as well as in turmeric teas and lattes.

Its high curcumin content (4%) makes it ideal for both culinary and nutritional uses. Add it to sauces, stews, salad dressing and baked goods for bright color, depth of flavor and wellness.

Burlap & Barrel's turmeric is completely lead-free. It has been tested in an internationally accredited food safety testing lab in Connecticut, USA, who found no traces of lead. 

A word to the wise: this spice is often used as a natural dye. So you have a decision to make: either use caution (and maybe gloves) when handling or proudly display your yellow hands to show that you've just cooked with some very intense turmeric.

• Origin: Setara, India
• Aliases: Tumeric, haldi
• Process: Sun-dried
• Ingredients: 100% ground turmeric (Curcuma longa)
• Tasting notes: Ginger Root • Jasmine Flower • Honey

COOKING

• Toss with roast veggies like cauliflower, potatoes, and root vegetables
• Make one of those trendy Golden Lattes
• Blend into a chicken or vegetable soup
• In Mahi Mahi with Stewed Spiced Peaches (community recipe)
• Pairs well with: Cinnamon Verum, Wild Mountain Cumin, Cloud Forest Cardamom

SOURCING

This turmeric is grown organically, hand-harvested, cleaned, steamed, sun-dried and ground fresh. It's irrigated primarily using rainwater, which helps reduce the farm's water consumption, while the water-saving techniques intensify the turmeric's flavor.

Burlap & Barrel's partner farm allows the turmeric to go through a curing process in the soil before harvesting. The skin tightens and turns glossy, and the flavor concentrates and sweetens. This turmeric is particularly sweet - Burlap & Barrel doesn't know exactly why, maybe because it grows alongside (and crop-rotated with) sugarcane, but they think this curing step also helps avoid the bitter, chalky off-flavors in low-quality turmeric and make it so sweet and buttery.

To grind his turmeric into powder, their partner farmer drives 2 hours each way by tractor. There are other grinding facilities closer to home, but they have smaller, less-effective motors and use metal grinding mechanisms, which heat the turmeric and shed microscopic metal fragments as they grind. He prefers the more powerful motor and the stone grinder at this facility to make an especially fine, soft turmeric powder, and the stone grinding plates help keep the turmeric from heating up through the friction of the grinding process. Since it's a shared facility in an area with lots of non-organic turmeric farms, he scrubs down the grinder AND discards the first ~100lbs of his turmeric to prevent any contamination from pesticides or other chemical residues in his final product. The care he takes at every step of the process is one of the reasons his turmeric is so exceptional.

Meet the Farmer: This turmeric is grown by Dr. Salunkhe, a naturopathic and Ayurvedic doctor, a doctor of pharmacology, a disciplined Yogi, a community leader, a passionate organic agriculture advocate. About 15 years ago, he realized that the connections between poor health and nutrition extended all the way back to farming practices, and he decided to focus his scientific expertise on agriculture. He is deeply, overwhelmingly passionate about his farm and his crops.

Recently, they got to visit his farm, where he told them that his neighbors have laughed at him and dismissed his insistence on organic methods and regenerative techniques for years, but that since Burlap & Barrel have been buying his turmeric (at almost 10x the going price for commodity turmeric) they've started to change their minds. The fact that theu made the long trip to visit the farm and meet him in person was especially meaningful, both for him personally but also for his campaign to show his neighbors the value of organic farming.