When a turmeric plant fell into Liz Griffiths’ hands six years ago she never imagined she’d become hooked on the golden powder.

This vibrant backyard grower in Telarah is now on her way to setting up a processing plant that will deal with her own crop and others that are organically grown. 

Ms Griffiths has three varieties of turmeric – Cape York, dark orange and giant yellow – and harvests them once a year. 

She processes it by hand – a task that is so rigorous and lengthy that every year she questions why she puts herself through it. 

But her love of turmeric always wins. 

“The peeling process on 12 kilograms takes 7.5 hours,” she said. 

“I was given the turmeric just before I moved to Maitland and I didn’t know what to do with it, and then it started to shoot, so I thought I’d better pop it in the ground and save its life.

“So I popped it in the ground and the next thing I knew I had 25 kilograms of it in the backyard.

“Lots of people now are growing it in their backyards.” 

The crop has to be cleaned, cured, peeled, dried and milled before it becomes a free-flowing powder like the ones available in stores.

Once the husk is removed the weight of the crop drastically drops.

“Out of 12 kilograms I get about 2 kilograms of product,” she said.

Ms Griffiths said some imported turmeric still had some of the husks intact and they had been sprayed to camouflage them. 

“Overseas they respray the product with a dye made from turmeric to get a better colour because they don’t always get all of the husk off the outer layer,” she said. 

“When you get the entire outer layer off you get the most pure colour – this very vibrant, beautiful product.

“It’s a very fiddly job, but it’s worth the effort.”

Ms Griffiths heavily researched processing requirements to ensure her turmeric was a high quality product. 

“There were very particular requirements from the Indian government and they’re the ones I adhere to because I figure they are the most knowledgeable about this,” she said. 

She mainly uses the powder herself and gives it to friends and family, although she has dabbled in selling a bit of it. 

She said it’s like a weed in the garden – it takes care of itself and is impossible to kill. 

“People on my very special Christmas list get a gift of this highly-prized gold powdered turmeric and they love it,” she said. 

“It’s got a lot of beautiful properties, it’s such a pure product.

“I love the backyard phase and now I’m stepping up to another level.”