My Cardamom is growing so big. I am going to have to take it out of this pot and split it. The leaves smell soooo gooood when touched I will purely enjoy re-potting it. I will have to wait till Spring. Cardamom Does anyone know if this kind of Cardamom will bloom and make seed pods? i really know nothing about it except it grows into a monster.
Now you've really gone and done it, Ware. I'm so jealous that I am beside myself. I absolutely enjoy cooking with cardamom. I like it in tea as well. I have had it in coffee and that isn't too bad either. I wish that I could grow it here.
I use it in Indian dishes. I cook it in with the rest of the spices, meat and veg, santin, cream and so forth.
Sjoerd, I know that. I love Indian dishes also. I was talking about which part of the plant do you use, especially in your tea. Do you use the powdered spice? That is usually ground seed. I can't get mine to bloom to get the seed pods. I was wondering if they use the rhizome or leaves in cooking. Do you know? When i walk into the greenhouse i usually grab a cardamom leaf and crinkle it in my fingers while looking around. Sniffing my way through the visit for my natural high...... :-? it's smells so good.
Oh...meid--I apologize. I use the little pods with the black seeds in them. I also remover the black seeds and pulverize them into a powder and use that. I like to use the green pods best,. One can find brown ones, but I never use those. I use the powdered stuff in plastic bags or little plastic containers for when I run out of the other. When I am making a certain sort of tea, I boil it all up with the seeds still in the pods. I also use the little pods when making Indian meals where I let it cook for several hours. I use the pulverized seeds as an addition for instance when I do not have the time to let my food cook for hours. I do not know why yours will not bloom for you ,as I cannot grow it. My guess would be that perhaps your bush has not matured enough to bloom. But the bottom line is that I simply do not know. I have never seen cardamom leaves in my food at restaurants nor in the lands where they cook this way. It leads me to believe that cardamom leaves are not commonly used in cooking, coffee or tea-making. I agree with you the aromatic aroma of cardamom is just delicious. I imagine that the leaves would smell the same. Just a wonderful smell. I like the flavour as well. I sometimes chew on a little seed just for the heck of it, because I like it so much. This all reminds me that I need some fresh cardamom. The remaining pods that I had have gotten too old now. There is a certain place that I go for this--a sort of "Eastern Market", a bit drive from here. Do you grow your plants outside or in a greenhouse?
So why can't you grow it. Have you ever tried to grow the seeds? I think my plant is over 25 years old, pot bound at the moment and has only been taken out of that pot one time over 10 years age. I will have to transplant it soon. Mine also stays in the greenhouse all year but When I take it out of it's pot, thin it a little, give it now rich soil, it will spend the Summer out side.
Wow, Another cool one! Did you start that from a seed Barb? I really would like to have an atrium off my kitchen for plants. I don't do house plants because they don't do well as house plants during the Winter and I don't have time for them during the Summer, but to have them thrive all year round and be able to enjoy them, especially when there is nothing else growing or going on, would be a wonderful addition...maybe someday....
carolyn keiper No I bought my plant from a garden center many years ago. These plants are in the greenhouse. It is not near my house. I have 3 sets of french doors on the end of our living room. When you look outside you can d=see my greenhouse some 100 feet away. This is it at night from my living room. This is when we lived NJ. We moved the dang thing from there to Pa. That was a fun week. I do have a greenhouse attached to my kitchen but it never got finished. We stopped that project when my daughter got sick 5 years ago. It's frame is there but the glass isn't in yet. It is covered with plastic at the moment. We plan on finishing it in the Spring. This is where we have our hot tub. It's not heated like the greenhouse is. I don't have any plants in there.
I love your greenhouse, Barb. Mine are all just plastic covered, but if I get mine off the Kitchen it will be a glass one....
Both of mine will be glass. The big one is probably 40 years old and single glass so we cover it in 2 layers of plastic on it for the Winter. That's a project to get covered. The one by the house will be glass right now is just has plastic on it so I can use the hot tub. I run a propane heater, when it's very cold, and I go in the hot tub.
Remarkable foto's Ware. Boy, oh boy--what I wouldn't give for such a greenhouse. I cannot grow cardamom here because of the short growing season, too much cool weather and the greenhouse is waaaaay too small to accommodate it and the veg which I like. You know, I wonder if you could stimulate your cardi to flower if you gave it some form of potassium, and/or regular feeding with a sort of comfrey slurry or foliar spray. There ought to be a way to stimulate it, don't you think?
