Bloodfire Orchards Begins Growing Turmeric Organically
REYNOLDS, TAYLOR COUNTY, GA - NOVEMBER 2022
Heather got excited about growing Turmeric after reading an article in Wiregrass Land & Living magazine (winter 2022 issue) about turmeric farmers in southern Georgia and felt an excitement blossom in her heart. The benefits of growing this crop for a first time, older farmer addressed her major concerns about farming and she had incorportated Turmeric into her health regime back in 2010 when she went thought western medicine’s approach to breast cancer.
“I wanted to do something I deemed worthy of my life and efforts and the more I surrendered to God, the more I felt he was going to turn me into a farmer. What I couldn’t have imagined in February of 2022 is that God would give me my first crop for free and that I would have plants in the ground before the end of the year,” Heather explained.
In October, she attended the Sunbelt Ag Expo in Moultrie, GA and met Dr. Biswas of Ft. Valley State University who was promoting turmeric and stevia as he received a $100k grant to study turmeric from 2019-2021. “I immediately reach out to him and was invited to come to the university to harvest in November as they were recording their growth data and giving the rhizomes to the community, for free,” she said.
It was Thanksgiving week and Heather was harvesting Turmeric plants and learned the cleaning process. With an average weight of 2.5# per plant, she broke rhizomes into 1,350 smaller pieces to plant out from just 13 plants.
“My land wasn’t fully ready for a crop just yet, but with this blessing, I kicked it into high gear and got the land ready within a week,” Heather said. “I had only a fraction of the total 19,460 plants that could fit on one acre of land at 16” spacing, and honestly that felt overwhelming! But when God blesses you, you do what needs to be done and I was very grateful for this and knew that God was doing something and I just had to show up and keep up.”
Heather planted very small pieces to understand expectations on yield and she said that she was trying to stretch this free gift. In the research program, they planted out 5 grams of rhizomes to get root balls that averaged 2.5 pounds each. She also dried 3 pounds, 7.4 ounces of cleaned fresh harvested chunks (crowns and ugly left overs) that yielded 8.9 ounces of powder or 2.25 C. And she also made Jadam Liquid Fertilizer from the cut offs to feed the plants in the spring.
What is super exciting about this annual medicinal plant is how my 2023 harvest can be broken up and multiplied out to fill up my planting areas and as long as the genetics are good and my growing conditions are favorable, I can always continue to keep part of my harvest for replanting. That is God’s work if ever I have seen - that and harvest time is November, not the heat of summer, which is another blessing - just for me,” Heather said.
The plan is to interplant or intercrop Turmeric throughout the orchard among nut trees and elderberries but those are in the germination phase. This turned out to be her first crop so everything else will be laid out around the rainwater design as that gets finalized. She plans to work on that throughout the winter and possibly all of 2023 as she is actively learning about water design. Heather is surveying contour lines, digging swales and doing all the earthworks and tractor work herself.
“Right now it doesn’t look like I have done anything; the rhizomes should send up shoots late April/early May and when I can see the greenery, then I will believe that all this is really happening,” said Heather. “Stay tuned as I will keep my website and social media updated with orchard progress and aerial photos. I also plan to document all orchard development, homemade concoctions for natural farming, and recipes as I try them and use Turmeric more and more.”
ABOUT BLOODFIRE ORCHARDS, LLC
A business owner in Woodstock for over a decade, Heather Fritz runs Bloodfire Studios, LLC, an art studio that specializes in drone, architecture and food imagery. Heather is taking her signature brand and applying it to her new venture of sustainable agriculture. Bloodfire Orchards is located in Taylor County, Georgia. The permaculture-inspired 12 acre orchard will combine nut trees, perennial foods and annual medicinals. For more information, contact Heather@bloodfirestudios.com, 770-Two Five Six-7073, www.BloodfireOrchards.com
