harvesting and drying tumeric

[kalianna]

I was shocked to day to find that the little 2$ bag of tumeric I bought at the farmer's market has turned into a 50 lb harvest.  I'm overwhelmed.  I watched several videos and learned a lot, (ie don't boil it first and don't dry it in the oven) but I still have questions.
1)  some of the roots are deep oranger and some are more yellow.  Are the orange roots better?
2)  The videos said to slice it thinly, then dry, then grate.  What about putting it through a food processor before drying?  Wouldn't it dry faster that way?  
3)  I'll keep some fresh for tea, but how much fresh tumeric should I use per cup of tea?  

Thanks for any suggestions.

[terracore]

We just made our first batch of turmeric powder. After harvest we peeled, sliced, dried (food dehydrator), and then ground into a powder with an electric coffee grinder. It was a huge amount of work for a cartoonishly small jar of turmeric powder but it was a fun experience. I think fresh tea or cold slow masticating juicing is the way to go if you want to enjoy it with less effort. The wife makes a tonic with turmeric, ginger, and a few other ingredients. It is potent stuff but I like it.

[kalianna]

Thanks, terracore. I don't have a dehydrator so I'm air drying them and it's going to take aewhile. I'm still curious about the difference between the yellowish corms and the orange ones. There's so much that I can be very picky about what to keep but there doesn't seem to be a clear reason for the difference. I'll just enjoy the tea.

[terracore]

Is the color difference only on the outside? It's not unusual for turmeric to be yellow on the outside and orange on the inside, maybe having something to do with the age?

[kalianna]

The color difference goes all the way through, sometimes a little more orange in the center, but not the bright orange of the other corms. I was also thinking it might be age-related but everything was planted at the same time. And I've noticed that the ones I sliced and are drying lost about half of their color in the first 24 hours.

[kalakoa]

Genus Curcuma has about 100 species, maybe half of which are "turmeric". I grow the "black", which has dark veins on the leaves, when it blooms the flowers have a blue tint.

[bgiles]

Our Olena has purplish-pink flowers and orange corms. So easy to grow, like kitchen ginger; it likes cinder above a little topsoil.