Curry leaves

Post date: 25-Apr-2019 06:50:46

Curry leaves

I use curry leaves in just about every curry i make, so it makes sense to grow my own. I got my first plant about 20 years ago and have had it in a pot ever since. Over the years, it has survived a few house moves and produced a few babies.

Back in Fiji, curry leaves grow as small evergreen trees, but my plant is about 2m high and goes dormant over the winter. Come warm weather, they sprout new leaves and produce small green berries that first take on a pinkish hue and then turn black and finally shrivel up into seeds. These berries are apparently also edible, though growing up in Fiji, i’ve not known of anyone consuming the berries, probably because the seeds are TOXIC.

While I haven’t tried growing new plants from seeds myself, my plant has self-seeded and reproduced quite a few plants within its pot, so i imagine it’s quite easy to grow these from seed and probably why it has been classified as a weed by the Brisbane City Council - https://weeds.brisbane.qld.gov.au/weeds/curry-leaf-tree

A source of vitamins and minerals such as A, B, B2, C, iron and calcium, its benefits and uses are many (just search the web), including its use in Ayurvedic medicine. Up till now, I have only used curry leaves in cooking, but I think it may be time to explore some of its other purported benefits.

Curry leaves