Frankly speaking we did not take any special effort to grow these.
Some of the things that we have are:
Ginger, Curry leaves , Mint, chillie, tomato, ladies finger, beans (chowli).
We had some excess Ginger so we buried a small piece (about an inch). Within 6 weeks it yielded about half a kilo of Ginger.
It was actually growing in our curry leaves pot so I had to remove it w/o damamging the roots of the curry leaves.
Pudina (mint) is something we always have in our garden, and when it grows in excess we have pudina chutney.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQbSmEKcLgXuGjmWImuaVo-cr2V2XKb-Bzyf7PjD3XyqK59sF4fR0Jvxg8fzWGYT6rqLRj5yrTzyHoDEu9E4GtmIS06686eyspgoDJwVAnJVHhcJBSNoqwijwy-rdg9OYbEH5fx2K-2Ls/s400/17.jpg)
The procedure is simple.
Wash and dry the pudina leaves and mix it with grated coconut, small onions and garlic. Wrap it in Banana leaf and heat it over a pan. Once cooled, grind the whole thing in a mixer. Delicious and healthy.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFXH6xxrl46cIpkuNFCTA0mvzK1rV36ojI8kKs3uTL_YJ59vx5h8VOnR474NnwUcBf05I3hBQgA_CTHRTd6m1SWx3TrEXKMFIH4ev0_QgEmBIMbtx8aPymnudDt3xkEovgm-gM1ZpZDGs/s400/mint3.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHPROqCA0I0-LpoBnFFTlRZSjCORp4rL_MK12kU_BGmu3LLx5mxd2FQsTmnbZhH4oDvzCDCE0QIUo1eSnhkmpj432OsQIj-4oYhMDjlqPw0ZM-btcwAb9qvqzdPmgjVJn-Pk9NDtNLxBc/s400/mint4.jpg)
Oh yes then there is a papaya tree growing in a sack !! Not that we are expecting to see papayas hanging there one day, but its nice to see a tree making a humble effort to grow like a normal tree. The tree helped me in giving our son a quick practical lesson that the stem of a papaya tree is hollow, absolutely hollow (something he did not know) You can use it as a pipette or as a snorkel. (simple information like these are always handy)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-xOKzddtjrbjE9AdqBxdDC9ccVDujapNNR4FBwReNDe8lBDD12kZOBB8RrQUxttWj_JvTWcreoAn38JsXj1H3IspbtDUW_lTiEw2e7sdLhKUXWlZgmd4djJQFHkA7fuJeQMno_i6WejY/s400/papaya.jpg)
Vanilla (a creeper) is growing wildly and unless it is pollinated manually it will not yield the pods. So we just allow it to grow like a decorative plant.
Tulsi (Basil) is another medicinal plant that we always have and I add a few leaves while brewing my morning tea.
Curry leaves is the one which baffles me. It neither grows nor dies. I think it does not like the idea of growing in a pot. (they need lots of soil I suppose)
Once upon a time we had these round chillies which when ripe, was good for tadka.
Talking of chillies, the world's spiciest chilli, Bhut Jolokia is grown in Nagaland / Shillong.
It is interesting to note how the spiciness is measured.
It seems Scoville Scale is used to measure the ‘hotness’ of a chilli.
Originally, a solution of the pepper extract is diluted in sugared water until the heat could no longer be recognised by a group of five tasters. It was the degree of dilution needed that designated its place on the Scoville Scale.
For example, a sweet pepper has no capsaicin and therefore no detectable heat even when undiluted, resulting in a Scoville Heat Unit (SHU) rating of zero. The fearsome Bhut Jolokia, on the other hand, had an SHU rating of 1,001,304
No wonder it costs 400 rupees per kilo.