Derived from the rhizomes of Curcuma longa and responsible for giving curry its yellow color, turmeric is much more than just an agricultural commodity in the Caribbean with its plethora of medicinal, culinary, spiritual and economic uses many consider it to be the Caribbean’s spice of life.
Sunday 2 May 2021
Ibu Kemi with a basket of assorted breads at Namdevco Farmers Market, Queen s Park Savannah, Port of Spain. - Photo by Vidya Thurab
Ibu Kemi believes in the healing power of bread.
Kemi, bakes bread with unusual ingredients like carailli, squash and sweet potato, ginger and turmeric or pimento and celery leaf, because she says these ingredients have healing powers.
For Kemi, baking bread is a way to connect to her ancestors’ natural way of eating and her own spirituality.
“The recipes just come to my mind,” she says. “I am a healer, and I work with water. Water is energy.”