Does anyone know where I can buy a curry leaf plant? I cook a lot of Indian food which needs fresh leaves. Currently I have only dried ones and they just don’t cut it.
Thanks
Hi there,
Hi,
You can buy the seeds here:
https://www.bloomling.ch/de-CH/tropica-1/currybaum
and grow it yourself. You will need to grow it indoors as the weather is too cold.
Enjoy
Fresh/frozen curry leaves from India are forbidden to be imported in Europe because they carried some fungus (?) which wrecked havoc on the citrus plantations in Europe. I love the smell of fresh curry leaves as well. I found a bottle of curry leaf paste (meant for curry leaf rice) in one of the indian shops (art of food if I recall correctly). It works almost as good as fresh ones (it has some spices obviously, so I wont say its a one for one substitution). I am thinking of ordering a plant from a nursery in Germany, but for now the bottled stuff is working
https://www.kraeuter-und-duftpflanze...yblatt-pflanze
And the dried leaves are just horrid. I might as well put some wood shavings instead.
Seems to vary. My local Indian shop used to have frozen curry leaves which work perfectly well but these stopped a few months ago. However 2 weeks ago they suddenly had fresh curry leaves. Maybe just check a bit at random?
Around 3 years ago, I had also found frozen ones but I dont see them for a long time. I think recently there were some fresh imports from Ghana. In 2018 Dec, the imports from Sri Lanka were stopped due to the citrus greening problems.
I checked with Art of Food in oerlikon a few months ago. They told me that from time to time they get some fresh ones (origin country they didnt know), and the ladies literally lurk around the corner and buy the whole stock within an hour. Maybe there is a curry leaf black market trade going on
There were some plants on sale here:
https://www.englishforum.ch/items-sa...-plants-3.html
Maybe someone who got one is willing to propagate cuttings?
Yesterday I visited Art of Food in Oerlikon and now they have unlimited supply of fresh leaves from Spain. They have been getting that for 4 weeks already. I picked up 4 bags.
Maybe not an imminent solution, but I’ve seen curry plants in Landi (Fribourg) near spring this year and last year. You may want to have a look next spring if you haven’t found an alternative by then.
The situation is bizarre. Indian shops in Lausanne never have them and will tell you they're illegal. Indian shops in Geneva nearly always have them, except when they've run out. Not seen any frozen ones, but I usually freeze the fresh ones when I can get them and that works well.
If anyone is selling one, I would love to buy it...
You may be right. Some Indian friends always manage to acquire a bag full, usually from the back of the shop and never when I am around
Just ordered some seeds, let's see how well they do, will try and do them in hydro culture.
Hello friends,
Even I am looking for curry plant in or around Basel. Can anyone help with leads?
On a related topic, anyone has any leads where I can get Banana leaves in Luzern/Zug
Maybe check with the Yangs Thai kitchen shop guys in metalli? In Zurich HB, new Asia store always imports it.
You can grow banana quite successfully in CH... it wont fruit unless you have it in a greenhouse, but the plant grows during summer and dies off in winter...
Had it three years now, and it keeps coming back - quite pleasant
Side note: I've managed to get a small curry leaf plant growing. Once it's big enough to clone it, I'll do so... here's hoping it is happy
Plenty of people have them in their gardens or on their balconies, and I bet that most of them don''t even have a clue that the leaves are of any culinary use, and end up throwing them into the compost or the trash when they need pruning.
Maybe just ask them if you can have a couple?
Omg, with what will you like to trade a sapling?