Turmeric is also a beautiful garden plant here on the Gulf Coast. It has pretty elongated green leaves and has beautiful flower stalks with pretty white flowers with yellow throats. The flowers stay on the plants for weeks. We use the rhizome when we cook Indian food - it adds a beautiful bright yellow color.

we never pickle fresh turmeric we always dry and use the turmeric powder. I'll try as we do with fresh ginger. we grind fresh turmeric and use as face pack
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/paulvj000/TurmericAndGinger?authkey=Gv1sRgCMD3v-T65OTP-QE#

Here is a picture of fresh from a helpful website. It is a rhizome like giner, but smaller as innoabrd says.

http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/ingredients/turmeric.html

looks a bit like a small ginger root. In India the spice shops grind it freshly.

Side note: one of the events leading up to a Hindu wedding is the 'haldi', which is hindi for turmeric. Ladies only (though I got to watch one once) and they all give their blessings to the bride while smearing her face (at first) with some turmeric, which is meant to be good for the skin/complexion. Pretty soon it turned into a proper bun fight with all these nice older ladies in saris throwing handfuls of the stuff at each other!

I bought fresh turmeric (not pickle--but fresh) a while back.Use it anywhere you would use ginger. Good shaved in salads and coleslaws. Cook lentils & slice pickles in those. Other stews also. Watch for stains!