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Post by nuts on Sept 8, 2010 15:35:35 GMT -5
I tried some amaranth this year.Seed from kokopelli,variety 'golden giant' grown for the grain.The grain is very small. In theory there can be about a few hundred gram grain /plant.Mine are far away from that.The coditions were not so good,except the plant that grew accidently in the squashes.That one is taking advantage from the compost-watering goodies from the squashes. A patch They are 60-90cm (2' - 3') high When they are ripening the 'things' are hanging down,looks like strange creatures. This is the one(only one plant) in the squashes,I think this might be a good mariage.It's not yet so ripened as the others.
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Post by raymondo on Sept 8, 2010 18:33:15 GMT -5
Are you going to harvest the grain? I've thought about growing it but the small seed puts me off. Much easier to harvest corn!
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Post by stratcat on Sept 8, 2010 22:08:08 GMT -5
Looks real nice, Nuts!
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Post by ottawagardener on Sept 10, 2010 6:58:35 GMT -5
The amaranth sure looks good. A little off topic, but what's your favourite amaranth use?
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Post by nuts on Sept 10, 2010 16:33:46 GMT -5
raymondo,I sure going to harvest the grain.I don't think it's very difficult. I'll keep you informed when it's done. I'll keep my camera at hand.
Ottawa,you're completely on topic. The most important use that's coming to my mind is eating it ;D ;D I read that it can be popped or germinated.Then you put it in the soup,the pizza,the bread or so. Any ideas? And if it all fails,I'm sure the chicken will eat it.
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Post by raymondo on Sept 11, 2010 5:27:59 GMT -5
I've eaten both amaranth and quinoa grain. I prefer amaranth so I look forward to hearing about your threshing experience.
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Post by orflo on Sept 11, 2010 7:11:15 GMT -5
Amaranth isn't really that difficult to thresh and clean up, you need (off course) some good ripe seeds on the plants, cut them and hang them to dry, preferably on a windy spot: Then, take two buckets or something similar, I use some mason's sort of bucket here, and jump on the plants, or use a rubber hammer to thresh them:do this on a fairly windy day, it's better for the clean-up afterwards: The seeds and chaff will fall down (remember, the seeds must be fully ripe) into the bucket Next thing : take the two buckets, and start pouring the amaranth seeds+chaff from one bucket into another, from about 1 meter or 3 feet high, so the wind can blow the tiny and light particles away (adapt the height when there's too much or too little wind) Keep on doing so, it will take some 15 minutes, depending on the wind to clean up a fair amount of seeds. You'll find that some particles will be too big or heavy, and they will end up in the bucket as well. Just shake it a bit, and the smaller, rounder seeds will roll down and these bigger pieces will move up, where they can be easily removed: And in the end you should come up with something like this: You can also use a water method, good seeds will sink to the bottom and all chaff will float. It's a fine method, but you need to dry the seeds really quickly afterwards, and that can take up quite a bit of place or energy . I used a black-seeded variety for the pictures here, I don't remember which one it was, I did note it somewhere, it could have been Chihuahua or Opopeo.
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Post by ottawagardener on Sept 11, 2010 11:43:01 GMT -5
Beautiful instructions.
I was thinking that assuming you had no issue with the foliage, you could store with the chaff and then use the water method just before cooking?
I am looking very forward to growing more amaranth.
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Post by atash on Sept 11, 2010 14:29:54 GMT -5
Thank you for posting the photos, Orflo, that was very helpful.
I have a small amount of grain amaranth from a short, early variety.
I am not sure what to do with it. Yes, you can feed it to chickens, but I think that with relatively high protein levels it's worthwhile to try to figure out ways to feed it to humans.
For those who are not clear why we can't just do whatever the Amarindians did with it, for one thing the less gruesome uses would not be all that palatable to most people nowadays, and furthermore, one typical use involved the use of human blood. Yes, it's true, and the neurotic fairy-tales about vegan pacifists and non-violent ritual flower-warfare do not honor the precolumbian Americans.
George Mateljan who was one of the people who helped re-introduce it ground it into a flour and put it into cookies, which I have not seen in local markets anymore for a long time now. I have not tried grinding it into flour and am not familiar with its baking properties. Despite an invitation on his books and websites to contact his organization, when I did so I was quite curtly told they were not interested in anything I had to say or offer.
For those who are not aware, Amaranth cooks up gooey. Maybe because of associations with mucilaginous substances, most people find that unpleasant. And it's fairly bland. But I do know people who eat it as porridge, and some who say they love it. So, it might be a matter of taste.
Amaranth is a good crop for hot, dryish climates. It does C4 carbon dioxide fixation, and is one of the few dicotyledonous plants that can do that trick. That's why it grows so astonishingly fast in hot weather. It is not xeric and is only moderately drought-tolerant, but it also has a trick whereby it can recover from drought faster than many other plants. If you look for short and early cultivars, you can find varieties that will be ready to harvest before a brief rainy season such as is common in some parts of the dry tropics is over. They also work in places like the upper midwest and Montana where summers are brief but hot.
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Post by ottawagardener on Sept 11, 2010 18:00:19 GMT -5
I have to admit that I am one that doesn't love amaranth that is cooked porridge style but I do like it used as flour or mixed with other things. I'm interested in trying out good grain varieties for short season areas so any recommendations would be appreciated.
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Post by raymondo on Sept 12, 2010 4:39:37 GMT -5
Thanks for the pics and description orflo. I'm more inclined to try now. Does it have to be an amaranth that is specifically for grain? Or can any variety be used for that purpose?
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Post by atash on Sept 12, 2010 19:18:44 GMT -5
Ottowagardener, contact me offline and I will send you some to try after it finishes ripening. Mine are quite short and quite early. The only reason they are not harvested yet is because they were planted out late, and we had a freakishly cold (not even cool, but actually cold) Spring. The seed heads compared to the size of the plant are impressive though. Do you care about color? Most are chartreuse green, and a few are burgundy red. That's the way they came, and that's apparently the way the Amerindians in the highlands of Central America were growing them.
Raymondo, you can eat the seeds of leaf Amaranth, and you can eat the greens of seed Amaranth, but it works better to use them for their specialties. Most grain Amaranths do not have such tender leaves, and most leaf Amaranths don't produce such huge quantities of seed.
The grain Amaranths are mostly from the New World and the leaf Amaranths are from the Old World.
I think we should have an Amaranth baking event. Present your best Amaranth-based baked goods and the recipes for them. The mucilaginous quality of the grain might actually have some benefit, for keeping baked goods moist perhaps.
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Post by raymondo on Sept 13, 2010 4:09:29 GMT -5
Raymondo, you can eat the seeds of leaf Amaranth, and you can eat the greens of seed Amaranth, but it works better to use them for their specialties. Most grain Amaranths do not have such tender leaves, and most leaf Amaranths don't produce such huge quantities of seed. Thanks atash. I'll plant some grain amaranth in that case. ... The mucilaginous quality of the grain might actually have some benefit, for keeping baked goods moist perhaps. I wonder if this property would make it useful for veggie burgers, to hold things together.
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Post by heidihi on Sept 13, 2010 7:30:59 GMT -5
I have only ever eaten the amaranth greens and grow it because it is just beautiful in the garden...and the birds like it...you have me motivated to gather the seeds now ..I actually thought it was too much trouble to gather more than I needed to replant but it looks really simple so what the heck ..thanks I am going to clean my amaranth this year and try to use it as a grain
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Post by garnetmoth on Sept 13, 2010 8:41:58 GMT -5
I thought the beige/white-seeded types are grain types, and the black seeded types tend to be vegetable leaf type-
I cant find it right now, but when I search grain amaranth it shows the beige type. Are the black seeds crunchier? more bitter?
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