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Post by paquebot on Sept 13, 2010 22:30:44 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? Black-seeded types may have smaller seeds? A friend grows mchicha for eating the plant and those seeds are dark and plentiful but tiny. Under the best growing conditions, I'm certain that some huge plants may have a half pound of seeds. It also grows very fast. If temperature is high enough, germination is in 2 days. The plants are ready to eat in 21 days. 10 days later, plants are too tough and everything pulled to start the next crop. This year, planting dates were 2 June, 2 July, and 2 August. Martin
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Post by ottawagardener on Sept 14, 2010 8:34:35 GMT -5
Garnetmouth: This is my understanding that the light coloured types were more typically the seed varieties though some leaf varieties have golden coloured seeds. Maybe these are dual use types?
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Post by ottawagardener on Sept 14, 2010 8:40:25 GMT -5
Long Island Seed Project lists the typical species used for both types: www.liseed.org/amaranth.htmlNote that in the 'grain' part, they have both colours. I take it these are grain varieties because they produce high quantities of seed. I knew if I searched long enough, I'd find reference to why: Salt Spring Seed "Black-seeded varieties of amaranth stay quite gritty when cooked, so it is best to use these varieties just for their leaves. All the golden and light-colored amaranths I've tried are excellent cooked as whole grains and all have delectable greens." www.saltspringseeds.com/scoop/powerfood.htm
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Post by garnetmoth on Sept 14, 2010 10:47:11 GMT -5
:-) Thanks Telsing!
Hey Martin, how much crossing do you get with wild types? we have leafy green wild type around here (our kept rabbits LOVE it and lambsquarters, so Im not super vigilant about making sure it doesnt seed)
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Post by woodsygardener on Sept 14, 2010 21:48:50 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? More gritty. BTW Callaloo is offered by Baker Creek. It is grown for its leaves and gives its name to a delicious Caribbean stew made famous by a Jimmy Buffett song. It might be considered a dual purpose variety tho as the seeds are the blond, flat, grain type.
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Post by paquebot on Sept 15, 2010 0:15:23 GMT -5
:-) Thanks Telsing! Hey Martin, how much crossing do you get with wild types? we have leafy green wild type around here (our kept rabbits LOVE it and lambsquarters, so Im not super vigilant about making sure it doesnt seed) This is the third year with mchicha and we haven't seen any crossing yet. The only wild one we have is the normal pigweed. Mchicha has yellow-green leaves and any feral plant is spotted in a hurry. If it crossed with the weed type, might be easier to spot in the garden. Martin
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Post by nuts on Sept 15, 2010 16:16:52 GMT -5
ok, thanks for the information,the experiences and all the comments and the compliments. I'm zooming in,pushing the macro capabilities of my camera to the extreme limits. (in fact,cheating a bit,I just cut out the details from the best macrofoto) Coming with the treshing experiences later on.
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Post by ottawagardener on Sept 19, 2010 17:28:29 GMT -5
Cool pictures.
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Post by nuts on Oct 6, 2010 17:40:05 GMT -5
So I did harvest and clean the seed. When the chicken started to eat it I thought I better harvest I cut off all the sidestems leaving the mainstem I dried it in the sun in a plate and in crates with plastic on the bottom. Then i crushed it and pushed it through a sieve for masonry sand. Then through a coarser kichen sieve Then let it fall in front of a ventilator. After two times kitchensieve and two times ventilator it was not completely clean but good enough for me.If you repeat the cleaning a few times it will be completely clean. Maybe by crushing I put some stem debris with it,but you know,I'm a greedy type,I want to have all of it. ;D I had about 700 gram from about 30 plants,that's not even 25 g per plant,not spectacular,but if you can have 10 plants like this a square meter it would be very good. I weighed 100 grains on my 10 euro scale from hongkong,precision 0.01 gram! 0.08 gram for 100 grains means 1250 grains/gram And to finish my story a scientific/culinary experiment:it popped well! If you put on a hot surface it springs around like fleas! On the left you see the amount of grain that gave the popped grains in the right glass.
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Post by ottawagardener on Oct 6, 2010 21:31:08 GMT -5
Very nice and useful photos. I especially like the super closeup of the popped amaranth
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Post by atash on Oct 7, 2010 12:41:59 GMT -5
Chickens love Amaranth.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Oct 7, 2010 17:54:38 GMT -5
Just curious... How bad of a weed problem is amaranth? Or more specifically, once you have grown it how prolifically does it send up volunteer seedlings the next year?
Regards, Joseph
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Post by garnetmoth on Oct 7, 2010 18:25:15 GMT -5
Great photos Nuts: so tell me, how does the popped grain taste?
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Post by nuts on Oct 8, 2010 17:13:19 GMT -5
Joseph,this is the first year I cultivate it,next year I'll know more about it. It is a problem for chemical weeding methods,but I don't expect it to be a problem,anyway not worse then the many invasive plants I have in my garden. Gametmoth, it tasted very roasty, a good smell,It's different then popcorn,but I don't have the talent to describe taste,maybe somewhat 'nuttyer' ,anyway,I liked it. I'm just asking myself what you could prepare with it.Work for creative cooks!
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Post by wildseed57 on Oct 12, 2010 12:44:07 GMT -5
This year I grew a couple plants that were a type from a Grain variety, for some reason they decided to out grow themselves which put them pretty close to fifteen feet tall. The soil that they grew in was fairly depleted as I didn't have the cash to add any fertilizer although I did add some rotted cattle feed and composted wood chips and a good amount of Charcoaled wood that I was able to get . Anyway they out grew everything and had started to produce flower heads two weeks ago, so I said the heck with it and cut them down as we are due to have our first frost in another week or so. I have grown both types and use the seeds for grinding into a type of flour for my Kitchen sink bread that I make, which helps to keep my blood sugar under control. I find that the black seeds have a slightly bitter taste compared to the lighter colored varieties of seeds, i have not used the seeds for a cooked cereal or tried to pop them. I do cook the young shoots and leaves as a spinach substitute which is very high in iron and calcium. I feel that its quite a useful plant and it need to be grown more, the whole plant makes a high quality animal feed too. George W.
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