Cleaning Amaranth grain

[greltam]

Hello. I grew out some Amaranth this year, and the spiders/bugs really liked the seed heads. After I threshed the seeds from the heads and winnowed, I'm now stuck at how to get all the spider-webs off. Anybody have ideas?

[grunt]

You can probably float them off in water, then dry your seeds again = that's the way to final winnow onion seeds, and it works. A few minutes in water won't do any harm if you dry them again right away.

[spacecase0]

for spider webs, I would pour the grain through a window screen or small hardware cloth, the seeds will go through but the webs should get caught

[12540dumont]

Threshing! Threshing! I made the mistake of setting them on a screen to dry. Now the entire playhouse floor is full of seeds...ARgh!

I guess I just sweep them up? What a mess.

[turtleheart]

winnow with your breath on a cookie sheet. all those silks and dry tissue will fly away. make sure to massage it thoroughly before winnowing. amaranth is easy to winnow once you get the hang of it. all you need is a wide plate.

[greltam]

I did the winnowing by air/breath to begin with, but the spider webs and other sticky debris wouldn't float off. I did the harvest before the amaranth had dried down(I was informed by the web that amaranth would mold otherwise) which might have something to do with it? I had one seed head I never got to because it was so full of spiders, and it seemed to dry to a crisp without problems.

I did the "float the junk off" technique today, and I am very pleased thus far. The seed is probably 99% pure, and the rest just looks like normal seed with discolorations. It still has to dry, and then I can be certain.

[12540dumont]

Amaranth drying...do not try this at home. Screening will not contain the seed.

Attachments:

[12540dumont]

The floor...

Well no one will be eating these this year. But there's plenty of seed for next year.

I think I'll just take it straight back to the filed and sprinkle lightly...

Attachments:

[grunt]

Cut an old sheet to fit the screen next time = works great for very small seed.

[spacecase0]

why not winnow it to get rid of the dust from the floor ?

[12540dumont]

I dunno, the kids have been playing in there, in and out of the fields, chickens near by. And God only knows where kids go. It's the one place they don't have to take off their shoes when inside.

There's a lot of diseases that transmit from farmyard animals to people.

So I pretty much have a rule here at the farm that food needs to be kept separate from animal feces...cat, dog, chicken, sheep, cow, horse, bird. So, farm shoes aren't allowed in the kitchen.

Grain can be washed, dried and made fit for human consumption. Seed is okay to just be set aside and replanted. At the current moment in time, there's still so much harvesting, processing, winnowing to do, it just seems like I should just let it go.

Dan, thanks for the sheet idea. The amaranth seemed pretty damp too me when I brought them from the field. Would a sheet keep them from molding? What about paper?

[grunt]

A cotton sheet should stay as dry as paper would, and should also breathe a bit better. Also, seeds might be less likely to slide around on the cotton than the paper. I routinely bag beans in pillowcases to dry in the greenhouse, if they aren't really wet = I pick them up for 10 or 15 cents each at the local equivalent to Value Village.

[Walk]

We harvest our amaranth as soon as the seeds start to release at which point they are still quite damp and bring them into our screen porch to dry. We strip all of the leaves off right away and break the heads down into smaller side branches, spreading the now reduced size seed heads out on "trays" of a thin polyester cloth (maybe some kind of bridal underskirt material - got it very cheap at Walmart). The cloth is cut in half lengthwise and wide casings are sewn along each long side. We have 2 shelf units (6 shelves high, about 2' wide and 1' deep) that we place about 8' apart facing each other and put 10' EMT conduit between them with the fabric's casings slipped over the EMT. A strategically placed clothespin keeps the EMT in place and the whole thing looks like a six tier, bunk bed hammock. Works great for drying not only our amaranth crop, but the sorghum heads as well, without having to worry about rain or birds.

When the crop is crispy dry, here's how we thresh it: www.geopathfinder.com/ThreshingByHand.pdf
We fan winnow and screen to do the final cleaning.

[12540dumont]

Walk, I love your thresher. I've collected everything but the screen to assemble this. As soon as I find the stainless steel mesh, I'm with you.

My kitchen is a disaster of seeds again. One set out and another comes in.

See, I didn't know about stripping the leaves.

Growing a new crop is always interesting. Once you get through the planting mistakes (too close, too far, too deep, too shallow, too much water, not enough) you can move right on to harvest Faux Pas.

I can hardly wait for the practical use errors!

Can you tell me what you do with your Amaranth and Milo when you get done winnowing it?

[greltam]

Not sure if you mean cooking dumont, but I like popping amaranth on an un-oiled skillet w/lid(little amounts at a time), and using the popped amaranth like cereal with milk, or mixing with syrup/peanut butter/chocolate as a dessert.