Amaranth: The Immortal Grain // Plants for Every Homestead
O amaranth, so precious you are! I've known you for some time now, but just now am falling on my knees in love with you.
I've eaten your wild leaves in the north, eaten your seeds puffed in Mexico, stewed you at home and have been watching you a grow a while now in our gardens. Such a fantastic plant you are!
Known in Nahuatl as the immortal grain, in Greek as one who never wilts and by NASA as the food of the future. When will we humans ally with you more fully?
Last year I planted a few golden amaranth plants (Amaranthus cruentus) from a neighbor's dusty seed stock. Didn't do anything other than put them into earth. Seeing the resulting plants thrive in nearly bone dry soil and scorching sun was impressive.
(Amaranth greens at the beginning of the season, ravaged by insects. The other photos you see are the completely recovered plants!)
This year the seed stock that birds scattered took advantage of our digging efforts and volunteered in many locations. It was hit heavy by insects in early life, but today as the flowers bloom, I have so much gratitude for such a rugged plant. Seeing the rich golden heads inspires me. What sustenance, messages and medicines do you hold?
What shall we do with these luscious protein rich seeds? Winnow for our food? Pop it, stew it, brew with it, use as chicken feed?
(Winnowing the dried amaranth we grew. We saved the seeds for soups, popping and I added it to salsas I put away for winter)
Quinoa gets a lot of press, but amaranth seems shy comparatively. Both boast a complete protein profile, but Amaranth is much richer in calcium and does not have the soapy seed coating that quinoa does. It was cultivated as one of the four staple crops in pre columbian meso America, along with corn, beans and chia. It was/Is also grown for seed in India and the world over as a green vegetable, sometimes know a caliloo.
(Drying in the sun to prepare for winnowing)
In Mexico it carries a sordid history involving the Spanish criminalizing the cultivation of amaranth, at times resorting to killing indigenous growers. Thanks to many brave seed warriors, the crop was cultivated in remote mountain villages in Oaxaca and Chiapas and northern Guatemala and remains today as a food crop.
Today I celebrate you great Amaranth! Thank you for your strong spirit and reminding me to persevere through adversity.
Summer's harvest.
Written over the summer in the "heat" of the moment ;)
We believe Amaranth is a crop for every homestead! Naturalizes easily ;)
(You probably have a weed relative already there, pigweed, which sometimes has thorns!)
What a beautiful post on Amaranth! I didn't know amaranth has such a rich and interesting history. Always learning new things here :). Thank you for taking your time to make this post and dedicating your gratitude and good intentions to amaranth and all the gifts it shares with us.
I love amaranth as well and admire how quickly they volunteer everywhere in our gardens, bringing in birds and beneficial insects, adding color and beauty to the garden with their red, pink, and golden plumes, and offering such abundant sustenance. I especially enjoy thinning them when they are young and eating them in salads and stir fries too!
Thank you!
I love what you say about amaranth: you clearly have a relationship with it and know its benefits! The more of us that do, and can speak encouragingly for others to grow these plants That Are Easy to Grow, the faster amaranth can take root as a well known crop here (#permaculturevisions) ;) XO
Good point! I like the idea of being allies to plants as they are to us!
This is glorious! I used to buy amaranth and allowed to fall by the way. I wonder if I could plant some in my 'back 40' - which is the L-shaped back'yard' of a patio home in Arizona...hot, dry. But I love the beauty of the plant! No wonder the wise ones cultivated it. More to investigate! Thank you.
I think amaranth would definitely succeed in your "back 40"! It's a drought tolerant species that's grown in a lot of dry and hot climates with success! <3 Thanks for your comment <3
I"m going to explore. THANKS!
I remember a teacher of my online PDC report, that he was planting millet (that I guess is similar to amaranth?) randomly in his garden, to attrackt birds. They would leave their droppings, eat some insects on the way and leave other crops alone, that would be endangered to be "attacked" as well. He took it to a level, that he called millet a nitrogenfixer becaue of the ammount of nitrogen rich droppings, the birds would leave :).
Here is the video:
Yes! I LOVE THAT! Fantastic point! And i love the spin on it being a nitrogen fixer. haha!
we had some millet in our bird feeder that the birds dropped around the property and it came up too. I think your permaculture teacher is onto something - Of course, sunflowers will also really attract them in, too (and so many more things). Love the layers of interconnection and benefits.
You are so right @mountainjewel. I was just reminded about what Dwarakanath Jnaneswar said about millet, because the seeds are so similar to me.
i fell in love with the look of amaranth several summers ago (love-lies-bleeding, specifically) and when i found out the seeds were edible, i got extra excited! i got a small amount once and they just didn't go anywhere, but they also may have drowned in the rainy springs we have here. i am definitely going to try them again once we designate a space for grains/seeds.
Ah yes, I love that cultivar! Such beautiful fuchsia color! They are pretty easy to grow if you get some seeds to take and then if you let those go to seed and let the birds carry them where they will, you won't have to worry about next year's crop ;) (what happened for us!). Good luck!
seed saving is a big goal of mine for this year - one, to prove that i can do it (LOL) and two, to save a little cash. i've gotten really successful at saving coriander seeds; it's one of my favourites!!
I'v never tasted amaranth. Can you relate it to any other flavors, textures or aromas? Quite curious I am.😲. Thanks for the read and pic's @mountainjewel!
Hey @hopfarmnc, have you ever tried quinoa? It's very similar in texture and taste, but much smaller!
It has a nutty grain flavor (hard to explain lol!) and because it's so small, it can be difficult to cook it like you would rice or something. That's why we love to add it to soups or other dishes. It has a mucilaginous seed coat that is a good thickener. You can also "pop" it like corn. In Mexico the puffed amaranth is everywhere, but alas hard to find in the states!
Sorry I have not tried quinoa. I am going to be ordering seeds soon. You wouldn't happen to recommend a web sit where I can get some Amaranth ?
Hmm, we got given some from a neighbor. Baker creek heirloom seeds has many options. I also like high mowing seeds.
Sweet! Thank you!!
I’ve been meaning to grow Amaranth for a while now. This year I’m committing to growing more staple crops to attempt to make a large dent in our food needs. What type of yields did you experience? I’ve heard up to a pound a plant, but that seems like it may be exaggerated.
We didn't measure the amount, and our method of winnowing was very inefficient. We need to learn to do that better. From about 2x the amount of plants you see in the pictures, we got about 2 quarts worth of amaranth. So it's definitely not on par with staple foods yet, but it was empowering and got me thinking of its potential as a staple crop if grown/harvested with more intention. All of these plants were volunteers from last year, so that says something about it's potential to be an awesome staple crop!
It's really cool to eat it in soups and sauces (as a thickener and nutty flavor) knowing that we grew this awesome source of protein. Do you grow any staple crops at this point? I would say potatoes and sweet potatoes are our qualifiers.
We eat amaranth semi-regularly. Less now than before. Oats, rice and quinoa are our main staples and we buy them in bulk. I'm hoping to replace rice with the amaranth and quinoa that we grow. But it'll take a few years of learning and expanding or growing space.
I've grow potatoes, dry beans, and field corn in the past. I haven't grown any grains as of yet, but I'll be doing much more beans, amaranth, and quinoa this year. It's one of my goals to track my yields, I'll be posting on all of that as the season progresses.
Amaranth! We've grown a few different varieties out here. Boy do they proliferate! You only need to plant it once. We planted a few different varieties we'd gotten from Baker Creek the first year we moved here, then it nearly took over the entire garden. Every year I have to keep it tamed back, every year we have WAY more than we need, but it's not a bad problem to have! We originally planted it as a trap crop for Cucumber beetles and other pests and it worked really well. We've also been playing around with flax.
Hahah sounds about right! That's how it is here, too. Personally, I love it coming back again and again! Great idea about using it as a trap plant - obvs from that overeaten leaf pic above bugs love it!
What are you findings with flax? We grew some our first summer, but didn't really harvest it and it didn't self sow.
The flax was beautiful the first year we planted it, did very well and is pretty hardy, drought resistant. Our garden plot is blasted with all-day sun, they never wilted. It ended up self-sowing, but, I didn't encourage it as much as I should have. I think this season, I'll re-focus on the flax. You can use flax for just about anything from flour to fiber!! (But I know you know that!)
Beautiful plant, yes a relative of quinoa and also lambs quarter. The story of the murderous colonialists and how they destroyed these amazing plants to subjugate others is truly one to be told.
agreed! it also ties into our present world circumstances of the GMO pushers making farmers buy their seeds and so many farmers committing suicides because of it. Where there is seed freedom, people flourish.
Freaking thanks alot! Now i have to spend the next few weeks researching this plant and seeing if i want to grow it. Post some recipes for us?
Haha!! yeah it's really easy to grow- what could be better for a tasty and nutritious food! I'll post a recipe when we make something with it :) good idea!
I might be growing this this next year.... just hope that dad will eat it lol
Very interesting thanks for sharing.
thanks @tedgoodwin!