Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Has anyone grown or tasted Amaranthus, collectively known as amaranth or pigweed? What does it taste like?



From what I understand this plant is good as a grain crop and the leaves are good for greens too.

I grew some in soil last year. Germinated well and grew pretty fast. Would have been a rather lovely plant (I had some red stuff growing and some golden stuff growing) except the caterpillars really did a number on it and would have required twice weekly spraying with BT to keep them at bay. The few leaves I tasted were not impressive but probably fine in a mixed salad. The types I grew had incredibly small seeds and I found it nearly impossible to winnow.

It seems like it should make a really good crop but I don't know the best way to utilize it efficiently enough to make it worth while. Truth is, that is about how I feel about most grain crops, need to find some good resources to explain how small scale growers are to deal with them.

Not a bad plant. Good for fodder and the seeds are small but there is a lot of them. Stir fry and salads.

known as marogo in south africa,a very popular food product with black south africans
Sow-spring to summer
grows best-sun
days to harvest-30-45 days
height-90cm
temps-21-29c
germination-7 days

recipe from sanile my ap right hand man
boil leaves for 15 min in water then drain
fry in fish oil with onion,garlic and spices for 5min

theres lots of species and cultivars

best one for greens IME id the round white leaf variety
luckily it can be had off the seedrack of any chinese grocer

its very tasty and stays tender even when mature

i suspect the fish might like it too as its very nutritious.

http://www.evergreenseeds.com/whiteleaf.html



this is the one to get if you want to eat amaranth
in my humble opinion

Amaranth does have oxalic acid though so dont eat pounds of it everday
and like spinach, if you eat lots then combine it with other foods rich in calcium (Dairy, Peanuts, Fish with bones, Egg, broccoli etc) to neutralise oxalates

Thanks for the info. I am going to try a few of these. I found a large seed variety. I don't plant on eating the greens unless I had to. Even though the seeds a small I think the over all productivity will be better than wheat. I tried spet wheat this last year. They can be popped like pop corn too..

the grain types are quite productive

ive got one called 'alegria'
i got excellent yield in the veggie garden

easily winnowed grain
pops easily

but, if it spills in the gravel like it can spill in the soil
you will have lots of baby amaranth!

I have a separate system for growing test crops so if it goes wild its no problem. Im also hoping that its more resistant to disease and bugs because its a crop not grown commercially very often.

Nutrients in 100 Grams of Amaranth

Unit Amount % More
of In Than
Nutrient Measure Amaranth Wheat

Food energy KCal: 374.000 114
Protein Gms: 14.450 115
Total lipid (fat) Gms: 6.510 423
Total saturated fat Gms: 1.662 618
Ttl monounsaturated fat Gms: 1.433 717
Ttl polyunsaturated fat Gms: 2.891 461
Total dietary fiber Gms: 15.200 121
Ascorbic acid Mg : 4.200 Infinite
Riboflavin Mg : 0.208 181
Folacin Mcg: 49.000 129
Potassium Mg : 366.000 101
Calcium Mg : 153.000 528
Phosphorus Mg : 455.000 158
Magnesium Mg : 266.000 211
Iron Mg : 7.590 238
Zinc Mg : 3.180 120
Copper Mg : 0.777 179
Palmitic acid (16:0) Gms: 1.284 549
Oleic acid (18:1) Gms: 1.433 746
Linoleic acid (18:2/n6) Gms: 2.834 472
Phytosterols Mg : 24.000 Infinite
Histidine Gms: 0.389 136
Isoleucine Gms: 0.582 127
Leucine Gms: 0.879 103
Lysine Gms: 0.747 223
Methionine Gms: 0.226 112
Threonine Gms: 0.558 153
Tryptophan Gms: 0.181 113
Valine Gms: 0.679 122
Arginine Gms: 1.060 178
Alanine Gms: 0.799 176

crops are a funny thing
sometimes a weed in one crop evolves to become the new crop!
they reckon rice might have started life as a Taro field weed

Well Amaranth is a 'weed' of Corn and soybeans
aka Redshank amaranthus = Amaranthus caudatus

to the mexican indians its another crop among the corn, along with wild chilli peppers, Tomatillos, chia and other tilled field plants.
But they all breed up pests
so just because its not the actual crop theres still lots of bugs out there on the wild amaranth you might have to contend with
but it regrows so easily if you cut off and feed all damaged and infested parts to the fish , the stumps will regrow healthy leaves and stems in a few weeks and hopefully you break the life cycle.
and i havent seen any pests of the grain anyway.. only leaf eaters.

so Dan
i got my amaranthus from here
heirloom seeds from reservations and Indian communities
http://www.nativeseeds.org/
they have a good amaranthus selection
http://www.nativeseeds.org/catalog/inde ... e6644b8853
theres a pic of my alegria top of the list

great list of so many other crops. well worth 20 mins to peruse the catalogue. many unique listings. Id love some of their maize buts its far too expensive to bring cerelas and pulses through quarantine.

or you could get a commercial amaranth variety, they do exist now

I have been thinking of the commercial variety, like Plainsman, but I want a variety that can reproduce the same thing from one year to the next, not a hybrid that breaks down the next year.

they are an outcrossing field crop
in that sense they are all hybrids
but if rogued well then the variety should be pretty uniform

but you wontget that f2 breakdown like you do in hybrid veggies
it would be prohibitive to make hybrid seed like they do with tomatoes and corn
its a different level of hybrid

landraces would be out then, because they have great natural variability
you prob do want a commercial variety like plainsman
from a reputable source. Maybe a USDA seedbank?

DDM, I don't understand your table. Does amaranth have 374 kcal and wheat 115, or does amaranth have 374% more kcal than wheat, which has 115?