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.
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| Author: | DanDMan [ Jun 23rd, '09, 04:08 ] |
| Post subject: | Amaranthus |
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. |
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| Author: | TCLynx [ Jun 23rd, '09, 04:27 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Amaranthus |
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. |
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| Author: | Dufflight [ Jun 23rd, '09, 05:57 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Amaranthus |
Not a bad plant. Good for fodder and the seeds are small but there is a lot of them. Stir fry and salads. |
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| Author: | sa aqua [ Jun 23rd, '09, 15:14 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Amaranthus |
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 |
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| Author: | juicemonkey [ Jun 23rd, '09, 16:35 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Amaranthus |
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. |
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| Author: | juicemonkey [ Jun 23rd, '09, 16:41 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Amaranthus |
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 |
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| Author: | DanDMan [ Jun 24th, '09, 10:22 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Amaranthus |
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.. |
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| Author: | juicemonkey [ Jun 24th, '09, 14:10 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Amaranthus |
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! |
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| Author: | DanDMan [ Jun 24th, '09, 21:02 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Amaranthus |
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. |
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| Author: | DanDMan [ Jun 24th, '09, 21:05 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Amaranthus |
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 |
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| Author: | juicemonkey [ Jun 24th, '09, 21:37 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Amaranthus |
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. |
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| Author: | juicemonkey [ Jun 24th, '09, 21:47 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Amaranthus |
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 |
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| Author: | DanDMan [ Jun 24th, '09, 21:52 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Amaranthus |
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. |
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| Author: | juicemonkey [ Jun 24th, '09, 21:58 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Amaranthus |
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? |
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| Author: | tamo42 [ Jun 25th, '09, 00:05 ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Amaranthus |
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? |
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