Amaranth Is An All-Purpose Food Plant
Amaranthus is an unusual genus with over 50 distinct species.
It comprises a collection of plants grown for ornamental value, with many of these suitable for growing for food, as well.
It is considered a pseudo-grain, because it is not related to true grains in the grass family, such as wheat, corn, barley, and oats, yet amaranth is prepared the same way a grain is prepared and it is ground-up for flour the same way a grain is ground-up for flour.
Most people know amaranths only as flowers, like the popular "love lies bleeding," with its unusual, elongated flowers that droop down.
But the flowers are not the large, drooping branches, they are actually the thousands of tiny blossoms covering the flowering branches.
Amaranth varieties vary in height from under a foot to over 6-feet high.
Their leaves are either green or reddish, lance-shaped or rounded.
They also have a wide variety of shapes and sizes of unusual, everlasting flowers, that produce thousands of seeds.
They are often grown just for their dried flower heads, which are popular in crafts and dried floral arrangements.
The flower heads, which come in a variety of shapes, keep their color for years without fading.
Amaranth produces so many seeds that it is virtually guaranteed to self-seed somewhere in your garden.
A staple crop of the Incas and Aztecs, the varieties these ancient cultures grew are the very same varieties of amaranth (Amaranthus caudatus, A.
cruentus, and A.
hypochondriacus) still grown as food crops today.
Native to tropical America, India, and Africa, amaranth is a multi-purpose food plant.
Its leaves can be eaten raw in salads or cooked like spinach, and its seeds can be eaten like a grain, ground into flour, or "popped" like corn.
Amaranth has a more complete protein than true grains.
It provides better, more complete nutrition for humans than so-called "true" grains.
It is tolerant of hot, dry weather, and can be grown as a green during the hottest part of the summer.
Harvest its leaves while they are still small for use as a summer green, when they are still the sweetest and tastiest.
There are currently four species of amaranth that are commonly cultivated for use as greens, including: A.
cruentus, A.
blitum, A.
dubius, and A.
tricolor.
Although these varieties are much more popular and widely grown in Asia, it cannot be denied that their popularity in the west is increasing.
Amaranth is an ancient plant species as important to humans today as it was in ancient times.
Copyright Sharon Sweeny, 2011
It comprises a collection of plants grown for ornamental value, with many of these suitable for growing for food, as well.
It is considered a pseudo-grain, because it is not related to true grains in the grass family, such as wheat, corn, barley, and oats, yet amaranth is prepared the same way a grain is prepared and it is ground-up for flour the same way a grain is ground-up for flour.
Most people know amaranths only as flowers, like the popular "love lies bleeding," with its unusual, elongated flowers that droop down.
But the flowers are not the large, drooping branches, they are actually the thousands of tiny blossoms covering the flowering branches.
Amaranth varieties vary in height from under a foot to over 6-feet high.
Their leaves are either green or reddish, lance-shaped or rounded.
They also have a wide variety of shapes and sizes of unusual, everlasting flowers, that produce thousands of seeds.
They are often grown just for their dried flower heads, which are popular in crafts and dried floral arrangements.
The flower heads, which come in a variety of shapes, keep their color for years without fading.
Amaranth produces so many seeds that it is virtually guaranteed to self-seed somewhere in your garden.
A staple crop of the Incas and Aztecs, the varieties these ancient cultures grew are the very same varieties of amaranth (Amaranthus caudatus, A.
cruentus, and A.
hypochondriacus) still grown as food crops today.
Native to tropical America, India, and Africa, amaranth is a multi-purpose food plant.
Its leaves can be eaten raw in salads or cooked like spinach, and its seeds can be eaten like a grain, ground into flour, or "popped" like corn.
Amaranth has a more complete protein than true grains.
It provides better, more complete nutrition for humans than so-called "true" grains.
It is tolerant of hot, dry weather, and can be grown as a green during the hottest part of the summer.
Harvest its leaves while they are still small for use as a summer green, when they are still the sweetest and tastiest.
There are currently four species of amaranth that are commonly cultivated for use as greens, including: A.
cruentus, A.
blitum, A.
dubius, and A.
tricolor.
Although these varieties are much more popular and widely grown in Asia, it cannot be denied that their popularity in the west is increasing.
Amaranth is an ancient plant species as important to humans today as it was in ancient times.
Copyright Sharon Sweeny, 2011