The Quinoa Thread

[Smiles Jr.]

Where do you get this stuff? And what's the difference between Amaranth and Quinoa?

 

[sparkles2307]

I thought Amaranth and Quinoa were the same thing. I thought Quinoa was the name of the grain that came from an Amaranth plant....
No?
I have several packs of amaranth to plant... I hope its the same thing cause I plan on us and the chooks eating it!

 

[wifezilla]

They are not the same thing. Here is an article on amaranth and quinoa...
http://www.saltspringseeds.com/scoop/powerfood.htm

As for where to get them, I found seeds at my local Vitamin Cottage for rainbow quinoa and burgundy amaranth. I ordered golden giant amaranth from Baker Creek. I found Love-Lies-Bleeding (amaranth) and the Joseph's Coat (amaranth) at the local farm store (Big R), but they were in with the ornamentals. They are totally edible but most people treat them like a flowers and have no idea they are food.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

i'm so excited! i ordered orange giant amaranth and quinoa kaslala from baker creek. i want to feed it to my goats.

 

[April Manier]

The picture sold me!

I never even thought of growing it and I love it! Thanks for the inspiration.

Can I just plant what I get in the store?

 

[wifezilla]

It would be worth a try. It is also a good way to make sure you actually LIKE quinoa or amaranth.

Go to your closest hippy-infested health food store and pick up 1/2 pound or so. Make a batch for eating and try to see if a small amount will sprout. Because quinoa has to be soaked before it is dried and sold as a grain substitute, I am not sure if it can still germinate after that. I suspect you might have better luck with the amaranth because it isn't treated, just dried.

It is still worth while to try both. I am going to soak some bagged quinoa later today to see what happens. I got it in the bulk food section at Vitamin Cottage.

 

[April Manier]

let me know what happens.

 

[MuranoFarms]

I'm planting these also! From what I understand the quinoa has a coating on it that you need to clean off before you cook/eat it. However.......this keeps the wild birds from picking the plants clean!

 

[wifezilla]

Yes, without that coating you would end up with bare plants around here

 

[FarmerDenise]

I don't think quinoa would grow well in my area, so I haven't tried to grow it. I did grow amaranth last year. I used the grains I bought at the health food store. It grew into nice tall plants and all the critters liked the greens. Goats, rabbit and chickens. I snuck some into our salads too.
We ended up with trouble getting it to dry for storage and it got moldy. So I ended up having to toss most of it in the compost. I think the chickens eventually got into it.
I will try again this year.