Quinoa

[hoodat]

With the high price of quinoa it is a good idea to grow your own seed. Quinoa is easily grown in most parts of the country. It is a tall columnar plant that can get to 5 feet or more depending on the variety. Separating out the chaff was a problem which I solved by hunting out colanders with varying size holes. Start with the larger holes the seeds can fall right through. This gets out the coarse chaff. The second colander should have holes the seed barely gets through. The third should be fine enough to retain the seed but allow fine chaff to fall through. The dust fine chaff that remains can be gotten out by pouring it slowly onto a sheet when there is a light breeze blowing to blow the fine chaff away. Wear a dust mask when doing this. The dust can be irritating. Cut the seed heads off as they ripen. All of the seed does not ripen at the same time so you harvest each seed cluster as it ripens. Just before the seeds ripen the leaves of the plant will turn a brilliant orange. The color is so vibrant it hurts your eyes to look at close up in bright sun. It is really beautiful at this stage so if you have no room in your vegetable garden it can be grown in a flower bed. No native American pest seems to like it and I have never seen any fungal or virus disease in it. It likes fertile well drained soil and is fairly drought resistant once established but will do better if regularly watered lightly. When the seed is harvested don't be in a hurry to start winnowing. Let the seed heads dry in a place out of the weather like a garage till they are brittle. then crush with your hands and roll them around to get the seed loose from the stems. Quinoa has a coating of saponin (a natural soap) to protect itself so birds and insects will not eat it. This saponin must be thoroughly washed off before eating it or it will be bitter. Most of the quinoa you buy will be already washed. Don't try to plant the washed quinoa. It begins the sprouting stage after just a few minutes of washing so after re-drying it will no longer grow.
There are quite a few varieties out there mostly divided by altitude and size. Probably the most adaptable is Rocky Mountain which was intended to grow at moderately high altitude but will adapt to grow almost anywhere. After growing and saving seed for a few harvests I have a strain of it going that does well at low altitudes. I am only about 40 feet above sea level.
Because of the drought here in California I have left most of my garden to go dormant so I have an excess of seed gathered in 2013 that has been vacuum packed so it will almost certainly be viable. If anyone wants some to plant send me your address and I will get some off to you. Quinoa seed does not start well in warm soil. It is best planted as early in Spring as you can or even late Winter when the ground is cool but not frozen. Once it gets a foot or so high it can take very hot temperatures with no harm. Quinoa is a large plant so it needs room. Crowding it too much will make for small plants with les seed. I give each plant at least a foot between other plants and 14 inches is even better.
As a final note I should give credit to Marshall (Or maybe the sasquach kids ) , who sent me the starter seed
and advice to get me going.

 

[digitS']

@marshallsmyth will be pleased. I'm trying another of his tomatoes and will be planting a few varieties of his beans, soon .

Hoodat, aren't you someone who told us about quinoa's cousin, Epazote?

I've been eating several servings of orache over the last few weeks. It's far ahead of the common weed, lambsquarters.

Steve

 

[hoodat]

Oh yes. Epazote, the herb that takes the blow out of beans and makes them more digestible. I don't have to plant it any more. It just comes up on its own every year. I let a couple of plants mature and pull the rest. Who would expect that a plant that smells like kerosene and turpentine would add flavor to beans? The smell and taste disappear with cooking, leaving only tastier beans.

 

[PhilaGardener]

That sounds like a wonderful variety - food for the eyes too! Thanks for offering to share!

 

[hoodat]

The only orache I have ever grown was the red variety which is used in Japan to give a red color to fermented pickles and soup.

 

[PhilaGardener]

That is interesting - I was transplanting some red orach today for the first time and was surprised to see it even is red through the roots!

 

[hoodat]

It is sometimes used as a dye for cloth.

 

[so lucky]

I found a little plant of epazote at the farmers market last week, and bought it, thinking I should have gotten some seed from you last year, thinking now we would never hear from you again. When I got home, I saw that there was a message on the forum from you.