Are we acquiring
Skills and knowledge
So that we could survive
Without an income?
Robyn
Home January’s Challenge: BE TIDY
My job today: tidy up the desktop on my computer. It is covered with all manner of busyness - hiding a lovely photo of a pink flowering gum.
Garden AMARANTH
I can't remember where I first read about amaranth - a highly nutritious plant whose gluten-free and easily digested grain can be used in baking or can be popped; and whose leaves, which are best cooked with the water discarded because of the high nitrates and oxalic acid, are also edible. In China and Japan, leaf amaranth is a regular cooked vegetable.
I sourced some seeds on the internet, and grew seedlings of Blood Lies Bleeding, Amaranth Grain, and Mekong Red. At present in our garden, there are many self-seeded Mekong Red Amaranth -strong healthy plants, over a metre high, not requiring watering or tending. Our amaranth plants are not being attacked by the resident grasshoppers, and they are a very good survival food.
I haven't yet harvested any grain which at this time is growing well, but we do frequently eat the leaves, added to a vegetable, meat or fish dish generally towards the end of cooking. I am about to start steaming the leaves as a green vegetable, discarding the water. Recently I made a Shepherd's Pie, and layered some amaranth leaves on top of the meat under the mashed potato. The meal was very tasty and would have been highly nutritious.
I have learned to recognise the wild amaranth that grows all over Australia as a weed - but it is an edible weed with 20% protein in its leaves along with many nutrients, and if I was ever lost in the bush, I could safely eat these leaves.
It is hard to safely sun-dry foods in our humid climate as they can go mouldy, but if I lived in a temperate climate, I would probably try drying some amaranth leaves to be used as a protein source in cooked vegetable dishes.
Amaranth has been cultivated as a grain for 8,000 years. The yield of grain amaranth is comparable to rice or maize. It was a staple food of the Aztecs, and was used as an integral part of Aztec religious ceremonies. The cultivation of amaranth was banned by the conquistadores upon their conquest of the Aztec nation. Because the plant has continued to grow as a weed since that time, its genetic base has been largely maintained. Research on grain amaranth began in the US in the 1970s. By the end of the 1970s, a few thousand acres were being cultivated. Grain amaranth is also grown as a food crop in limited amounts in Mexico, where it is used to make a candy called alegría (Spanish for happiness) at festival times. Amaranth species that are still used as a grain are: Amaranthus caudatus, Amaranthus cruentus, and Amaranthus hypochondriacus. The grain is popped and mixed with honey. In Maharashtra state of
Amaranth grain can also be used
to extract amaranth oil - a particularly valued pressed seed oil with many commercial uses.
Raw amaranth grain, however, isn't edible and can not be
digested. Amaranth grain must
be prepared and cooked like other grains.
Amaranth from its start as a
plant has literally a worldwide population currently where there are varieties
for greens, varieties for grain, combinations and even ornamentals. Amaranthus retroflexus, or pigweed, is a
wild amaranth species in the United
States. The name derives from the plant's tendency to sprout where hogs are
pasture fed. Although both the leaves
and seeds are edible, pigweed has not been cultivated as a food crop.
The virtue of amaranth is in
light soils, it will produce food under
harsh and lackluster nutrient conditions much like grain sorghum. It is a very
efficient grain crop.
The protein
is of an unusually high quality, according to Educational Concerns For Hunger Organization (ECHO). The
actual nutritional value of amaranth as human food is less than would be
expected from raw amaranth grain data. According to ECHO, this is due to
anti-nutritional factors in raw amaranth grain; examples of anti-nutritional
factors present in amaranth include oxalates, nitrates, saponins and phenolic
compounds. Cooking methods such as
boiling amaranth in water and then discarding the water may reduce its toxic
effects.
Amaranth grain is particularly
high in lysine,
an amino acid that is low in other grains. Amaranth grain is deficient in
essential amino acids such as leucine and threonine - both of which are present in wheat germ. Amaranth grain is free of gluten, which
is important for people with gluten allergies.
From Wikipedia, the
free encyclopedia
May our gardens bless us with survival foods.
from Robyn
Robin in a flowering gum
Painted by Brenda, Robyn’s mum
