A plant that is really easy to grow and looks stunning in the garden, Amaranth is one of the ‘new’ grains we can grow and eat without needing ANY technology!

Grown by the Aztecs and Southwest Indians for millennia, the small grain is rich in lysine and the young leaves are high in calcium and iron. Traditionally regarded as a sacred crop and was banned by the Spanish, at which point it almost became extinct. Grain nutritionally complements beans. Higher in protein than milk, contains more iron and calcium than kale, beet, greens, spinach, chard or collards, also contains the amino acid lysine (if you are prone to getting cold sores then you are deficient in LYSINE!), which is missing in wheat, barley and corn. Ideally suited to Bio intensive mini farming where harvests of 7kg/10 sq. meters can be achieved. Drought tolerant, crop that suits low fertility soils, and the stalks remaining after the grain is harvested are super high in carbon so is a great soil building crop.

For more information on how to use amaranth click here

Seed Saving Information

Grain amaranths and leaf amaranths are both mainly wind pollinated although insect pollination is possible. For commercial production of large amounts of grain, 5kms distance may be necessary for seed purity. In a home garden situation be sure to plant your amaranth in beds with several rows close together in blocks to encourage cross pollination between plants and to keep the seed strong. Plant different cultivars 10 meters apart with tall crops in between.

I’ve never seen any crossing in my garden over ten years of growing two varieties each year. To achieve a heavy crop of seed the plants must go in at the same time as your main crop corn. Seed ripens from the bottom of the stem up. It’s easy to tell when to harvest the heads, they change colour from bright and showy to dull. We cover our beds to protect from bird damage. After harvest lay in plastic house to fully dry in our climate, before threshing and winnowing. We plant ours in beds at 30cm diagonal spacing’s which achieves 9 plants per square metre.