The naming of Callaloo and Amaranth

[clumsy]

I never grew enough to get seeds worth cooking with. Different type of seeds. I would say black seeds for leave production, white seeds plants for seed production.

[clumsy]

Maybe next year everything is still up in the air.

[Jang]

I was given eight different amaranth strains to try for comparison this year. They’d all been grown in the London area, mostly on allotments. Two or three were apparently the same, two of the reds and two of the greens. One that I’ve grown myself, as Polish amaranth, from the A4A seed exchange about three years ago was unique in that selection in that it was shorter, finer and more intensely red. One of the greens had a thicker and more branching habit. Otherwise there was a similar growth habit in the other six except that one produced flowers noticeably earlier than the others.

Apart from enjoying the rather lovely flowers, I’m not sure what to do with them now. I love the intense red of the Polish amaranth (in the foreground of the first picture but out of shot in the second) but have enough seeds to grow that again. I guess I could see what mix I might get from allowing free pollination amongst the others and saving the seed.

[Jang]

Thanks for the saag clue.

I have had the impression that amaranth seed is extracted from different strains or species of amaranth.Certainly I haven’t found it easy to get much seed from the amaranth I’ve grown.

Have you,Clumsy, or anyone, had success with harvesting cooking quantities of amaranth seed from your own amaranth?

[jayb]

I did wonder.
I grew fenugreek in the polytunnel several years ago and oh my what a delicious aroma the plants had, worth growing just for that, plus they were growing next to coriander, the combination was just lovely. Sadly I don't much enjoy fenugreek in cooked dishes or at least I haven't learned how to add it in and get the best flavour combinations out.

[triffid]

Hopefully an abundance of greens will help your mum with iron and folate. Are you working on your plot again this autumn or not until next year?

[clumsy]

It won't work the recipe requires the leaves to be fresh. But we do dry fenugreek leaves but thats another plant altogether.

[clumsy]

If you google saag recipes you'll get the idea. The base of the recipe like spices is the same but you can use any green leave's,kale,spinach,swish chard,callaloo/amaranth,mustard,rocket or mix the leaves together if you don't have enough of one type.. Plus you can add chickpeas or potatoes to the recipe. Never tried it when it goes to seed but have used the seeds in biriyani rice 80% rice 20% amaranth seeds. In china they mix the rice and amaranth also.

[jayb]

Would drying the stems and leaves work too?
Perhaps to add in powder form?

[Jang]

It would be great to have some idea of how you might then use it and what other ingredients you might put with it.

Also I’m wondering whether it’s good to use when it has gone to seed, or does it become too tough or bitter?

[clumsy]

Boiling the leaves and stems for freezing to be used in winter. This way it used less space in freezer.

[clumsy]

We cook the amaranth leaves and stem. Never used it in salad, we also cook the rocket leaves as well sometimes eat them raw.

[Galina]

Growing red amaranth this year too. Slugs have decimated our lettuces, but these red amaranth leaves really do fill the gaps in the salad bowl together with rocket and at last the first tomatoes and cucumbers. Glad I sowed some.

[clumsy]

I'll be thinking of growing these next year the blood test shows for my mum she has developed microcytic anaemia plus albuminura. I've asked the plotholder if I could have loads so I could freeze them for winter plus use some fresh.

[jayb]

Such a good thread