Garden And Gossip Forums

As part of a seed collection I've bought for next year (from Kokopelli) there are six different varieties of amaranth. I have a variety self-seeding around the garden and leave it for the birds, but it would appear I should be eating it too!

As it is new to me as a vegetable, I wondered if anyone has had any experience of growing and eating it?

By coincidence, I was looking at my odd seeds last night - amaranth, quinoa, callaloo sort of things.
Real seeds sell amaranth https://www.realseeds.co.uk/grains.html
Harvesting info at https://www.realseeds.co.uk/amaranthprocessing.html

I've not grown amaranth but have grown quinoa which is similar. I grew it last year in with the squash and pumpkins with some sweetcorn. It looks very like a large version of fat hen and needed supporting with canes. When cooking, it has a bitter coating that you should wash off first (quinoa at any rate). I give it a good rinse and at the same time get rid of a lot of the chaff that didn't 'winnow' out. I also give a rinse with hot water after cooking to remove any bitterness.

A  picture growing in with the squash
https://gardenandgossip.org///showthread...53#pid8153

Thanks both - looks interesting! They are going to be good looking plants in the veg patch, always a bonus.
To be honest, I was originally thinking of only eating the young leaves and leaving the seeds for the birds, but I'll have to give the seeds a go too, especially as we now it so little meat.
I need to do some more research on which ones are best for seed or leaf harvest and will report back in 2022.

I grew some - several years ago - maybe the same time as VC? Can't remember much about it but I have seed this year for growing for cut flowers? Will look later to see what variety I've got. I be presume it's edible as well but I've chosen for foliage in mind.

Bumping this thread as we're chatting about Amaranth on another one.

Only eat the white amanranth seed. I asked real seeds about this a long time ago and apparently it is only the white seed that is edible.

There seem to be 3 types of Amaranthus - one for grain, one for leaf and one for flowers.
Real seeds sell both Grain https://www.realseeds.co.uk/grains.html and Leaf types. https://www.realseeds.co.uk/cookinggreens.html.
Garden Organic call it Callaloo https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/sites/w...anthus.pdf

Then you have the fancier ones with longer coloured tassels with fancy names like Crimson tassels and Ribbons & Beads.
From a quick look at seed packets - ones called Amaranth are aimed at the edible market whilst Amaranthus are more in the ornamental section. They're also sold by the RSPB to attract finches!
A plant for all reasons.;D

Hmm, that's interesting. I remember growing callaloo once before...but can't remember the result

I'm not sure what I've got this year! Will need to look it up!


#edit:
So I'm growing:
Amaranthus caudatus, 'Coral Fountain"
Another variety called "green thumb"

Also Atriplex hortensis - red orach

The ones I'm growing are -
Blonde, Verte, Mauve, Triple Purple, Blonde d’Auby and Opera
I'm hoping they're all for leaf production production (they are from another of these mixed packs), but if they look pretty and the birds can benefit too, then that's a win!