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A small scale staple carbohydrate crop suitable for a small garden, delicious and nutritious home grown alternative to rice.
Quinoa, pronounced “keen-wa”, is well known to whole food enthusiasts as a nutritious and delicious alternative to rice, beloved of vegetarians thanks to its high protein content. Yet gardeners are surprised to learn that it is easy to grow plentiful quantities of quinoa in a temperate climate, even on a small plot. The forgotten grain of the Incas is enjoying a renewed, and well deserved, popularity as new varieties are developed which are suitable for cultivation in wetter and colder climates. Advantages of Quinoa Grain in the Small GardenA small amount of seed will grow a great deal of grain, though you must choose the right variety, with loose seed heads, if you are gardening in a temperate climate. Quinoa seeds have a soapy coating of saponins that needs to be washed off before cooking, but this stops birds from eating your crop, making it suitable for cultivation in small gardens where small scale cereal growing normally attracts an immovable flock of pigeons. CultivationGrow just as you would outdoor tomatoes (quinoa is, if anything, more robust than tomatoes).
HarvestingThe seed are ready to harvest when the first seeds may be rubbed easily from the seed heads. Cut the stalk below the seed head and hang bunches of seed heads upside down, under cover, until dry. Extracting the GrainAnd quinoa has another advantage: it is easy to thresh and winnow. Try threshing wheat; you will gain a new found respect for our ancestors who used to separate the stubborn grain from the ear with a simple flail of wood on a hinge of eel-skin. Those were tough guys. In contrast, threshing quinoa is a joy. Beat out the seeds into a bucket, pass through a loose mesh garden sieve and then winnow in the wind to remove bits of dried leaf, etc. Quinoa Preparation before CookingTo remove the soapy coating knows as saponin, soak your quinoa grain in plenty of cold water for several hours. Strain and rinse in a sieve with plenty of cold water. You may wish to repeat this process once again if you find that a soapy flavor remains. Cooking QuinoaCook quinoa as you would rice, simmer for around 15 minutes. Indeed, quinoa makes a delicious alternative to rice with vegetarian or meat based dishes.
The copyright of the article Grow Your Own Quinoa in Kitchen Gardens is owned by Joanne E. Brannan. Permission to republish Grow Your Own Quinoa in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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