Blooming Amaranth Grain Heads

Amaranth is among the grains written about years ago in, Save Three Lives, A Plan for Famine Prevention by Robert Rodale. Some of my readers may remember that the Rodales published the Organic Gardening Magazine and were champions of all things pure and clean long before organic certification and commercialization of the organic meme happened along. So...that must be 20 years ago now. I became really interested in amaranth because of Rodale's writing and have grown some ever since, although never successfully enough to offer to CSA members as an edible. We thought we'd try something innovative and try sprouting the seeds, and although they do sprout, and they are a beautiful rose color, the sprouted seed isn't all that tasty. Yes, high in protein, but somewhat bitter.

A few of the tiny seeds from that recent experiment landed in the avocado grove, and yesterday I found these plants. They're gorgeous!

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