Amaranth –a leaf veggie Ornament

Amaranth plant is generally grown in North America and European regions. It is an edible ornamental

flower. It is very interesting to know that this beautiful decorative flower can be eatable as a vegetable.

It is like grainy plant that grows well. More than 60 different species are observed for the same genus.

The wild Amaranth is known as a ‘Pigweed’. It looks like densely packed flowers generally grown in

autumn.

 

What is the most interesting fact behind the Amaranth?

Amaranth is rich in dietary fiber and also contains dietary minerals which include manganese, iron,

selenium, folate and calcium along with Vitamins A and C. It doesn’t contain gluten which has high

biological value. It is similar to the wheat on quality. The most important thing is it also contains the folic

acid.

 

Favorable conditions for Amaranth growth

It grows well in soil containing equal amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus. It requires five hours of

sunlight per day which can also grow in dry soil too.

 

Harvesting Amaranth

The leaves can be used at anytime and the larger leaves can develop more flavors whereas the smaller

leaves are very tender. The grains of Amaranth can be harvested after allowing the plant to turn as

flower. It also consists of leaves that can be harvested to eat. After the development of flowers,

amaranth flowers grow completely and start dying which turns them brownish. We need to cut the

flowers at that time and place them in paper bags to dry and thresh like wheat over a cloth. As a result

some grains will get released from the plant. Remove chaff and get grains.

 

More about Amaranth

Amaranths are generally mean as ‘does not fade’. Once it was dried the plumes just hold the color and

shape. The ‘Hopi red dye’ is very beautiful red dyes that are better edible part. Hopi Red dye is one of

the varieties in Amaranths. There are heirloom varieties in Amaranth. The seeds of heirloom can be very

useful to plant and we can’t get hybrid varieties from it.

 

Some Handy tips

? Craft the plants a bit early in order to lower the amount of seed and you can also wait until it

turn gold or black.

? It can clearly visualize the plumes.

? Plumes can be dried on stalk

? Shake the plumes and remove seed by separating the chaff,

? Fillers can be attached by hot glue.

 

 

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