Anyone grown Quinoa?

[HenFriend]

I like to grow something new each year and bought a packet of quinoa seed which I have sown last week. The only thing is it sound a bit fiddly and complicatied to harvest and prepare. The packet says the grains have to be washed to remove the soapy coating, has anyone done this and wwas it successful?

 

[DurhamDuck]

Hi

I like trying something new each year too, that why I tried growing amaranth, a close relative of quinoa, last year. I did not get any good grain out of it (tried, but too hard to harvest) but the flowers were pretty- very heavy, too and needed a tomato cage to avoid flopping over. That said, it was the "Love Lies Bleeding" variety- an ornamental. Maybe if I had gotten a true grain variety I could have gotten a useable edible harvest. I think quinoa is more or less the same.

The trouble with harvesting the grains, for me, was I didn't know if they were ready or not. Did I take them from the live plant, or dry the plant first and shake it out? Then, I had no possible way to separate the seeds from the tiny crumbly little petals. I just gave up.

There are two books that talk about home grain raising. I have not read either, but have heard of them. "Homegrown Whole Grains: Grow, Harvest, and Cook Wheat, Barley, Oats, Rice, Corn and More" includes quinoa. There's also one called "Small-Scale Grain Raising: An Organic Guide to Growing, Processing, and Using Nutritious Whole Grains for Home Gardeners and Local Farmers". I don't know if it mentions quinoa or not, but you could check the library or a bookstore.

Hopefully someone else could be of more help.

 

[HenFriend]

Thanks for your help, I think I'm supposed to wait till the plant goes brown to harvest. Guess I'll have to experiment.

 

[DurhamDuck]

Make sure to post results on the forum when you finally do. I'm interested in hearing how it works out.

 

[HenFriend]

Failure! All my seedlings eaten by slugs!