I’ve wanted to grow quinoa for a year or two now. Last season I broadcast a fair bit of grocery store quinoa around the property, primarily areas of bare earth. I sowed then neglected. For my trivial physical effort followed by obsessive fretting over the crops I had already made up my mind to neglect, I got good germination (meaning tolerable predation as seeds) followed by stalling, disappearance, and death.
This year I actually got some quinoa seed, including a breeder’s mix. I still plan to use grocery store quinoa as it’s so much cheaper. I will try where things are already growing though, including into areas I know will become lambsquarter patches. I harvested and cooked lambsquarter seed for the first time last season - - it wasn’t bad. I’m under the impression that most modern crops would benefit from a fresh infusion of wild genes, and since I already “grow” the wild relative in question for wildlife and soil benefit and as food, this seems it might be an easy one to do.
I harvested lambsquarter seed heads last year thinking seeds would be more like quinoa but mine very different-- tiny and black, and I didn’t try eating them. What did your seed look like? Did you process them to remove any bitterness? Love to hear more!
They were tiny and black . I don’t remember how I processed them after bringing them inside - - usually with quinoa I just treat it like rice. For me that means I wash it three times and use the wash water for compost or plants. So maybe I soaked them and washed them or maybe I just washed them. Whatever the case, I think I cooked them longer than I cook quinoa I did not cook them long enough - - they still had more crunch than I like in something wearing a cooked grain hat. I am not sure if they eventually get soft or how long this takes. They tasted good, and I felt good after eating them and they gave me no trouble
I need to find a better way to harvest though…my way left lots of seed on the ground. I just ran my thumb and forefinger along each seed spike and into a bowl, sometimes with a little rolling. I clumsily and lazily winnowed them using a traditional African method I am not qualified to do (pouring one bowl held high into a bowl on the ground). I lost still more seed this way. At this point I figured I didn’t want to try hard to convince my wife to try it and that the chaff still in there was extra fiber, so I didn’t spend any more time trying to clean up the modest remaining yield.
The harvest and processing took me little time and effort but the results left something to be desired. Minimally this year I’ll winnow somewhere I’d like lambsquarters to be rather than an existing patch.
I don’t know how to describe how many plants and what size, but I harvested and processed less than a cup of still chaffy seed in maybe ten minutes? I easily spilled half in harvest or processing
I did grow quinoa last summer, out of a 5grams paket from a seed company.
half of the seeds I sowed in the soil but quickly I realized I could not distinguish them from lambsquarter so I stopped weeding this patch and sowed the rest of quinoa seeds in buckets in the greenhouse and planted them elsewhere, only when they were well developped to make sure I would recognize.
both patches grew well including the one mixed with lambsquarter and I harvested both.
700 grams in total, the best ratio I ever harvested.
So, reading you #hasbean, I realize I may have some crosses in the jar… but I would have to sow all of the 700 grams if I want to make sure I get them growing , won’t I ? Since I also collected some other varieties from grocery stores, that’s going to be a lot … need to get organized for that!
for harvest, I cut the branches (early september, before the first rains) and suspend them up side down for a few weeks. Then I brush them between hands on a very dry day ( in october). then I winnow them with the wind, on a very dry day, too.
If the 700 grams is undifferentiated from both patches, seems that way unless you know a way to ask the seeds.
I could help a little with the planting if you wanted to see if a swap makes sense. I don’t have a ton of the quinoa grex and that sounds much more interesting than supplemental planting from the grocery store.
My lambs quarters up here is still dropping tons of seed, it falls on top of the new snow pretty much every snowfall. I wonder if cutting it would cause it to release all its seed at once? It’s definitely very very dead.
That crossed seed sounds potentially very exciting. Lambs quarters grows so well here. Where did you get that breeders mix, @H.B ? It might be fun to try that cross with my local lambs quarters.
Still another option you might have already considered but which only just occurred to me is to plant lambsquarter seed from your quinoa/lambsquarter patch.
If you didn’t harvest it or it’s otherwise gone, it seems not unreasonable to me to think at least some self-seeded, and that of those some may have crossed.
that is a good idea! I will let this patch unweeded during season and let any chenopodiacea grow as they like.
Unfortunately, I did not harvest the lambsquarter seeds. Didn’t even know they were edible.
Inspired further by what @isabelle already did last season, I went ahead and broadcast some of the EFN quinoa into last year’s lambsquarter stubble, then cut down last year’s straw and lay it on top (messily of course). I used most of my seed. I don’t know what luck I’ll have with this method but I went ahead and ordered a second batch of seed, one packet each of the breeder’s mix and kaslala.
I’ll be getting some grocery quinoa for planting soon too - - that I need to see in person to feel I can make a good choice. The quinoa we’ve had recently does fine for eating, but I’ve seen Aldi, Kroger, and I think even Walmart quinoas with much more apparent vitality
I didn’t get any quinoa seed last season, so that has become my main quinoa-related goal this season. I don’t even know what a mature quinoa plant looks like, but in the very unlikely event I can’t tell the difference from the lambsquarters I’ll just look for seeds that aren’t tiny and black when mature (I’m not asking for quinoa pictures, though feel free if they are from your place)
I am curious, off-hand, if common Lambsquarter isn’t a better candidate to cross
with Atriplex hortensis and is co-relations? I am fairly certain they share several close genetic possibilities (?) and they are both favored (at least in my little world) with their leaves.
Perhaps I am missing the forest for the trees in trying to mix the Lamby bits with quinoa and its delectable fluffy nuggets. I’m all ears
if anyone can broaden and educate this pov.
Both orach and lambsquarters grow here, apparently orach naturalized on my friend’s driveway, so I will be growing both this year. I’ll keep an eye out!
. I don’t remember how I processed them after bringing them inside - - usually with quinoa I just treat it like rice. For me that means I wash it three times and use the wash water for compost or plants. So maybe I soaked them and washed them or maybe I just washed them. Whatever the case, I think I cooked them longer than I cook quinoa I did not cook them long enough - - they still had more crunch than I like in something wearing a cooked grain hat. I am not sure if they eventually get soft or how long this takes. They tasted good, and I felt good after eating them and they gave me no trouble
