The Quest for Quinoa

I've been keeping an eye on the quinoa plants I've grown from seeds here at Struan Farm. Over the past few weeks they developed clusters or heads, which gradually started to turn yellow and orange.

At this point I realised that I had no idea what to do, when to do it, or how to do it! I've never grown or harvested any sort of grain before, let alone an ancient one.

So I rang Stella at Running Brook Seeds, who'd sold me the seeds at the Clevedon Farmers Market, and asked for advice. She asked me how long they'd been growing and what they looked like. Apparently they were ready for harvest, I was meant to cut them and lay them out on newspaper for several weeks now to dry.

Once dry, I should be able to shake the stems out to get lots of quinoa. It will need to be soaked for at least 30 minutes before cooking.

Here are the plants drying out in the garage. The clusters are now turning more orange/red:

  

Stella asked me to report back once we've tried our very own quinoa!

Comments

[Kris Founds]

That's pretty awesome. Quinoa was a favorite when I ate grains, although I never even thought of growing it!