Are you exhausted? Politics, climate change, wildfires, air quality, hurricanes, racism, inequities, economics, environmental injustice, threats to democracy, social injustice, COVID. It is important to stay engaged in these important matters. To stay engaged over time, sometimes we just need to take a break. Recharge. Sometimes I recharge in my garden. Smelling the soil and fragrant herbs, viewing the green leaves and colorful blossoms, feeling the sun on my face, understanding the mutualistic relationships of all that is living.
I have been growing a garden for most of my adult life. It started when I lived in an apartment complex. Of several vegetables I grew there, I was most known for the corn I grew in pots on a very small patio. The other residents referred to me as “the corn lady.”
When I was looking for a single-family unit to rent for me, my teenage son, and a home-based business, I found one with a large ungroomed yard. The weeds were thigh-high. While I viewed the property along with other potential renters, I asked the property manager about the yard. With a side-long glance, she firmly replied that they were not going to do anything with the yard. It seemed she had been asked this question before, but apparently not for the same reasons. When I asked if I could grow a garden, her side-long glance turned wide-eyed as she replied affirmatively. I am certain my enthusiasm in caring for the yard was why she chose to rent to me.
I have since grown vegetable gardens in the yards of other rental homes. Each time the owner sells the house and requires that I move on, I start again. This last time landed me in my mother’s home.
For the past 3 seasons, I have been working to rehabilitate my mother’s garden. When I began, the dirt lay barren. It was hard impacted clay. Not even weeds would grow. We aren’t sure exactly how it became so dead, but it surely started with a broken sprinkler system followed by a subsequent lack of water. I don’t remember how long it has laid barren, but it has been a while.
With my husband’s help, we plowed the clay. I worked in amendment and manure. My efforts did not produce vegetables in that first season, however. The weeds came back first. Glorious weeds! Signs of life!
I continued to work the soil, adding composted kitchen scraps, manure, and organic matter. The next season I managed to raise some vegetables, but none thrived. There was no harvest. Nevertheless, it was progress!
I continued to coax the soil back to life. Over this past winter I grew cover crops (barley, buckwheat and fava) and turned them in before going to seed. This season I also began using vermiculture (a fancy word for a worm bin) and added 2 raised beds to the garden.
Among the plants that yielded a harvest this year was Amaranth. I have explored other ancient grains in the kitchen, but not Amaranth. What is an “ancient grain?” This term refers to cereals and pseudo-cereals that are similar to the grains used thousands of years ago. While a cereal (a monocot) is a grass, a pseudo-cereal (a dicot) is not. Amaranth is a pseudo-cereal.
Amaranth was grown by Mayans, Incans, and Aztecs1, 2 and used for food, medicine, and religious ceremony by these cultures.3, 4, 5 Amaranth cultivation halted with the arrival of the Conquistadors who banned its use.4 Cultivation of Amaranth has recently revived and is currently grown for its leaves and seeds in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
I hadn’t expected this crop to be so robust. In fact, I knew little about Amaranth cultivation and planting it was a bit of a whim. While working one day as a volunteer on a local urban farm, the coordinator mentioned briefly in passing that Amaranth was growing in one of the beds. I am not certain why they were growing it because I don’t think they harvested it. Perhaps it was grown for its beautiful red plume or perhaps they didn’t intend to grow it. Some species are considered a weed. Nevertheless, an Amaranth seed had been planted in my brain. On my next trip to the nursery, I happened across seeds for Amaranth. Wouldn’t it be interesting to try growing this gluten free grain?! Coincidence or fate, who knows. I had no idea what I was getting into.
The genus, Amaranth, has 60-70 different species, most of which are edible.2, 4, 6, 7 Most of the research I found on edible Amaranth uses the A. cruentus, A. hypochondriacus, A. caudatus, and A. tricolor species to study nutrition and health benefits. I grew A. caudatus in the garden this year.
A hearty plant, it grows throughout the year in a variety of environments, in poor soil, and under drought conditions. Perfect! It is best to avoid growing Amaranth crops in soil exposed to chemical fertilization8 or near roadsides because these are sources of heavy metals in the soil and these metals, especially cadmium, can be absorbed by the Amaranth plant.6, 9 Acid conditions promote heavy metal absorption.8, 9 Using chicken manure to raise pH10 and harvesting leaves less frequently11 may inhibit cadmium uptake by the Amaranth roots.9
Amaranth leaves and seeds offer a lot of nutritional value. Amaranth leaves offer a host of phytochemicals to reduce free radicals and inhibit inflammation. Too many to mention them all, one that stands out is the flavanol Rutin.12 In a review of the literature, Ganeshpurkar and colleagues suggest Rutin has antioxidant, anticarcinogenic, anti-depressant, and anti-arthritic properties while protecting neurons, the heart, and blood vessels, among other health benefits.13 Rutin levels increase with age in Amaranth leaves.12
I did use some Amaranth leaves in my salads this season, but I was most interested in harvesting the seeds. Amaranth has fat and starch levels similar to Quinoa.14 Though Amaranth has a high glycemic index,2 it is high in fiber4, 14, 15 and many micronutrients such as several B vitamins,2, 3, 12 vitamin E,3, 4, 12 as well as vitamin C 2, 3 and carotenoids.12 Amaranth is high in many minerals including Potassium, Copper, and Manganese,12, 14 and is higher in Zinc, Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphorus, and Iron than Quinoa and some of the other grains.14
The Amaranth seeds are best known for being gluten free1, 12, 14, 16, 17 and high in protein.1, 12, 14, 15 While most cereals are low in the essential amino acids lycine and methionine,15, 18 Amaranth is high in these amino acids.1, 2, 4, 15
What struck me most about growing this hardy plant was its unusual flower. Standing 4 to 5 feet in height, bright crimson floral tentacles drape, sometimes touching the ground. Within these crimson plumes lie the plant’s gold: the seeds. As the hue intensity fades on the flower, the seeds mature.
I harvested the seeds in the middle of the night when high winds woke me from a sound sleep. This was the night that dry lightening brought a sea of forest fires to the bay area. I heard the howling winds and, knowing the seeds were ready for harvest, I did not want to lose seeds to the wind.
After harvest comes the labor. The seeds must be extracted from the flower and separated from the chafe. I massaged the flower to loosen the seeds. Then I blew gently on the seeds which sent the chafe floating into the air. It was a messy, but fun process. I further cleaned the seeds using two different sieves. The wider mesh sieve allowed the seeds to fall through, separating out larger debris. The smaller mesh sieve did not allow the seeds to fall through, separating out fine dirt.
One aspect that I found exciting about this hardy plant is that it seems to thrive in adverse conditions. Climate change threatens farming and food security.21 Not only do severe weather events such as drought and floods threaten crop yield, but increased atmospheric carbon from climate change threatens nutrient quality of crops. Increased carbon in the atmosphere may decrease protein, zinc, and iron, among other nutrients in many widely consumed foods.19, 21 One study investigating the nutritional effect of drought stress on Amaranth leaves found that while zinc and iron levels decreased with extreme drought stress, protein levels actually increased.20 Fiber and many phytochemicals increased with drought stress as well, while carbohydrate and fat levels decreased in this study.20
I wanted to make a clever analogy using Amaranth cultivation to describe life: as soil influences Amaranth’s absorption of heavy metals so does a negative environment influence our absorbing negativity; or as Amaranth thrives in diverse environments, so do we thrive with diversity. I realize no clever analogy needs to be made, however. It is enough to feel the warmth of the sun as I dig in the soil, to bask in the view of this beautiful red plume and the other garden plants, and to be present in this garden world. It is enough simply to dwell in the garden and recharge.
Sources:
1Montoya-Rodriguez, A., Milan-Carrillo, J., Reyes-Moreno, C., & Gonzalez de Mejia, E. (2015). Characterization of peptides found in unprocessed and extruded Amaranth (Amaranthus hypochondriacus) pepsin/pancreatin hydrosylates. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 16:8536-8554. doi:10.3390/ijms16048536
2Castelato-Sousa, V.M., & Amaya-Farfan, J. (2012). State of knowledge on amaranth grain: A comprehensive review. Journal of Food Science. 77(4):R93-R104.
3Campos, D., Chirinos, R., Ranilla L.G., & Pedreschi, R. (2018). Chapter Eight: Bioactive potential of Andean fruits, seeds, and tubers. Advances in Food and Nutrition Research. 84:287-343. doi:10.1016/bs.afnr.2017.12.005
4Galan, M.G., Drago, S.R., Armada, M., & Jose, R.G. (2013). Iron, zinc, and calcium dialyzability from extruded product based on whole grain amaranth (Amaranthus caudatus and Amranthus cruentus) and Amaranthus/Zea mays blends. International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition. 64(4):502-507. doi:10.3109/09637486.2012.753038
5Schroter, D., Neugart, S., Schreiner, M., Grune, T., Rohn, S., & Ott, C. (2019). Amaranth’s 2-Caffeoylisocitric Acid—An Anti-Inflammatory Caffeic Acid Derivative That Impairs NF-κB Signaling in LPS-Challenged RAW 264.7 Macrophages. Nutrients. 11:571. doi:10.3390/nu11030571
6 Aguilar, E.G., Cantarelli, M.A., Marchevsky, E.J., Escudero, N.L., & Camina, J.M. (2013). Study and determination of As, Cr, and Pb in Amaranth seeds. Journal of Chemistry. 2013:198391. doi:10.1155/2013/138391
7Sarker, U & Oba, S. (2019). Antioxidant constituents of three selected red and green color Amaranthus leafy vegetable. Scientific Reports. 9:18233. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-52033-8
8International Cadmium Association. (n.d.). Level of Cadmium in the Environment. Retrieved from https://www.cadmium.org/environment/level-of-cadmium-in-the-environment
9Atayese, M.O., Eigbadon, A.I., Oluwa, K.A., & Adesodun, J.K. (2008). Heavy metal contamination of Amaranthus grown along major highways in Lagos, Nigeria. African Crop Science Journal. 16(4):225-235. doi: 10.4314/acsj.v16i4.54390
10 Liu, Y., Xu, Y., Huang, Q., Qin, X., Zhao, L., Liang, X., Wang, L., Sun, Y. (2019). Effects of chicken manure application on cadmium and arsenic accumulation in rice grains under different water conditions [abstract]. Environmental Science and Pollution Research. 26: 30847–30856. Doi: 10.1007/s11356-019-06271-y
11 Li, N., Guo, B., Li, H., Feng, R., & Ding, Y. (2016). Effects of double harvesting on heavy metal uptake by six forage species and the potential for phytoextraction in field [abstract]. Pedosphere. 26(5):717-724. doi:10.1016/s1002-0160(15)60082-0
12 Karamac, M., Gai, F., Longato, E., Meineri, G., Janiak, M.A., Amarowicz, R., & Peiretti, P.G. (2019). Antioxidant activity and phenolic composition of amaranth (Amaranthus caudatus) during plant growth. Antioxidants. 8(6):173 doi:10.3390/antiox8060173
13 Ganeshpurkar, A., & Saluja, A.K. (2017). The pharmacological potential of rutin. Saudi Pharmaceutical Journal. 25:149-164. doi:10.1016/j.jsps.2016.04.025
14 Nascimento, A.C., Mota, C., Coelho, I., Gueifao, S., Santos, M., Matos, A.S., Gimenez, A., Lobo, M., Samman, N., & Castanheira, I. (2014). Characterisation of nutrient profile of quinoa (Chenoodium quinoa), amaranth (Amaranthus caudatus), and purple corn (Zea mays L.) consumed in the North of Argentina: Proximates, minerals, and trace elements. Food Chemistry. 148:420-426. doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2013.09.155
15 Vilcacundo, R., Martinez-Villaluenga, C., Mirallez, B., & Hernandez-Ledesma, B. (2018). Release of mulifunctional peptides from kiwicha (Amaranthus caudatus) protein under in vitro gatrointestinal digestion. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. 99(3):1225-1232. doi:10.1002/jsfa.9294
16 Jo, H.J., Chung, K.H., Yoon, J.A., Lee, K.J., Song, B.C., & An, J.H. (2015). Radical scavenging activities of tannin extracted from Amaranth (Amaranthus caudatus L). J Microbiol Biotechnol. 25(6), 795–802. doi:10.4014/jmb.1409.09088
17 Zevallos, V.F., Raker, V., Tenzer, F., Jimenez-Calvente, C., Ashfaq-Khan, M., Russel, N., Pickert, G., Schild, H., Steinbrink, K., & Schuppan, D. (2017). Nutritional wheat amylase-trypsin inhibitors promote intestinal inflammation via activation of myeloid cells. Gastroenterology. 152:1100-1113. doi:10.1053/j.gastro.2016.12.006
18American Society for Nutrition. (2011). Protein Complementation. March 22. Retrieved from https://nutrition.org/protein-complementation/
19Beach, R.H., Sulser, T.B., Crimmins, A., Cenacchi, N., Cole J., Fukagawa, N.K., Mason-D’Croz, D., Myers, S., Sarofim, M.C., Smith, M., & Ziska, L.H. (2019). Combining the effects of atmospheric carbon dioxide on protein, iron, and zinc availability and projected climate change on global diets: a modelling study. Lancet Planet Health. 3:e307-e317. doi: 10.1016/S2542-5196(19)30094-4.
20 Sarker, U., & Oba, S. (2018). Drought stress enhances nutritional and bioactive compounds phenolic acids and antioxidant capacity of Amaranthus leafy vegetable. BMC Plant Biology. 18:258. doi:10.1186/s12870-018-1484-121 21Columbia University Earth Institute. (2018). How Climate Change Will Alter Our Food. July 25. Retrieved from https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2018/07/25/climate-change-food-agriculture/
Last Updated 10/8/20
