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Post by hmoosek on Aug 7, 2022 14:03:21 GMT -6
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Post by chrysanthemum on Aug 7, 2022 20:52:44 GMT -6
Thanks, HMooseK. I’ll look forward to hearing your experience with them.
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Post by hmoosek on Aug 8, 2022 12:48:43 GMT -6
Thanks, HMooseK. I’ll look forward to hearing your experience with them. I ordered plenty, let me know if you want some.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Aug 8, 2022 17:23:50 GMT -6
Thanks, HMooseK. I’ll look forward to hearing your experience with them. I ordered plenty, let me know if you want some. Thank you. I’ll have to take a look at my garden space and see how the seeds I’m starting now do. I just started a whole bunch inside, including leeks and kale. I am really intrigued by that Ethiopian Kale, though. It looks like it is the same thing I’ve been interested in for a while. I took some pictures of my amaranth harvest today for you. We ate it as a lettuce substitute in a Greek salad for lunch. My older kids found the bigger leaves a bit strong (one said a bitter aftertaste). My youngest loves it raw, but the oldest thought that I should cook it up with bacon and soft-boiled egg sort of the way my mother prepared dandelion salad when I was little. Before harvest: Harvest: After harvest: After trimming:
It ended up being about 3 oz, which doesn’t sound like much and probably wouldn’t have been for cooking, but it made a pretty good salad base. We had a slicing cucumber, some cherry tomatoes, an onion, as well as some feta and sliced olives. One of these years I hope we’ll grow our own olives. We have three tiny trees that are still in their toddlerhood.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Aug 19, 2022 17:40:56 GMT -6
I harvested another bunch of amaranth tonight, and I was sorry to see that some was already beginning to bolt. It’s a hot August in Texas, but I had hoped for more harvests before that begin. I don’t know if the bolting affected the flavor, but the amaranth I sautéed this evening for dinner according to our usual recipe for spinach or kale was not a hit. I ate it, and it was okay, but I would have preferred kale. My kids didn’t even want to eat it, and since they’ve been sick and are just getting back to normal diets, we didn’t force the issue. My husband microwaved some frozen green beans, and they had those instead. I don’t know what my husband thought of the amaranth. I’ll try to remember to ask later. I just wanted to update this thread since I had been so excited about these leaves and had hoped they’d be a good crop for us. It was disappointing tonight to have the kids be so unenthusiastic whereas they would have loved kale prepared the same way. I have to decide now whether I let it grow out again and try another recipe or whether I just cut it all off and call it good compost. I do have some kale started inside along with broccoli and cauliflower, but they need to get bigger and hardened off before I think about transplanting. That’s more of a September task.
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Post by woodeye on Aug 19, 2022 18:52:52 GMT -6
This won't change the outcome of your supper tonight, chrysanthemum, but I can tell you that the leaves look great in your photo. I'm sorry that it wasn't as good as you had hoped it would be, but I trust that you'll make the right decision for the remainder of the crop...
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Post by hmoosek on Aug 19, 2022 21:33:54 GMT -6
I’m sorry to hear it didn’t taste as well as you had hoped. A good green is something we look forward to. We don’t want a bitter after taste.
I bought a mixture of greens, so maybe I’ll have something tasty. I know we like Semposai and we liked it better than Komatsuna. Probably due to the Semposai being more like cabbage which we love.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Aug 20, 2022 15:25:57 GMT -6
You know, it wasn’t bad really. You might like it. I wrote that post last night in the heat of the disappointment about my kids not liking it. I had let my hopes get too high. I talked to my husband later, and he really enjoyed it. He’s a big spinach fan, and since people seem to compare this most with spinach (and it was sold as “Chinese Multicolor Spinach)”), it makes a lot of sense. My kids aren’t really big spinach fans. They far prefer kale. I was also disappointed that it bolted so quickly. I have to decide if I want to let it possibly reseed in the area where it is now, or if I cut out the bolting ones. My husband wants me to keep growing any that isn’t bolting because he wants to eat it as a vegetable for his lunches. In that sense I’d say it’s quite a winner.
Have you planted any of your new greens yet, hmoosek?
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Post by chrysanthemum on Aug 21, 2022 19:52:55 GMT -6
We had hamburgers on buns for dinner tonight, and I only had enough leaf lettuce (grown indoors) for three of the six of us. Amaranth leaves worked perfectly well for the other three (two mature adults and a six year old who loves the stuff raw but dislikes it cooked for some reason). Hurray!
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Post by woodeye on Aug 21, 2022 20:48:48 GMT -6
That is outstanding news!! Hurray x22
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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2022 15:40:00 GMT -6
Tell me if I'm wrong, but I think another name for amaranth greens is "Tampala".
I've been wanting to try them for some time, I guess I just haven't got around to them yet. I remember them listed in old Burpee catalogs. What always got me was 'Sweeter then Spinach--Stands hot weather'. If, or when I grow them, I think I'd try to select for ones that grow in a bush habit; I've seen other peoples and they seemed to be growing like normal green amaranth with mostly the flowers which I'd think would defeat the purpose of a 'green' .
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Post by hmoosek on Aug 22, 2022 16:45:55 GMT -6
chrysanthemumI haven’t planted any yet. We got hit with rain the past few days and I just haven’t gotten round-to-it yet. It’s on the list of things to do. I’m pretty sure my Semposai is good down to the teens. I could be wrong about it, but seems I remember reading that. The turnip greens get better after a frost too.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Aug 22, 2022 19:09:45 GMT -6
Tell me if I'm wrong, but I think another name for amaranth greens is "Tampala". I've been wanting to try them for some time, I guess I just haven't got around to them yet. I remember them listed in old Burpee catalogs. What always got me was 'Sweeter then Spinach--Stands hot weather'. If, or when I grow them, I think I'd try to select for ones that grow in a bush habit; I've seen other peoples and they seemed to be growing like normal green amaranth with mostly the flowers which I'd think would defeat the purpose of a 'green' . Apparently that is another name for Amaranthus Tricolor, which is the species I am growing. Here’s a factsheet which lists lots of different names at the top. plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/amaranthus-tricolor/This variety doesn’t have the showy flowers of lots of other amaranths, but I think if I don’t cut down the ones that are bolting, I’ll have seeds going everywhere, and I’m not sure I’m ready to commit to that in this particular garden bed. It’s the sunnier side of the bed where the plants are bolting, but it’s one of the shadiest areas of my main garden, so I have some bolted lettuce there. I’d rather have that reseed right now for a fall/winter/spring crop possibility.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Aug 22, 2022 19:12:35 GMT -6
chrysanthemum I haven’t planted any yet. We got hit with rain the past few days and I just haven’t gotten round-to-it yet. It’s on the list of things to do. I’m pretty sure my Semposai is good down to the teens. I could be wrong about it, but seems I remember reading that. The turnip greens get better after a frost too. All your talk about turnips has given me a hankering for some good greens, hmoosek. I’m not sure that my kids have ever had turnips greens, but I think I’m going to get a frozen package at H-E-B and see what they think. I’m not so sure that they’ll enjoy them, but we’ll see. They mostly enjoy beet greens. I’ll like them as long as they taste anything like what my mother grew. (I’m honestly not sure I’ve ever had any turnips greens other than hers, so buying a frozen package may be disappointing.)
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Post by macmex on Aug 23, 2022 5:40:20 GMT -6
When we first moved to Central Mexico, out in the mountains, in a cold rain forest environment, we were introduced to a local amaranth called quintonil rojo. I believe quintonil (pronounced keen-toe-kneel) is Aztec for amaranth. This variety grew semi wild in the cornfields the same as tomatillos and chayotes. It was delicious too. Five years later, when we left that area, I took along some seed and "tossed it" into my new garden spot, in the high desert. It came up and reproduced like a weed there for over 8 years. We enjoyed it the whole time. When we moved to NJ I did the same and we enjoyed it there for four years. When we moved to Tahlequah, Oklahoma I tossed some seed in my new garden and ... nothing happened. So in 2007 I started some as transplants and managed a crop. This is a photo from 2008 when it was going to seed.
Unfortunately it never managed to reproduce without doing the transplant maneuver. I lost my seed around 2010. Now I use pigweed for the same recipes as we did for quintonil.
Rachel, I hope your children enjoy the turnip greens. Jerreth and I were traveling last week and took some friends to Cracker Barrel for supper. I ordered a side of turnip greens with my meal and enjoyed every bite! I've never mastered the art of cooking them as well as others here.
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