Fall is Amaranth Harvest Time

At Cloverfield Organic Farm we grow a beautiful red amaranth that produces a nutritious dark-ruby-colored seed, or amaranth grain.

All through the summer amaranth sprouts up in the warm soil and bursts into beautiful bloom. The young sprouts of amaranth are tender enough to eat fresh in salads. When the amaranth leaves are still young and supple, they are picked and cooked as a green vegetable.

In the fall, the leaves turn to bronze and the flower heads start drooping over and drying up. This is when we harvest the stalks and their flower heads laden with seeds.

We remove the flowers and continue to dry them in paper bags in our drying shed. The remaining thick stalks and leaves are cut up and serve as excellent compost fodder.

Once the flowers and seed heads are fully dry, we thresh and winnow the grain. We use seed sieves to knock the seeds off of the dried flower stems, then use our breath or a fan to winnow off the chaff.

We will bag up the amaranth grain and have it for sale in the farm shed.

A fun and delicious way to eat the amaranth grain is to pop it to eat it out of hand with a sprinkle of salt. Heat a heavy pot on a stovetop over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of dried amaranth grain and shake the pan to prevent the grains from burning. They should pop relatively quickly. If desired, sprinkle with a bit of sea salt.

The popped amaranth can be mixed with 1/2 its volume of warm melted honey, and with a few pumpkin seeds or dried fruits, and shaped or pressed into delicious candy, known as Alegria in Mexico. The Aztecs used to make similar treats with popped amaranth before the Spanish colonized Mexico.

Our Cloverfield Organic Farm is located at 501 La Paloma Rd., El Sobrante. We open the farm gates for visitors and u-picking each Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Open hours are noon to five during Daylight Savings Time, and eleven to four during the shorter times of the year.

www.cloverfieldfarm.us