I appreciate this video and time you took. I’ve been a little confused on what the grain was versus the seed. I’ve never planted amaranth but it’s grows wild in my back yard for a few years now. So beautiful
Hang them in the garage/shed/basement/back porch for a couple weeks to complete drying. The seads will shatter out of the heads much easier without all that rubbing.
We grew amaranth for the first time this year. We did the red spinach amaranth which sounds and looks like what you all had. I’ve just harvested the flower heads and am looking at how everyone did theirs. Enjoyed your video and all the tips!! I wish we would have harvested leaves but I didn’t for fear it would interfere with the flower head production. Sounds like that’s not the case so awesome news! Thank you for the video! 😊❤
pro tip, if you take out the silver tray, and jsut scoop it up and let it drop like 12inches like a waterfall, you can blow out the chaff while the grains fall straight down
Just use a hairdryer and gently blow over the bowl with the seeds and chaff. You can process a pound of seeds in 10 minutes this way. After this step I also rinse the seeds in a strainer with a shower stream (use a small drop of soap to wash the dirt out). Then dry clean seeds for a few days on a flat surface before storing.
O my goodness I grew so much of raspberry, lime and salmon coloured this year about 10 times your amount and couldn’t find a good method til yours. Thanks so much. May take me a couple full days. Then figure out what to do with it, lol 🌟👍🏻♥️🇨🇦
I am planting some Amaranth for the first time this year but after watching this video makes me realize I might not have planted enough. This was a good video on how to divide the grain from the plant. I think I"ll use a blow dryer on low to blow the chaff off though. Great video.
Janice, thanks so much for watching! We’re so happy you found the content helpful, and your blow dryer idea is genius!! I wish I would have thought of that. 😂🤣 Best of luck with your Amaranth and harvest!
Most interesting watching you harvest and process your A. seeds. This pseudocereal is special to me as I've grown A. cruentus and A.hypocondriacus for many years. It's part therapy and part ' tradition' growing this plant that gives so much and demands so little. Our central Fl storms and spring winds can be problematic so I mound up the tall plants with dirt. to help minimize them from falling over. Nice to see your four legged companion in on this presentation! Thanks again!
Thanks Howard, we’re so glad you enjoyed the video! ☺️ Mounding the tall plants is a great tip, thanks for sharing! 🌱🙌🏼 Amaranth seems to be growing in popularity, which is great to see. Happy gardening!
I wonder if you could put it in something like an ice cream bucket with a few golf balls and shake it around. Anyone tey something like that? I'm going to he giving it a go this year! Amaranth and sorghum 😊😊
It was definitely time consuming! 😁 The process / end result made me realize how you’d need to grow much more amaranth than I did in order to get a good size harvest. Amaranth are gorgeous aren’t they? When I harvest them my neighbor even commented, asking why I got rid of the gorgeous plants. ☺️ Happy growing!!
@HeavenlyAcresFarm A fan works great to avoid the heat of a hairdryer, and try winnowing the seeds. Also, if you leave the seeds to dry before starting this process, many will fall out on their own. Just make sure to have a container or tarp underneath them to catch them. You can probably start the winnowing process much earlier, as even the larger pieces of chaf should fly away when tossed in the air with a breeze. I understand what a time consuming process this is, I've been there with other seeds. Any way to make the process quicker is super helpful. Cheers!
There are plans for a seed cleaner out there. You can link to it from another RUclips Amaranth harvesting video. I'm sorry I didn't write down the source video. A quick search of vids should yield the right one though. It looks like it would be a great help.
That’s a great idea! The drier it is the easier it’ll be to separate the seeds from the plant, and then the seeds form the chaff. We were having a very wet season in Florida and o had to harvest before I would have liked to die to all the storms, and the plants were still very moist. Let me know how the dehydrator works!!
This was a great video, very helpful. Thank you for doing it. I have two questions if you have time to answer them. 1. I was thinking about NOT removing the fine bits of chaff from our harvest. I'm thinking it's extra fiber, the color maybe has some of those great vitamins in there... maybe? And also, it'd look cool with little red specs in the bread we put it into. Do you see any downsides of that as long as the chaff is dried out as thoroughly as the grain itself? 2. We might have harvested as many beetles and spiders out of our amaranth this season as we did grains. I have it out in a tray outside overnight right now - hoping that most of them will scamper away. I guess I could leave them in and... bake the grain so they're not alive anymore, and then they'd be extra protein. But that's sort of cruel to the bugs (being baked alive) and also ICK - gross. Do you have any tips for removing the bugs aside from simple sifting? Again, AWESOME VIDEO. Thank you!
Thanks so much for the kind words! I’m glad you found the video useful. ☺️ To be honest I don’t know much about the chaff so I googled and couldn’t really find any information. Maybe do a little experiment and see how a batch turns out with the chaff left in, make sure it doesn’t alter flavor or texture too much. Oh man, spiders 🕷! Not my favorite. 🤣 I think that setting out the amaranth like you did and then sifting are going to be the easiest methods to removing the pests. Hopefully most of them will wander off while the amaranth is sitting out. 😁 Best of luck with your harvest!
1. I had the same thought! The entire plant is edible so I imagine the chaff is fine to eat. I think the main problem comes with if you are planning to store it, the chaff seems to hold more moisture. I see your comment is from 11 months ago, did you have any luck??
Can I use an Hair drier far away so the blow is gentle enough? And could you write all the procedures so we do not need to see the whole long video? Thank you!
You could probably use a hair dryer on a very low setting. I don’t have experience doing that but I’m sure it would work! Epic Gardening has a detailed page about amaranth and harvesting. www.epicgardening.com/growing-amaranth/
That’s a great question! I’ve never been able to grow enough to have grinding into flour make sense. Now that we’ve moved and have more land I plan to plant a lot more amaranth so I might just have to give grinding it into flour a try! 😊
Lilac, I got just about 1 cup. Which is not a lot! 😆 I do think we would have gotten a lot more if I could have waited longer, but with all the rain we were having, I was losing seeds to the rain and wind. Having said that though, I still feel that it would take a lot of amaranth plants to be able to harvest enough grain to make it worth growing solely for grain.
@@HeavenlyAcresFarm How kind of you to reply, and reply so thoroughly! Thank you. I didn't want unrealistic expectations, so you helped cure me of that, for sure. ;-) Will just be a bit of fun. Thank you again!
@@LilacDaisy2 You’re so welcome! I’m glad I was able to provide some insight! ☺️ You can also used the grain / seeds to grow Amaranth micro greens, or once you get your harvest of seeds you can use that to seed a large area with Amaranth and then get a really big harvest!! Like you said though, it’s just fun to grow and the plants are so gorgeous! 😍 Happy gardening!!
Wow, that sure was a lot of work for the seeds! Love the color of the flower/ seed pods!! I have the multicolored variety on the way! Excited to grow the for the first time. How do you use the seeds in food?
It definitely takes some work! 😆 Mine were a little moist. The drier they are, the easier it is to extract the seeds / grain. Ohhhhh I bet the multicolored variety is going to be gorgeous!!! You can use the grain like you would quinoa, so it’s pretty versatile! Happy growing friend!!
@@HeavenlyAcresFarm I need to research more about amaranth grain uses cause I know there's amaranth flour. I bought the multicolored one mainly for greens. I can only grow in containers right now and would need a lot of plants for a good harvest of seeds. Also, is the nutrient level different for microgreens? Haven't read much up on it but have been curious what's all the rage about microgreens?
The leaves are wonderful to eat! We often harvested them throughout the season for salads and stir fry. Microgreens are said to be more nutrient dense, and they’re just fun to eat and grow. It’s another healthy food that you can grow in a small space, which drew us to it initially. We eat them in salads, on pasta, burgers, stir fry, almost anything!
I’ve read in multiple places that all amaranth is edible but I can’t find any discussions about which ones taste best. You mention that some kinds are inedible. I know that you shouldn’t eat them if they were growing in a heavily fertilized field, such as a commercial corn or wheat field that has been drenched with chemical fertilizer, but have never heard of any inedible varieties. Do you know which ones those are?
That is a great question! I wish I would have saved the article I was reading but I honestly cannot find it anymore. There are some varieties which grow much smaller leaves and seeds but they’re still edible. Maybe my previous source of information was incorrect and all types are edible? I’ve only grown this variety so I can’t really comment on which taste best. I did really enjoy the nutty flavor of the grain though! The leaves taste very “green” and are definitely best harvested small / young.
@@HeavenlyAcresFarm Ahhh ok. Thank you! I have 6 different types growing wild in my yard and was just about to harvest the seed and try it out of curiosity. They are very tiny indeed. The seeds in your harvest are much larger and more useful looking. I appreciate your response. I think I’ll give the wild ones a try and plant domestic varieties next year.
@@7armedoctopus69 You’re so welcome! I love chatting with viewers. ☺️ That is pretty darn incredible, 6 wild varieties!! You should definitely do a taste test! Let us know what you think and if you enjoy the amaranth.
Thanks for watching Karen, and we appreciate your feedback! ☺️ Hopefully our video production has gotten better with time. 😁 Looking back on these early videos is always entertaining!
Rookie mistake right? This was one of our first videos, and we’re still learning to this day. From all that amaranth and all that work it was only around 1 cup of grain. Amaranth grain is very, very small and you need a lot of plants to harvest a substantial amount of grain. I only had a few plants. 🌱
Cm, I probably should have!! I actually cooked it on the stove and made it into a hot breakfast cereal! It was delicious, nutty and earthy! I will have to do an amaranth cooking video, thank you for the suggestion!!
I appreciate this video and time you took. I’ve been a little confused on what the grain was versus the seed. I’ve never planted amaranth but it’s grows wild in my back yard for a few years now. So beautiful
It was so cool watching you blow that chaf away, I was like yes!!!
😊 Thank you! It was so satisfying to see it all blow away! 😁
Hang them in the garage/shed/basement/back porch for a couple weeks to complete drying. The seads will shatter out of the heads much easier without all that rubbing.
We grew amaranth for the first time this year. We did the red spinach amaranth which sounds and looks like what you all had. I’ve just harvested the flower heads and am looking at how everyone did theirs. Enjoyed your video and all the tips!! I wish we would have harvested leaves but I didn’t for fear it would interfere with the flower head production. Sounds like that’s not the case so awesome news! Thank you for the video! 😊❤
Thank you for watching 😊👍🏼
pro tip, if you take out the silver tray, and jsut scoop it up and let it drop like 12inches like a waterfall, you can blow out the chaff while the grains fall straight down
Great tip, thank you!
Just use a hairdryer and gently blow over the bowl with the seeds and chaff. You can process a pound of seeds in 10 minutes this way. After this step I also rinse the seeds in a strainer with a shower stream (use a small drop of soap to wash the dirt out). Then dry clean seeds for a few days on a flat surface before storing.
Thanks so much for sharing your process Tatyana, this is great advice! The hair dryer method is very smart. 🙌🏼🙌🏼
🐝 Thanks for the great video 🌻
You're welcome! Thank you for watching! :)
Good video. You just answered all of the questions I had about amarynth. You also speak well and the video editing was very professional.
Thanks so much friend! I’m glad you enjoyed the video and found it helpful. I appreciate the kind words. ☺️
O my goodness I grew so much of raspberry, lime and salmon coloured this year about 10 times your amount and couldn’t find a good method til yours. Thanks so much. May take me a couple full days. Then figure out what to do with it, lol 🌟👍🏻♥️🇨🇦
I am planting some Amaranth for the first time this year but after watching this video makes me realize I might not have planted enough. This was a good video on how to divide the grain from the plant. I think I"ll use a blow dryer on low to blow the chaff off though. Great video.
Janice, thanks so much for watching! We’re so happy you found the content helpful, and your blow dryer idea is genius!! I wish I would have thought of that. 😂🤣 Best of luck with your Amaranth and harvest!
Most interesting watching you harvest and process your A. seeds. This pseudocereal is special to me as I've grown A. cruentus and A.hypocondriacus for many years. It's part therapy and part ' tradition' growing this plant that gives so much and demands so little. Our central Fl storms and spring winds can be problematic so I mound up the tall plants with dirt. to help minimize them from falling over. Nice to see your four legged companion in on this presentation! Thanks again!
Thanks Howard, we’re so glad you enjoyed the video! ☺️ Mounding the tall plants is a great tip, thanks for sharing! 🌱🙌🏼 Amaranth seems to be growing in popularity, which is great to see. Happy gardening!
I wonder if you could put it in something like an ice cream bucket with a few golf balls and shake it around. Anyone tey something like that? I'm going to he giving it a go this year! Amaranth and sorghum 😊😊
We’ve never tried it but please let us know how it works out👍🏼
Great video, thanks for sharing. I'm about to harvest my tree
☺️ Thanks so much for watching Dylan, we’re glad you enjoyed it! Ohhh that’s so exciting!! Best of luck in your harvest.
Wow, that is a lot of work! I planted amaranths for their beauty mostly. I will begin to prep and eat the grains, maybe. Thanks for showing!
It was definitely time consuming! 😁 The process / end result made me realize how you’d need to grow much more amaranth than I did in order to get a good size harvest. Amaranth are gorgeous aren’t they? When I harvest them my neighbor even commented, asking why I got rid of the gorgeous plants. ☺️ Happy growing!!
@HeavenlyAcresFarm A fan works great to avoid the heat of a hairdryer, and try winnowing the seeds. Also, if you leave the seeds to dry before starting this process, many will fall out on their own. Just make sure to have a container or tarp underneath them to catch them. You can probably start the winnowing process much earlier, as even the larger pieces of chaf should fly away when tossed in the air with a breeze. I understand what a time consuming process this is, I've been there with other seeds. Any way to make the process quicker is super helpful. Cheers!
Thank you so much for the tips! I look back on this video and realize how much I’ve learned since then. 😁
Thanks for the video. Watching this, I'm really curious how much amaranth grew in your lawn last year from winning there.
You’re welcome! ☺️
🤣😂 A fair amount. Amaranth reseeds so easily.
The good is left behind.
Hi great video, so glad I found your channel!
Cm, thanks for joining us!! 😊
There are plans for a seed cleaner out there. You can link to it from another RUclips Amaranth harvesting video. I'm sorry I didn't write down the source video. A quick search of vids should yield the right one though. It looks like it would be a great help.
Dan, thank you for the tip it’s much appreciated! 🙌🏼🙌🏼 I’ll search it up and see what I can find.
Wow, not sure I have the time to harvest my amaranth like that. I just put my flowers in the dehydrator. We’ll see how that works out.
That’s a great idea! The drier it is the easier it’ll be to separate the seeds from the plant, and then the seeds form the chaff. We were having a very wet season in Florida and o had to harvest before I would have liked to die to all the storms, and the plants were still very moist. Let me know how the dehydrator works!!
Try using a large gold pan with riffles for your winnowing.
Thank you for the suggestion Hugh! 😊
This was a great video, very helpful. Thank you for doing it. I have two questions if you have time to answer them.
1. I was thinking about NOT removing the fine bits of chaff from our harvest. I'm thinking it's extra fiber, the color maybe has some of those great vitamins in there... maybe? And also, it'd look cool with little red specs in the bread we put it into. Do you see any downsides of that as long as the chaff is dried out as thoroughly as the grain itself?
2. We might have harvested as many beetles and spiders out of our amaranth this season as we did grains. I have it out in a tray outside overnight right now - hoping that most of them will scamper away. I guess I could leave them in and... bake the grain so they're not alive anymore, and then they'd be extra protein. But that's sort of cruel to the bugs (being baked alive) and also ICK - gross. Do you have any tips for removing the bugs aside from simple sifting?
Again, AWESOME VIDEO. Thank you!
Thanks so much for the kind words! I’m glad you found the video useful. ☺️ To be honest I don’t know much about the chaff so I googled and couldn’t really find any information. Maybe do a little experiment and see how a batch turns out with the chaff left in, make sure it doesn’t alter flavor or texture too much.
Oh man, spiders 🕷! Not my favorite. 🤣 I think that setting out the amaranth like you did and then sifting are going to be the easiest methods to removing the pests. Hopefully most of them will wander off while the amaranth is sitting out. 😁 Best of luck with your harvest!
@@HeavenlyAcresFarm Thanks for your thoughts. Very much appreciated! :)
1. I had the same thought! The entire plant is edible so I imagine the chaff is fine to eat. I think the main problem comes with if you are planning to store it, the chaff seems to hold more moisture. I see your comment is from 11 months ago, did you have any luck??
WoW
Thank you
My red aramarnth seeds are black
This is really great information. New sub.
Thank you! We’re glad you found it helpful. Welcome to the farm friend!!
Thank you, how did you get rid of some of the very small bugs?
Sorry I never really had any pest issues to deal with.
Okay, thank you for responding, I appreciate it. @@HeavenlyAcresFarm
@@jburkhard9985 WE have the little beetles but if you put your amaranth seeds through a sieve, the bugs will be separated out...
Awesome!!!!!!!
Thanks Jahari!!!
Can they be threshed without damaging the seeds?
Wonderful🤩
I was using a frisbee, but yeah, a pizza pan. Brilliant.
I didn’t even think of that, a frisbee definitely works too! ☺️
Can I use an Hair drier far away so the blow is gentle enough? And could you write all the procedures so we do not need to see the whole long video? Thank you!
You could probably use a hair dryer on a very low setting. I don’t have experience doing that but I’m sure it would work!
Epic Gardening has a detailed page about amaranth and harvesting.
www.epicgardening.com/growing-amaranth/
@@HeavenlyAcresFarm ruclips.net/user/shortsjitpO_LnN6g
Do you ever grind it into a flour to use in cooking/baking or do you just eat the seeds?
That’s a great question! I’ve never been able to grow enough to have grinding into flour make sense. Now that we’ve moved and have more land I plan to plant a lot more amaranth so I might just have to give grinding it into flour a try! 😊
Has anyone tried putting a flower head in a drill to spin the seeds out?
I haven’t heard of anyone trying that yet
Oh no. I stayed to the very end to see how much seeds can be recovered from that many heads. Did you get one bottle?
Lilac, I got just about 1 cup. Which is not a lot! 😆 I do think we would have gotten a lot more if I could have waited longer, but with all the rain we were having, I was losing seeds to the rain and wind. Having said that though, I still feel that it would take a lot of amaranth plants to be able to harvest enough grain to make it worth growing solely for grain.
@@HeavenlyAcresFarm How kind of you to reply, and reply so thoroughly! Thank you. I didn't want unrealistic expectations, so you helped cure me of that, for sure. ;-) Will just be a bit of fun. Thank you again!
@@LilacDaisy2 You’re so welcome! I’m glad I was able to provide some insight! ☺️ You can also used the grain / seeds to grow Amaranth micro greens, or once you get your harvest of seeds you can use that to seed a large area with Amaranth and then get a really big harvest!! Like you said though, it’s just fun to grow and the plants are so gorgeous! 😍 Happy gardening!!
@@HeavenlyAcresFarm Thanks, yes, if the young greens work out well for salad, I'll save buying 3 lettuces a week!
@@LilacDaisy2 We really enjoyed the young greens in salads and even ate the larger / older greens in stir fry! Definitely a $$ saver!
The music works well.
Thank you Gilberto! ☺️
Wow, that sure was a lot of work for the seeds! Love the color of the flower/ seed pods!! I have the multicolored variety on the way! Excited to grow the for the first time. How do you use the seeds in food?
It definitely takes some work! 😆 Mine were a little moist. The drier they are, the easier it is to extract the seeds / grain. Ohhhhh I bet the multicolored variety is going to be gorgeous!!! You can use the grain like you would quinoa, so it’s pretty versatile! Happy growing friend!!
Ohh and we also used some to grow micro greens or micro reds 🤣 however you want to see it
@@HeavenlyAcresFarm I need to research more about amaranth grain uses cause I know there's amaranth flour. I bought the multicolored one mainly for greens. I can only grow in containers right now and would need a lot of plants for a good harvest of seeds. Also, is the nutrient level different for microgreens? Haven't read much up on it but have been curious what's all the rage about microgreens?
The leaves are wonderful to eat! We often harvested them throughout the season for salads and stir fry.
Microgreens are said to be more nutrient dense, and they’re just fun to eat and grow. It’s another healthy food that you can grow in a small space, which drew us to it initially. We eat them in salads, on pasta, burgers, stir fry, almost anything!
Can we use the amaranth grains for plating,?
Yep, you can use them for planting! We’ve used them for microgreens too.
I’ve read in multiple places that all amaranth is edible but I can’t find any discussions about which ones taste best. You mention that some kinds are inedible. I know that you shouldn’t eat them if they were growing in a heavily fertilized field, such as a commercial corn or wheat field that has been drenched with chemical fertilizer, but have never heard of any inedible varieties. Do you know which ones those are?
That is a great question! I wish I would have saved the article I was reading but I honestly cannot find it anymore. There are some varieties which grow much smaller leaves and seeds but they’re still edible. Maybe my previous source of information was incorrect and all types are edible?
I’ve only grown this variety so I can’t really comment on which taste best. I did really enjoy the nutty flavor of the grain though! The leaves taste very “green” and are definitely best harvested small / young.
@@HeavenlyAcresFarm Ahhh ok. Thank you! I have 6 different types growing wild in my yard and was just about to harvest the seed and try it out of curiosity. They are very tiny indeed. The seeds in your harvest are much larger and more useful looking. I appreciate your response. I think I’ll give the wild ones a try and plant domestic varieties next year.
@@7armedoctopus69 You’re so welcome! I love chatting with viewers. ☺️ That is pretty darn incredible, 6 wild varieties!! You should definitely do a taste test! Let us know what you think and if you enjoy the amaranth.
Are there no seeds that are red? Are they just tan or black?
That's a great question but honestly, I'm really not sure.
What state are you growing in?
This was in FL before we purchased land and moved to TN.
Loved this video. Background music is nice but too loud for me.
Thanks for watching Karen, and we appreciate your feedback! ☺️ Hopefully our video production has gotten better with time. 😁 Looking back on these early videos is always entertaining!
What variety is this amaranth that you grew?
The package reads, “Flower Amaranth, Red Garnet”. I purchased them via Amazon and the brand is David’s Garden Seeds. ☺️
@@HeavenlyAcresFarm thank you!
I love you
After all that and you don't show the total amount you were able to harvest?
Rookie mistake right? This was one of our first videos, and we’re still learning to this day. From all that amaranth and all that work it was only around 1 cup of grain. Amaranth grain is very, very small and you need a lot of plants to harvest a substantial amount of grain. I only had a few plants. 🌱
Annoying background music for us oldies
Subbed
Thank you - we appreciate your support! 😊
Suburban hippies.
I raise dobermans! Send me an email if you want so we can talk puppies. Do you show or anything? Your boy looks like he has a nice crop.
I love the breed! I’ve had 4 all together. We don’t show our dogs they’re just our companion pups. I would love to see some pictures of your puppies
Wish you would've showed how you use the grain, perhaps next time.
Cm, I probably should have!! I actually cooked it on the stove and made it into a hot breakfast cereal! It was delicious, nutty and earthy! I will have to do an amaranth cooking video, thank you for the suggestion!!
@@HeavenlyAcresFarm yes, that would be awesome!!