Amaranthus cruentus.
A plant that carries within it one of the most tumultuous culinary stories of the Americas. Amaranth — huautli in Nahuatl — was one of the food pillars of the Aztec empire, cultivated on a large scale alongside corn and beans in the famous Mesoamerican milpas. It also held a central place in religious ceremonies, which pushed the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century to forbid its cultivation, decreed pagan, under penalty of severe punishment. The plant nearly disappeared. Rehabilitated at the end of the 20th century for its exceptional nutritional qualities (complete protein rich in lysine, an amino acid rare in cereals), it is today a favourite of gardeners seeking crops at once useful, beautiful and laden with history.
The Red Garnet selection is doubly productive: tender leaves harvestable young like a summer spinach (cooked Asian-style, in an Indian dahl, in a Caribbean stir-fry callaloo), and long flower spikes of deep garnet red, upright in plumes 30 to 40 cm, which produce at maturity a small pale grain — the famous "amaranth grain" that can be popped in a pan like miniature popcorn, cooked into porridge, ground into gluten-free flour, or sprouted into fresh shoots. A tall, spectacular plant 1.5 to 2 m, which brings an almost tropical dimension to the vegetable garden and draws a cloud of birds in fall when the seeds are ready.
Grower's tip: Amaranth loves heat — sow once the soil is solidly warmed (18 °C minimum), or the seeds stay dormant. If you're aiming for the grain harvest, start indoors 4 to 6 weeks before transplanting. In Québec, full maturity (90 to 120 days) requires the whole season. For leaf harvest only, direct sowing in early June suffices. Harvest the spikes when they start to drop their seeds at the slightest brushing — cut the whole head, let dry on a tarp, then beat lightly and sift. Yields can surprise — a single plant often produces 200 to 500 g of cleaned grain.
- Open-pollinated. Stable variety. Wind-pollinated: crosses with other amaranths nearby — isolate for seed saving.
- Height: 1.5 to 2 m.
- Maturity: 30 to 40 days for young leaves, 90 to 120 days for the grain harvest.
- Exposure: full sun.
- Ordinary to rich, well-drained soil. Very drought-tolerant once established. Space plants 30-40 cm apart for leaves, 45-60 cm for grain production.
- Indoor start 4 to 6 weeks before last frost for the grain harvest, or direct-sow in early June for the leaf harvest. Refuses to germinate below 15 °C.
