| Remember those elevated platforms that lecturers use in college, and also orchestra conductors? Those are podiums, a word with the same derivation; a foot or a stand; while "khen" is Greek for goose. Amaranth, on the other hand, is less plebian in etymological origin, meaning "unfading" or "unfading flower." The "a-" part means "not;" the "maranth" part has to do with the fading, or the fading flower.
Families of life forms often (but not always) have many genera in them, and each genus often (but not always) has many species. Chenopodium is the type genus for the Chenopodiaceae, which means it's the genus most typical of the family.
Well, you are thinking by now; aside from all this loose talk about quinoa and amaranth, what does any of this turgid taxonomy have to do with food?
And an excellent question it is. We'll start with Chenopodium album and also Chenopodium berlandieri, also known as lambs'quarters, goosefoot, and pigweed. The latter, C. berlandieri, is the one we have native here in the USA. and it was part of prehistoric agriculture after 4000 BC in what is now the eastern United States. (C. album is native over the puddle to the east.)
The name "goosefoot" comes from the shape of the leaf, kind of an arrowhead, and with imagination, a goose's foot. (I wonder sometimes if the elder peoples had more imagination than we do...could we, for instance, invent the constellations, these days?) You can eat the seed, as with quinoa and amaranth, but it is a lot of work to collect it.
Common names can be confusing, and "pigweed" is often used as a common name for amaranth, so I prefer to keep C. berlandieri at arm's (foot's?) length from that one. Lamb's quarters is a salad herb, or at least used to be (and could be again).
C. ambrosiodes is epazote, or Mexican tea. I note that some think this species is now placed in genus Dysphania, and we will note that this is a good example of how useful common names can be, because it's still epazote.
Epazote is used to season frijoles (beans) and said to improve them greatly, including decreasing flatulence. And, I'm sure I don't have to tell you what Chenopodium quinoa is!
Amaranth, on the other hand, comprises quite a few species in the genus Amaranthus - different genus, same family (more or less). It was domesticated in Mexico by five thousand years ago, and quinoa was grown in the Andes in what is now Peru around then, as well.
But let's get on to something more familiar, before you all give up on me entirely. These three food plants should get you back on more familiar turf - spinach, beets and Swiss chard. Well, except actually it's two, because beets and Swiss chard are the same species, Beta vulgaris. But spinach proudly holds its own specific epithet; Spinicia oleracea.
Spinach is thought to be of Middle Eastern origin, and only made it to Europe by the 11th century, quite late for a Eurasian agricultural crop. We currently have more than one kind of true spinach. New Zealand spinach is not one, it's in the Aizoaceae, also known as the ice plant or fig marigold family, and your humble diarist will readily admit that not only had she never heard of anything like the fig marigold family prior to researching this diary, but never expected to. Geez, it's related to the Mesembryanthemaceae, for pity's sake. That group includes Lithops, the stone plants. And New Zealand spinach is a halophyte, which means it tolerates soil salinity - and it's edible, too! Wow!
But I digress. Back to real spinach. There are the older kinds, with more narrow, arrowhead-shaped ("goosefoot") leaves, and they bolt (go to seed) earlier and more readily. The more recent round-leaved spinach is more productive, bolts more slowly, and is more heat tolerant (heat will speed bolting).
For my money, the Savoy leaf is much tastier, and some have been bred to be more bolt-resistant. Savoy spinach leaves are harder to wash, and I've found that it's best done by swishing them around hard in a container of cold water - don't just try to do it under the tap. I've found that little Savoy leaf seedlings overwinter fairly well here too, even with temps down to 15oF, and I don't know if the flat leaved kinds will do that, because I never want to grow them. I would not be surprised, though, if a spinach variety that doesn't bolt quickly in heat, like the flatter leaved ones seem to tend towards, would be less cold-resistant.
For us spinach lovers in the desert, perhaps it might be best to look at growing two rounds of these; first an older kind seeded in the fall to winter over and provide a late winter/early spring crop, and then a more heat-resistant variety seeded in late winter. Funny, though, to think of a crop plant that originated in Iran (as is thought by some), to have its older varieties more cold tolerant!
Beets, also, were slow to catch on in Europe. They were originally grown for their greens, and with a young beet, the greens can indeed be the best part. A little steaming and some tamari and you've got a real delicacy right there! Older beets become gradually sweeter, so if you're shopping for the roots, don't be put off by the big ones. If you are lucky enough to get reasonably priced beets with greens, you can also do more exotic things like juice them as the live products they still are. Beets are considered by some in Europe to have some anti-carcinogenic effect from the betenes in the beet juice, and when you take a swig of a half-and-half beet/carrot juice drink, freshly made, the zing it gives you surely makes you think it's doing something.
Pure beet juice is even more overwhelming, and I usually can't take more than 50/50, if that. But dern, it does feel healthy when that stuff hits your belly!
Beets are also sold topped and loose, and these come into the markets in sacks, and can also be live foods; just make sure you check them for firmness. There's tons of nice things to do involving cooking beets, too. You can roast them in recipes involving roasting other fine roots, such as parsnips and carrots (and sweetpotato tubers fit in nicely there as well).I've also put beets, carrots and broccoli florets (all pre-steamed) into a macaroni and cheese recipe that involves these vegetables, cream sauce made with garlic, onions, scallions, some fresh herbs, salt and pepper; and pre-cooked vegetable rotelli, all mixed together, put in a baking pan, and topped with a good sharp cheddar and bread crumbs au gratin and baked at about 360oF for a half hour to 45 minutes, and isn't that nice!
Swiss chard, also Beta vulgaris, is grown solely for the greens, and they too are lovely steamed with a little tamari. Chard is wonderfully valiant in the desert garden here, and will hang in for a couple of years until it goes to seed finally in the second spring after it first gets going, even with little care. When it does, it sends out lightly winding flower spikes that look utterly mad; quite suitable for photography - I have one I'm waiting for right now.
Swiss chard is also reminiscent of spinach with a bit of lemon, and can be substituted in recipes that require that combination, with good effect. It's also very nice in stir fry - or, for that matter, in strange soup. There's more than one way to eat a goose! |
