Amaranth tasting

I almost missed a taste treat this summer! I planted this beautiful plant, for the first time, a couple of years ago after reading an article about a couple back East, who added it to their salad mix. Well, I didn't end up putting it into the salad that year, nor this year. I ordered two different kinds this year and then was given some unidentified seeds, which turned out to be Amaranth. So, it has grown and grown and now it is time to harvest it. I have now spent a couple of hours online, researching its use. This plant has more nutrition than most grains and can be eaten like tender spinach (boiled), popped like corn, chopped into salads and also cooked like a hot cereal. The seeds are so very small, that it would be labor intensive to try and harvest the seeds at a small farm, but you can buy it in bags at the store. After reading of all its uses, I still was able to find small tender plants (as I kept throwing more seeds into the ground throughout the summer) and tried cooking the leaves like I would for spinach and what a wonderful discovery!! It is a plant that won't bolt from heat and is in fact drought resistant, so a good alternative to spinach in hot weather. The stalks and large leaves can be fed to livestock, as I tested it with the Scottish Highland cows and they loved it, as do the angora goats. I will have to work on identifying the three different varieties that I am growing, once I find the empty seed packets for the first two, somewhere under other plants, in the windblown garden spot!! This isn't a tidy place, so the garden has some hidden secrets, including a rattlesnake this summer! For anyone interested in pursuing the planting of Amaranth, I will post the wonderful sources of information that I found on the internet.

http://www.herbsarespecial.com.au/free-sprout-information/amaranth.html

http://www.tropicalpermaculture.com/amaranth-plant.html

http://home.earthlink.net/~loveguru/amaranth.htm

http://www.ripeorganics.com.au/wholefoods-glossary/grains-legumes/amaranth

http://eap.mcgill.ca/CPAT_1.htm

http://amazingamaranth.com/Home.html

http://www.jeffersoninstitute.org/pubs/amaranth.shtml

http://www.ag.iastate.edu/centers/cad/amaranth.html

Showerhouse slab

It's been 3 long weeks of preparing a site to pour the slab, eventually to be the new showerhouse . When I lived in the yurt, I had to use a shower tent and only in the spring and summer, otherwise had to go to Mt.Shasta to my real house to shower. What a learning process this slab prep has been. I did pour a slab for the chicken coop, 3 years ago, but I didn't have enough knowledge to be dangerous, back then! This time around, I have more books on the subject of plumbing and radiant heat. I have laid the pex tubing, for a radiant floor, in this slab, so eventually the demand will be to get the solar batch water heater built and attached. The goal has been to get the slab poured before winter sets in and then I will frame it next spring and finished next summer.

Once I have a showerhouse in place, I can invite guests to come and stay in the yurt, as a destination for summer lodging!