THE CHINESE GREENS - Growing Chinese Vegetables in Your Own Backyard - page 4

showy enough for any flower bed. Perhaps you've been growing amaranth for years
and never knew it was edible.
Most catalogs in North America list amaranth, but the majority place it in the flower
section. To make sure you get an edible variety, look for one called vegetable amaranth;
not all varieties are suitable. Though not botanically related to spinach, it can be cooked
the same way, and it's even more nutritious. It relishes hot weather, so it makes a good
substitute for spinach in the heat of summer.
Its use as cooked greens is only a small part of the potential of this amazing plant.
By far its greatest use worldwide is as a grain. It's prolific — much more so than wheat,
for instance — and a mere square yard of garden can yield up to 2 pounds of seeds. Un-
like wheat, the seeds are easy to gather and can be cooked whole or ground into flour.
Before the Europeans came on the scene, this was a favorite food of the Aztecs,
who cultivated the prolific plant as their main grain crop. History records that 200,000
bushels were paid annually as tribute to Montezuma, and use of this seed in this hemi-