AMARANTH (Pigweed) Amaranthus retroflexus
Published: 2015-03-23Tags: алелопатия, амарант, щир, растения-компаньони, другаруване
Translation
This is a translation of a Bulgarian-language post. It conveys the content faithfully but is not the author's original English writing.
This "weed", found everywhere, is in fact quite useful for loosening the soil, for crops such as carrots, turnips and beetroot. It helps potatoes yield more, and it grows well with onions, corn, peppers and aubergine — but in small quantities. Tomatoes growing near it are more resistant to pest attacks.
Green amaranth has more iron than any other green vegetable except parsley. In Mexico it is called "the sacred food of the Aztecs". Its tiny seeds can be baked into bread. They can also be "popped", then mixed with honey and eaten as a dessert. In India some species are eaten in salad or cooked like spinach, and the seeds are ground into flour. In Greece, in spring, you will find it in large bunches at the markets and in every supermarket, because it is used in many traditional recipes.
Amaranth, a distant cousin of beetroot, has a higher protein content than beetroot, more vitamin C, and almost as much vitamin A; and the seeds — even of the wild weed familiar to us — are an excellent feed supplement for animals and birds.