Amaranth Seed

On Tuesday afternoon, Blanca and I harvested a big garbage bag of Amaranth seed heads. The plants have grown rapidly despite a lack of rain and incredibly hot weather. The plants are a lovely purple colour and the seed heads a bright crimson atop the two metre stems.

Yesterday, Santiago and I went through the bag and stripped the seeds and flowers off the stems. There should be several million seeds when all is said and done. Blanca tried planting some of the seeds and they are sprouting. I hope we can get a good source of seed from this next planting.

As with so many plants, finding the seeds, getting them to flower and set seed and then to find ways to harvest them and get a second cycle going takes a great deal of time. In this case, it is rewarding to see these plants producing. Amaranth is so nutritious and so hardy that it is a wonderful addition to people’s lives.

Amaranth is an old plant from Aztec times and it is good to reintroduce back into it original home area. The red flowers were used to produce some sort of red beverage that was drunk in honour of one of the old deities. The Church was not pleased with such a sacrilegious similarity to the wine of the Eucharist celebration. So, the plant was banned for several hundred years. A severe case of losing the baby in the bath water.

Three weeks ago, the women’s group took over the whole piece of land where their fish ponds are located. The young man I had working there had gotten rather tired of working every day and so went on to better things (we hope). In those three weeks, the women have made more progress than the young man was able to do in several months. Sigh.  It is, however, encouraging to see things being planted and tended with proper care.

This last week we have set out some mint plants that were started in seed bags a number of weeks ago. Those tiny seeds take a very long time to get established. We shall see how they do now that they can spread their wings a bit. One of the plantings is really enjoying the freedom ... so hopefully the others will as well.

A hard afternoon rainstorm has lowered the temperature a bit. We hope it is the start of the rains. Things were getting quite brown (only in Honduran terms). A dry season here still has not relation to the African sense of the word.

Other notes of interest. Saturday I crossed off a bucket list item. I sang Schubert’s Ave Maria at a wedding. It went well, although there was no standing ovation ... not that there ever is. The bride was nineteen and an ambulance was on call in case the baby arrived two days before term. It is very difficult to watch young people (children really) having children.

Sunday was the opposite extreme. The music group sang at a funeral mass for a mother and her two children who were killed in Los Angeles by their father in a murder suicide. The stress on individuals and families who travel to another country to find work and who have to deal with a new culture, racism and slavery is enormous. In addition, they are constantly being pressured by family in Honduras and (in this case) Mexico to send money and support them.

Too, we are often unaware of the cultural differences between Latin American countries and how these put stress on a relationship.

Must run. A trip to Tegucigulpa tomorrow to visit the Vice Minister of Education. I do hope that we get the needed papers this time. What a dreamer.

TTYL

BB