Company President and CEO Jamie Draves was recently interviewed by Edward Maixner from Agri-Pulse for an article for their Newsletter. Here is a snippet from the article focusing on growing quinoa in North America.
After all these years, quinoa catching on with high-altitude US farmers
Production of South America’s pseudo-grain, quinoa, is riding into North America on a wave of health-food enthusiasm, with farmers from the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains to Canada’s dry Northern Plains and even western Ontario trying their luck at the crop.
Though grown by the Inca 5,000 years ago and called the “Mother of All Grains,” quinoa didn’t catch on with U.S. consumers until the 21st century. Now, however, food makers are pouring quinoa, with its reputation as a “complete protein,” into nutrition bars, ready-to-eat cereal, oatmeal, gluten-free bakery items, tortilla chips, crackers, trail mix, salads and side dishes
…
Quinoa is difficult to grow, but it attracts high prices, though millers don’t like to say what they pay farmers. Varieties and quality of quinoa can vary a lot. Sanders said South American varieties are usually white and seeds are larger than the crop that Ardent Mills growers produce, which has a “tan, creamy color . . . with more of a pop or snap” in the mouth when eaten.
Meanwhile, much farther east and at much lower elevations, in western Ontario, Jamie Draves started growing a new variety, Quinoa Quinta, about four years ago. He says that his Katan Kitchens has bred very high nutritional components, such as 18-20 percent protein and unusually high minerals content, into his variety. He began marketing it just last year – on line at a pricey $11 a pound. He added a grower in southern Alberta in 2016, who was able to harvest 2,000 pounds per acre, he reports.
Continue to the full Newsletter on page 13 > Agri-Pulse-03222017
Loading...
