New posh "superfood" - to us country folk it is SO yesterday!

Quinoa - the new superfood!

“New” healthy Superfoods, such as Quinoa, are fast becoming all the rage amongst the young, health conscious foodie brigade, but to us country folk this is SO yesterday! Farmers have been growing Quinoa for years in this country, admittedly not for human consumption however, but for feeding farmland birds!! Birds such as the Linnet and Goldfinch love it, so farmers include it in the wild bird seed mixes that they grow for feeding hungry birds over-winter!

Quinoa is a plant that has been grown for centuries in Central and South America, providing a complete source of protein, unlike grains, and contains all nine essential amino acids as well as magnesium, iron, potassium and calcium, making it a perfect food for vegetarians.

It is a little like Cous-cous to eat, but I reckon it has much more of a nutty crunch to it, so you should give it a try. Beware however, because if you go into a health food shop and ask for “Quinoah” as we pronounce it, you will get a blank look and probably a shrug of the shoulders! These health conscious foodie types call it “Keen-wah” you see - quite how they got to that pronunciation God only knows!

Now a bright young farmer named Steve Jones, who hails from Shropshire, is growing around 22 hectares of Quinoa to feed us humans. Good luck to him I say – it will certainly improve the “carbon footprint” by transporting it from Shropshire rather than Chile!!