Quinoa

As we approached are final destination on our second day in Bolivia, the salt motel, we began to see these fields of a certain crop all over the place. I had kept looking and taking pictures from the jeep trying to figure out what this crop could be. We never got close enough or slowed down enough for me to examine the stalks that shot up from these plants, but eventually I made a guess that they were something that I'd never seen growing before, they were Quinoa. Once I had convinced myself that this was Quinoa I was really excited and I was hoping for the opportunity to go and examine the fields. Fortunately a half miles walk from the salt hotel landed us in a Quinoa field, where I was able to confirm that these were indeed Quinoa. I harvested some of the seeds from this Bolivian Quinoa and planted them in my garden this year. We had a very small yield, but hopefully if we reuse the seeds we'll be able to gradually increase our yeilds. Quinoa only grows in select locations on this planet, some think it only grows in the Andes, but you can grow it in New Mexico, our hot days cool nights and high elevation is the kind of climate that Quinoa enjoys. Quinoa is the Spanish interpretation of the Quechua term for the grain and was the staple food of the Incas who referred to it as the "mother of all grains."



These quinoa plants were just so colorful and beautiful. It was amazing to witness these plants growing in these harsh conditions with clearly no system for providing additional water. These plants were dependent entirely on rainfall and seemed to be thriving. I lamented that tractors were used to plow these fields, however, as this surely means continual soil erosion in an area that is as windy as this.

Collecting seeds to take back home and grow.