I haven't eaten a ton of it and with what I have I haven't noticed a big difference in flavor. Flea beetles or something similar sure do love to eat it though - it is very hard to get an entire leaf to eat.

My fav for the garden is 'Love lies bleeding'. I prefer the old timey one with the deep scarlet blooms which is impossible to find nowadays. I buy seeds from every source I can find but they always end up pinky-red.

John, I had the 'burgundy' one time and it was a deep red. I think I gave Shannon some seeds off that one and rareseeds.com has a pretty good looking selection, with some new types too.

I'm pretty sure what'shisname from Baker Creek (rareseeds.com) grows his own seed or contracts with people to grow for him. I plan on buying a packet of his just to check. It seems that all the other packets of 'Love lies bleeding' seed come from the same place because they all look the same (and NOT at all like the photos in the catalog or on their website!!!). Years ago I saw a large display garden just dripping with this plant, it was stunning. The leaves were pale green and the flowers were long and scarlet red. I have bought seeds from about a dozen companies over the years and tried this plant in various gardens and it always stays kinda small and has normal leaves and pink/red flowers. I haven't seen the ones like my original view in many years, its as if that variety has disappeared.

As far as eating amaranth goes - I would grow the tri-colored 'Josephs Coat' type for salads and the large paddle leaved marroon and green asian style for cooking greens. They sprout so quickly and grow so fast I think the thing to do is to NOT sow all the seeds at one time. Just grow a few at a time in large containers, that way you can keep the bugs off of them and harvest from a rotating supply of plants.

Hi there, I grow Callaloo (caribbean vegetable amaranth)in my house and its very much utilized in Puerto Rico,Jamaica and other west indian countries.Its very good,tastes like a light spinach but better! Its inexpensive and where I get my seeds from, they usually send well over 100 seeds, its just as high in vitamins as spinach if not higher and its excellent in soups as well.You just have to be very careful of damping off because its a very fast grower but the damping off can be a problem if your not careful.Give it a try, its good :)

Thanks for the suggestion Amanda. I will look into that. Where do you get your seeds from? We like spinach raw and cooked, especially in soups, so I look forward to trying this!

Thanks John I appreciate the buggy advice. Really don't want or need the extra protein (lol). I'll keep an eye open for the red red LLB. I had an elephant head amaranth one year and it was gorgeous with huge long seed heads, it was gorgeous! Could the color problem be your soil or lack of sun issues? I've been told that they don't like perfect soil and really do best where it's kind of lean and scrappy.