Against the grain
Words by Annie Studholme, images by Annie Studholme & Amy Piper
A penchant for trying new crops coupled with a need to find a viable alternative to growing traditional vegetable seeds, is the driving force behind Methven cropping farmers’ Andrew Currie and Gaewynne Hood’s foray into commercially producing the new-age grain, quinoa.
Traditionally grown at high altitudes in South America, quinoa’s rapid rise as a superfood has seen it take off worldwide. With the Andean countries unable to keep up with supply, it is now grown commercially in about 95 countries, including the USA, Ireland, Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Australia.
But despite its explosion in popularity, moving from a traditional health-food shop item to appearing on menus at cafes and restaurants up and down the country, nearly all of New Zealand’s quinoa is imported.
New Zealand growers have been aware of the crop for decades, but to date, Andrew and Gaewynne are one of only a handful of growers nationwide growing it successfully commercially.
Andrew and Gaewynne farm just south of Methven. Andrew’s grandfather first leased the property in the 1940s, later purchasing the farm next door and named it Avonmore as a nod to his Scottish heritage. Andrew’s father initially farmed land down the road, purchasing Avonmore in the 1970s, only to be forced to sell up during 1980s crash following the removal of subsidies, economic downtown and consecutive droughts. The property was bought by a Wellington businessman, with Andrew’s father retaining management, and six years later, Andrew was able to buy the property back.
Today, they farm 300ha having taken over his grandfather’s block next door and purchased more land. While conventional cereal crops like wheat, barley and grass seed form the bulk of his farming operation subsidised by selling store lambs and silage production, Andrew dedicates between one sixth and one third of his property each season to alternative crops.
He credits his father for sparking his interest in going against the grain, growing experimental crops. “My father started growing canary seed in the 1960s. He tried an array of different crops and the canary seed stayed as a viable crop and we are still growing it today. Along with it, we also grow Hungarian millet and sunflower seed for the bird seed market.
” While data is scant on many of the crops they grow, Andrew says he’s got the benefit of time on his side. “As far as I know no one else grows millet for birdseed though we did sell some to the North Island this year where the conditions did not allow for maize to be planted; we’ve been growing it for a long time and over the years we have learnt how to manage it. Canary seed is notoriously itchy, and gets into your skin so you have to avoid the dust. Millet is also very challenging; just occasionally an early frost (mid- March) can wipe out half your crop. The seed looks lovely, there just isn’t much there.”
The biggest issue with growing bird seeds, is that wild birds love them too, explains Andrew. “You can loose up to 50 per cent of your crop to wild birds. We have tried everything. We’ve had the most success buying dead rabbits and hares to feed the hawks at harvest time in a bid to keep the wild birds moving.”
Many of the other problems they’ve experienced have come about because they simply don’t have the range of alternative break crops, explains Andrew. “Because our neighbours grow vegetable seeds which requires isolation, it means we can’t grow them as well. We need a viable break crop—many of them are so hit and miss. We don’t make anything out of peas. We tried linseed and it failed. Rape is good, but we can’t grow it because of the other vegetable seed crops around the place. Radish is sometimes a good alternative, but it contaminates the soil with seed which keeps coming back for the next five to eight years.”
Andrew’s ongoing search to find a viable alternative has meant he’s tried countless different crops over the years. “Trying new seeds is not for everyone, but we love trying something different. We have tried any number of different crops; failed at some and succeeded with others.”
That search, combined with an opportunity to cash in on the growing superfood bandwagon, led Andrew to meet with the manager of Farmer’s Mill in Timaru, who suggested quinoa alongside a myriad of other possible crops including amaranth, spelt, chia, camelina and buckwheat.
“Buckwheat was never going to work because the price was through the floor, and we weren’t able to source any spelt seed. If we didn’t get frosts we could grow amaranth, but it doesn’t like wind or frosts.”
Chia—a powerhouse of energy and nourishment, the tiny black seeds were used by the Mayans and the Aztecs. They are rich fibre, high in protein, and contain Omega-3 fatty acids, known for their antiinflammatory effects, as well as enhancing brain and heart health—also got frosted.
He thought he’d found a winner in camelina. Similar to flax in appearance and properties, the intriguing ancient oil seed crop can be used for food, cosmetics and as aviation fuel. It comes packed with Omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin E and anti-oxidants, but although it grew all right, there simply wasn’t a market for it. “When you read about it, it’s great stuff. I planted a whole field of it (camelina) and the seed is still sitting in the silo.”
That left quinoa. A South American staple for thousands of years, quinoa [pronounced KEENwah] is part of the amaranth family that looks like the weed fat-hen. It is considered a “pseudocereal”, a name for foods that are cooked and eaten like grains with a similar nutritional profile.
It is actually more closely related to beets, chard and spinach than it is to any grains.
Boasting twice as much protein as rice or barley, quinoa is a great gluten-free alternative. Credited with being a complete protein it also contains amino acids, antioxidants, minerals, and Omega 3, among other goodies. “It’s a whole food,” says Andrew.
Cooked until it’s light and fluffy—which takes 15 minutes—this nutty-tasting seed can be used as a substitute for rice, pasta or cous cous. It can be made into salads and fritters, added to soups and stir-fries, eaten as breakfast porridge, and used as a base for numerous sweet and savoury dishes.
Relatively easy to grow, it’s traditionally grown from coastal regions to more than 4000m in the Andes near the equator, with most cultivars grown between 2500m and 4000m. Rainfall requirements vary between the different varieties, ranging from 300-1000mm during the growing season. It does best with early rain, and drier conditions during seed maturation and harvesting.
Despite their farm only being 200m above sea level, Andrew thought it was worth a punt. He planted his first quinoa crop about five years ago, trialling a number of different common varieties. Not all proved successful.
One variety trialled only grew a foot high and they struggled to harvest it, while others grew to shoulder height.
They started out with just 3kg of seed, planted on 1/3ha. Since then, they have since trialled five different varieties and are currently negotiating with a northern hemisphere breeder to get even better varieties, but admittedly that’s still some way off, explains Andrew.
“Some of the varieties are more tolerant of the dry than others, but we don’t irrigate it even though the farm is fully irrigated because I am too worried about disease. It sprouts very easily before the seeds have even matured.”
Because quinoa is a broad-leaf crop, rather than a grass, it can’t be sprayed to take out the weeds, which means Andrew has had to learn to be selective with his crop rotation to minimise the weed burden.
As with a lot of these new crops, quinoa is spray free, which creates its own set of challenges, he says. “We can’t afford to be a certified organic operation, but we do take a very cautious approach with chemical sprays. I like to think it’s a more reactive approach.
We walk the fields weekly watching for any changes. We don’t spray it (quinoa) with anything. It is easy to kill it, for sure. We haven’t found one (herbicide) that doesn’t kill it.”
Success relies heavily on getting the seedling plant established after planting in September; over the years they’ve had some failures. “We do it the old fashioned way before herbicides, letting a strike of weeds come away, clear them and then sow. It’s paramount it goes in after grass. Once it’s established, quinoa is pretty easy to grow, all it needs is a bit of fertiliser and then it’s away.”
Harvest is also challenging. Andrew and Gaewynne’s particular variety is not ready for harvest until April/May, which can pose a problem with the weather conditions at that time of the year. “It’s certainly not ideal,” says Andrew.
“This year we have trialled planting it in the autumn to see how it fares. We know it’s winter tolerant and not frost tender, but it’s a question of whether or not it will set seed, and when. We are not exactly sure of the climatic conditions that we need. There are still so many unknowns, but we know we can grow it, and every year we are getting better at it.”
Even in last year’s extreme weather conditions [the farm was flooded in July and then suffered very high temperatures], the quinoa yielded better than expected considering so many other crops experienced a huge drop in yields. They harvested more than 10 tonnes this year.
The other major factor is ensuring the quinoa remains 100 per cent gluten free. At Avonmore Farm they take the risk of cross-contamination seriously. Next season they hope to have one machine devoted entirely to harvesting quinoa, not only to save on the whole day it takes to throughly clean down our current machine, despite the two previous crops run through the machine not being cereals, but to be confident there’s no contamination.
“It would be devastating if someone who was a coeliac suffer bought some quinoa that contains gluten. We have had it gluten tested and it shows no gluten, but regardless, we are very careful to take every additional precaution to make sure,” says Andrew.
Having successfully established they can grow quinoa, the next hurdle for Andrew and Gaewynne to overcome was finding a viable market for their product. “It’s only in the past 18 months that we can say we have product, come and buy it, whereas before we were only getting a couple of hundred kilos. We had to be able to ensure we had that constant supply first.”
However, unlike the bird seed market, where they had been able to rely on word-of-mouth sales and strong contracts with North Island birdseed company Tui, with quinoa, they’ve had to develop their own market from scratch. “It’s been a steep learning curve for us, we are just farmers,” says Gaewynne, who previously worked as a librarian for thirty years before joining Andrew on the farm.
It’s been a monumental task, not to mention, an expensive one. They have had to learn about everything from website creation, Trade Me stores, Facebook and nutritional information labelling, to sourcing biodegradable packaging.
“It’s nowhere near as simple as selling birdseed,” says Andrew. “It’s not like wheat—people are not going to buy it by the tonne. We have had to learn how to market the quinoa. Here we are, we have a product that is sustainably grown, traceable right back to the paddock, not bleached and has low food miles—it’s all good stuff. We just need to convince people not to buy the imported quinoa.”
“We have talked to lots of restaurants and they’ve been really positive. We’ve also done markets just to get the name out there, but for the cost of the stall and being there all day, we haven’t sold enough quinoa to make it worthwhile,” Gaewynne adds.
The biggest problem is identifying just how big the New Zealand market is, says Andrew. Despite his requests, even Ministry of Primary Industry (MPI) has been unable to tell him just how much quinoa is imported into New Zealand annually, which he struggles with. As numbers of growers increase they would also welcome a growers group if it was possible to arrange.
That aside, the thing they are most proud of, is the product itself. Unlike many quinoa varieties, Andrew and Gaewynne’s variety has very low levels of the naturally-occurring, bitter tasting saponins coating the outside of the seed which require washing and polishing. The end result is a whole, unadulterated grain which has a rich and nutty flavour, that’s ready to cook with minimal rinsing. “When I make my porridge each morning, I don’t rinse it,” insists Andrew.
While they’ve tried very hard to keep the cost to consumers down, Andrew says he would like to think the shelf price will reduce over time as they get better at growing it.
It is currently available from their own website or through Ooooby, Christchurch, and is sold in 250gram, 500 gram, 1kg and 3kg bags. In time, they hope to increase the number of retail outlets stocking their quinoa.
But rest assured, whatever happens, Andrew and Gaewynne are committed to delivering fresh, New Zealand grown quinoa right to your door for long term.