An Opopeo, Mexico, heirloom. Pick the tender young leaves for a tasty treat.

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Opopeo is a very beautiful plant with red upright flowers that can grow to about 6 ft tall. They can fall over, so I suggest giving them some sort of support. Leaves are highly nutritious and are nutritionally similar to beets, Swiss chard, and spinach, but are far superior. For example, amaranth leaves contain three times more calcium and three times more niacin than spinach leaves. You can either pick the young leaves raw for salads or cook like spinach. The taste is strong, so I suggest mixing with spinach or other lettuces when eating raw or cooked. When the flower dries out, you can eat the seeds as a grain, which is like quinoa in nutrition, but yet again nutritionally better. Pick the dry flower and shake over a pot. Then take the seeds and put them in a pot to heat them up to "pop" them. You can eat this grain in cereals or as a delicious additive in soups. You can also grind up the seeds for a flour. Has a nutty flavor.

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