Regional Food /
Growing quinoa in Methven
A Mid Canterbury couple with a penchant for trying new seed crops
is placing their faith in an ancient grain.
Cropping farmers Andrew Currie and Gaewynne Hood have spent years searching for alternative crops to growing traditional cereals and vegetable seeds on their Methven farm, and they might have just stumbled across a winner.
Traditionally grown at high altitudes in South America, quinoa’s something of a superfood, favoured for its proteinpacked powers, ticking a lot of boxes with vegans, vegetarians and people suffering from gluten issues. With Andean countries unable to keep up with supply, it’s now grown commercially in 95 different countries, but to date, Andrew and Gaewynne are amongst only a handful of growers pioneering quinoa in New Zealand.
Andrew and Gaewynne farm 300 hectares on the outskirts of Methven. While conventional cereal crops like
wheat, barley and grass seed form the bulk of their farming operation at Avonmore Farm, each year Andrew sets aside part of his farm for alternative crops. He credits his father for igniting his interest in 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 birdseed market.’
While there is little to no information available on many of the crops they grow, Andrew has the benefit of time and experience behind him. ‘We have been growing them for a long time, and over the years, we’ve learnt how to manage them.’ He says the biggest issue with growing birdseed is that wild birds love it too, with up to 50 per cent of his crops lost to bird damage annually. They are also limited with what they
can grow because Methven in an intensive specialist seed cropping area.
Andrew’s tried countless crops over the years in a bid to find a viable alternative break crop. He loves trying new crops, but not all of his experiments have paid off. Keen to provide a source of fresh New Zealand-grown superfood grain and seeds, Andrew met with the manager of Farmers Mill in Timaru a few years back, who suggested quinoa alongside a myriad of other possible crops including amaranth, spelt, chia, camelina and buckwheat.
Initially Andrew thought he’d found a winner in the ancient oil crop camelina. Similar to flax in appearance and properties, it’s packed with omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin E and antioxidants, and can be used for food, cosmetics and aviation fuel. He planted a whole paddock of it, but although it grew alright, there simply wasn’t a market for it.
That brought them back to quinoa. Pronounced KEENwah, the South American staple for thousands of years is part of the chenopodium family. Although it is cooked and eaten like a grain, and has a similar nutritional profile, it is considered a ‘pseudo-cereal’, more closely related to beetroot and spinach.
Boasting roughly twice as much protein as rice or barley, quinoa is a fantastic gluten-free alternative, containing all the essential amino acids the body can’t make on its own as well as being low-GI and a good source of dietary fibre, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and anti-inflammatory phytonutrients. ‘It’s one of the few plants that’s a whole food,’ says Andrew.
While there is no doubting its nutritional properties, no one knew if it would grow successfully in New Zealand as most of the world’s quinoa is grown in the Andean regions of South America up to 4000 m above sea level. Despite their farm only being at 200 m above sea level, Andrew thought it was worth a punt. They planted their first quinoa crop about six years ago, trialling a number of different varieties with varying success. Being an experimental crop, it throws up a whole new set of challenges, but over time, Andrew says they’ve worked out which varieties suit their conditions best, and how to manage the weeds naturally, marketing their
Although it is cooked and eaten like a grain, and has a similar nutritional profile, it is considered a ‘pseudo-cereal’, more closely related to beetroot and spinach.
product as spray-free. Currently, going wholly organic is uneconomic.
‘While we are not organic, we do it the old-fashioned way before herbicides, letting a strike of weeds come away, clear them and then sow [the seed]. It’s paramount it goes [into the ground] after grass. Once it’s established, quinoa is pretty easy to grow, all it needs is a bit of fertiliser and it’s away.’ Harvest can be a challenge though, especially as their particular variety isn’t ready for harvest until April/May, which can certainly pose a problem with the weather conditions at that time of the year.
As it’s turned out, growing the quinoa is the easy part. After establishing they could grow quinoa, the next hurdle for Andrew and Gaewynne was finding a viable market for their crop. While it was hugely rewarding trying something new, they found it wasn’t quite as simple as just growing the quinoa and selling it to the masses.
‘It’s nowhere as easy as selling birdseed,’ admits Andrew. ‘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 are very proud of our quinoa.’
However, getting their quinoa customer-ready has been a monumental task, not to mention an expensive one. To date, every cent they’ve made has been ploughed back into the business. There’s been a lot to learn, from how to create a website, Trade Me stores, Facebook and nutritional information labelling, to sourcing biodegradable packaging. Recently they’ve forked out thousands on food safety; a necessity if they’re going to succeed in getting their product into the big supermarket chains.
‘It’s been a steep learning curve for us. At the end of the day, we are just farmers. It’s all new to us,’ says Gaewynne, who worked as a librarian for 30 years before joining Andrew on the farm. They’ve found learning how to sell it, especially having to put themselves out there, confronting at times. ‘I am not really a natural salesperson,’ says Gaewynne.
Although quinoa has quickly become a restaurant and café staple, as simple to cook as rice, couscous or pasta, establishing just how big the New Zealand market is has been
‘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.
almost impossible, says Andrew. According to the Ministry for Primary Industries, about 300 tonnes of quinoa is imported annually, but it’s not known if it’s raw seed or in muesli bars, which makes it difficult to know just how much they should grow. At the farmers’ market, Gaewynne finds she spends a lot of time talking about the product, but that doesn’t always transform into sales.
Quinoa is easy to use. First rinse thoroughly in cold water, add one part quinoa to two parts water, bring to boil, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. It’s ready when the liquid is absorbed and the grains are tender. Leave it to cool in the pot and then fluff with a fork and serve. ‘People know the product, but they are cautious. It’s about working out how to change people’s habits. We’ve got to get them to stretch their minds and incorporate quinoa into every meal. It should be relatively easy, we just need to change their thinking,’ says Gaewynne.
In a bid to give them a point of difference from other growers, Andrew and Gaewynne have trialled red and black quinoa varieties, with little success, and recently introduced an organic quinoa line. They have successfully produced a glutenfree quinoa flake that can be used for porridge or as a suitable addition to baking that is not grainy in texture and binds the ingredients together, which is exciting. ‘We are trying to think of everything. Having the organic quinoa has added another string to our bow. As a business we are looking at any opportunity to help us sell more product. The interest is there; it can only grow, but making it financially successful is still some way off,’ says Andrew.