The Multi-Vitamin Garden

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Millet

The ancient Hunzas and Chinese knew something most of us don't; millet was one of the first grains to be domesticated. And with good reason: Millet contains more of the essential amino acids - and is more easily digested - than wheat, rye, oats, rice or barley. Yet the only time most Americans use millet is to feed caged birds! It's also widely used as a livestock feed (I bought the seed I planted from a local feed-and-seed store). Millet is becoming more popular as food for humans, though, and can now be purchased at food co-ops, health food stores and even some chain groceries. Proso, or broomcorn millet, and pearl millet (which is said to be easy to thresh) are the varieties most used for human consumption. Pearl millet has long, compact seed heads - the plants look a lot like cattails-and has been grown as emergency forage on many a farm when fall was approaching and a quick crop was needed. (Millet will yield good livestock forage in as little as one month.) While millet grows best in fertile ground, it's known for its hardiness in poor soils and under dry conditions. It's also quite disease- and pest-resistant. It can be sowed any time from spring to early fall, depending on the climate. You can broadcast seed onto prepared ground and chop it in about one to three inches deep with a heavy metal rake. Or, in a small garden, you can plant it closely in rows. Harvest the seed heads about three months after sowing. Be sure to get them before they're fully ripe, or foraging birds will leave you nary a one. Tie the heads together and hang them upside down in a dry place - inside a bag or else loose if your storage area is free from mice. (Does such a place exist?) You can grind the seeds finely, hull and all, or flail or winnow them as our forebears did. My main uses for millet have been as a breakfast cereal, mixed with rice in stir-fried dishes and as an extender in bread and fish loaves. There's no shortage of good recipes for this grain in health-oriented and international cookbooks. (And any you don't eat makes great hay or hen feed.) So if you want to take one more step toward nutritional self-sufficiency, try a home plot of millet.

Sesame

I saw my first sesame plant at the Blue Ridge Institute's Farm Museum in Ferrum, Virginia, and was intrigued even then. But after doing research for this article and discovering sesame's high percentage of niacin, riboflavin, thiamine, vitamin E, calcium, iron, manganese, phosphorus and protein, I decided to grow some myself.

Sesame was smuggled into this country by African Americans, who called it benne. It's the basis for the popular Middle Eastern sauce and condiment tahini - which has helped people realize sesame can be used for more than a topping on hamburger buns. Seeds can also be added to cake. cookie and bread recipes to boost their nutritional quality. And there's an old tradition of making benne cakes and candy, with sesame as the principal ingredient. A tender annual, benne requires 70 to 110 days of full sunshine, and good spacing (at least 12 inches) between plants for aeration. The long taproot makes it sensitive to transplanting but also serves as its hedge against drought. In midsummer; the three-foot-tall plants form attractive purple-white flowers... which eventually become small hairy pods loaded with seed. The pods' tendency to ripen unevenly and propel their seed in bursts makes this crop a misfit in the world of industrial agriculture, but a fine orphan child for the home gardener.

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