Golden Temple foxtail millet
$4.00 – $8.00
(Setaria italica)
Large, Maxima-type plants with long heads which turn from light green to gold as they mature. This variety has a somewhat improbable story of survival: I was given its seed in 2023 by Paula Dubeski, a fellow member of Seeds of Diversity Canada in Alberta. She had obtained seed in 2014 from Sourcepoint Seeds in Hotchkiss, Colorado, but had never grown it out; so she sent me the packet of decade-old seed. When I researched Sourcepoint, I found that it had been a small seed company run by Anpetu Oihankesni. Anpetu, born Jeffrey Zellich, was an avid seedsaver who lived in great simplicity and was into macrobiotics and Vipassana meditation. He received his new name from the Lakota Sioux, with whom he lived for a while. He collected many rare seeds in South Asia which were not available from any other source in North America, including this millet (I assume its name refers to the Sikh Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab, but don’t know). Anpetu died in August 2017, and his seed company died with him. What a responsibility for we seed savers who remain! I sowed my millet seeds carefully, and a few plants grew! I am so happy to have revived it, and grateful to the chain of people who made it possible for me to grow it.
Plant once soil is warm, a week or two after the average last frost (about the same time as common beans and amaranth). Sow seeds ¼” deep, 6” apart in rows 8” apart. Millet likes heat. Bird like millet; when the heads near maturity, pay close attention, and take precautions if you observe the birds beginning to feast. Seedheads can be harvested after frost kills the plants and dried further if necessary before threshing, which is easily accomplished by treading on them.