(Setaria italica)
Foxtail millet is an ancient grain domesticated in China or Central Asia thousands of years ago. It is gluten free, and has a phenomenal rate of increase; each plant produces several thousand seeds! Its only disadvantage is that the seeds have hulls which must be removed before eating. We do this by soaking the grain in water for 15 minutes, then pounding it in a large wooden mortar until the hulls come off. We then spread it on baking sheets to dry, and winnow in front of a box fan to remove the hulls. It makes excellent porridge, or can be used anywhere you would use rice.
Foxtail millets are organized into three morphological groups. Plants from the Maxima group have a single large stem and head. Members of the Moharia group have many tillers, or side shoots, and numerous smaller heads. The Indica group is intermediate. For ease of hand-harvesting, the Maxima group might be preferable; for competing well with weeds, the Moharias are superior.
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Golden German foxtail millet
- $4.00 – $8.00
- (Setaria italica) A Moharia-type foxtail, this millet has enthusiastic plants which are very uniform and produce many tillers with beautiful heads. Competes well with weeds, and visually stunning, with no lodging! A remarkable variety. Its only downside is that it is slightly harder to thresh than some. Popular as a cover crop, and it would do well in this role. In a booklet (Greg Hinze, Millets in Colorado, Colorado State…
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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…
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Hell’s Canyon foxtail millet
- $4.00 – $8.00
- (Setaria italica) A Maxima type with dense, orange heads. Very pretty, especially when the leaves begin turning purple as it senesces.
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Mezohegyesi Sarga Magvu foxtail millet
- $4.00 – $8.00
- (Setaria italica) A Moharia type. Tall, about 4’, with small heads and many tillers. Beautiful. My small patch of this millet lodged repeatedly in heavy wind and rain near harvest time, but it kept standing back up again, and so suffered little damage! The birds loved it, though. This variety came from the USDA National Plant Germplasm System (the American national seedbank), where it is accession # PI 531446. I…
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SET 12/85 foxtail millet
- $4.00 – $8.00
- (Setaria italica) A tall, lean, Maxima type with long, loose heads. Rather more spare looking than most other foxtail millets – possibly preferable for thatching? Two advantages I noticed right away: the loose heads thresh easily, and unlike our other foxtails their insides are dark, meaning that it is easy to see if you missed any of the bright yellow seeds while threshing! The downside may be slightly lower yield,…
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Vysokorosky foxtail millet
- $4.00 – $8.00
- (Setaria italica) From Kazakhstan. An Indica type with few tillers and very furry heads. Large and vigorous plants. Some theorize that Kazakhstan may be where foxtail millet was domesticated, which intrigues me. This variety came from the USDA National Plant Germplasm System (the American national seedbank), where it is accession # PI 662290.
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Limelight foxtail millet
- $4.00 – $8.00
- (Setaria italica) Limelight is a foxtail millet, so named because – to the imaginitive mind? – the seedheads resemble a fox’s tail. Native to China, it has larger leaves and stems than most grains we grow here, and much larger seedheads; plants are 3-4’/1-1.3 m tall with seedheads 8-12”/20-30 cm long! Highly ornamental grain is very popular with the birds, so keep an eye out for them as it nears…
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