Little millet, the shorter cousin of proso millet
The Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) featured an article on its website last year entitled "The Big Potential of Little Millet."/1 Part of what's interesting about little millet is that it's in the same genus as proso millet./2 It is shorter than proso, but from photos (see the article or the Pinterest section on little millet/3), its panicles bear resemblance to those of proso. Not aware that it is grown in North America, but could this be easily added as a crop? Could harvesting techniques for proso be adapted for it? Anyone anywhere done taste tests on the two? I have inquired why SSSA featured an article on this particular millet, and will share whatever I learn. Of possible interest for further reading (if you have access to Jstor or a university library) is a book chapter by Steven A. Weber and Arunima Kashyap entitled "Panicum sumatrense: The Forgotten Millet."/4 DO - www.soils.org/news/science-news/big-potential-little-millet/ - Little millet = Panicum sumatrense; proso millet = Panicum miliaceum. Among the dozen or so cultivated millets, these represent the only two from a common genus. - https://www.pinterest.com/drdonosborn/millets-plural/little-millet/ - MINNIS, PAUL E., ed. New Lives for Ancient and Extinct Crops. University of Arizona Press, 2014. Chapter 8, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1mgmcgt.11
Quick follow-up on this item about little millet: It turns out that SSSA and sister organizations like Crop Science Society of America, have research journals (no surprise), and that articles in these suggest topics for articles on their website targeted to wider audiences. In this case, the research article in question was: Mani Vetriventhan, Hari D Upadhyaya, Vania CR Azevedo, Victor Allan, and Seetha Anitha, "Variability and trait-specific accessions for grain yield and nutritional traits in germplasm of little millet (Panicum sumatrense Roth. Ex. Roem. & Schult.)," Crop Science 61(4): 2658-2679. July/August 2021. https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20527 There still seem to me to be some outstanding questions about the potential of this particular millet in North America, so watch this space. DO ------- Original Message ------- On Tuesday, March 8th, 2022 at 2:23 PM, Don Osborn via Collab <collab@lists.millets2023.space> wrote:
The Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) featured an article on its website last year entitled "The Big Potential of Little Millet."/1
Part of what's interesting about little millet is that it's in the same genus as proso millet./2 It is shorter than proso, but from photos (see the article or the Pinterest section on little millet/3), its panicles bear resemblance to those of proso.
Not aware that it is grown in North America, but could this be easily added as a crop? Could harvesting techniques for proso be adapted for it? Anyone anywhere done taste tests on the two?
I have inquired why SSSA featured an article on this particular millet, and will share whatever I learn.
Of possible interest for further reading (if you have access to Jstor or a university library) is a book chapter by Steven A. Weber and Arunima Kashyap entitled "Panicum sumatrense: The Forgotten Millet."/4
DO
- www.soils.org/news/science-news/big-potential-little-millet/ - Little millet = Panicum sumatrense; proso millet = Panicum miliaceum. Among the dozen or so cultivated millets, these represent the only two from a common genus. - https://www.pinterest.com/drdonosborn/millets-plural/little-millet/ - MINNIS, PAUL E., ed. New Lives for Ancient and Extinct Crops. University of Arizona Press, 2014. Chapter 8, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1mgmcgt.11
Another follow-up to this post on little millet (Panicum sumatrense) from a couple of months ago: Two items: First, I did a taste test of little millet today, having sourced some of this grain from Rani Foods, aa Houston based vendor of foods notably from India. (The choice was somewhat random.) See https://ranibrand.com/ Observations: * The grains were a shade darker than I expected * Cooking (in a small automatic rice-cooker) the smell was much like rice, but with another note that I can only describe as slightly earthy. Not unpleasant - I was tempted to compare it to quinoa, which has its own characteristic smell when cooking * It cooked to a nice texture (easily fluffed like Moroccan couscous) * Cooked, the color was off-white * The taste was plain, again, somewhat like rice; a slightly higher taste on the back of the tongue; the "earthiness" noted in the cooking smell was not prominent in eating. (I find proso to have a "rounder" taste, and will have make fresh my impressions of that grain, which I usually cook in stews.) Verdict: Good! The attached photo shows the package, a grain cup ("160 ml" measure) of the dry grain, and a bowl of the cooked little millet. (The amount in the grain cup cooks just over two bowls of the size shown) The second item is discovering some of the work by the late ethnobiologist Steven Weber on little millet and other small millets going back to the Indus Valley civilization. Some interesting conceptual work to help understand the history and future of millets that I hope to come back to. For example: Weber, Steven A., and Arunima Kashyap. “Panicum Sumatrense: The Forgotten Millet.” In New Lives for Ancient and Extinct Crops, edited by PAUL E. MINNIS, 236–53. University of Arizona Press, 2014. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1mgmcgt.11 (I have reached out to Dr. Kashyap.) As time permits, I'll pay similar attention to selected other millets. (On the food side, I've also sourced some kodo millet - more to come) DO, EL, MI, US ------- Original Message ------- On Saturday, March 12th, 2022 at 11:47 AM, Don Osborn <donosborn@protonmail.com> wrote:
Quick follow-up on this item about little millet: It turns out that SSSA and sister organizations like Crop Science Society of America, have research journals (no surprise), and that articles in these suggest topics for articles on their website targeted to wider audiences.
In this case, the research article in question was: Mani Vetriventhan, Hari D Upadhyaya, Vania CR Azevedo, Victor Allan, and Seetha Anitha, "Variability and trait-specific accessions for grain yield and nutritional traits in germplasm of little millet (Panicum sumatrense Roth. Ex. Roem. & Schult.)," Crop Science 61(4): 2658-2679. July/August 2021. https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20527
There still seem to me to be some outstanding questions about the potential of this particular millet in North America, so watch this space.
DO
------- Original Message ------- On Tuesday, March 8th, 2022 at 2:23 PM, Don Osborn via Collab <collab@lists.millets2023.space> wrote:
The Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) featured an article on its website last year entitled "The Big Potential of Little Millet."/1
Part of what's interesting about little millet is that it's in the same genus as proso millet./2 It is shorter than proso, but from photos (see the article or the Pinterest section on little millet/3), its panicles bear resemblance to those of proso.
Not aware that it is grown in North America, but could this be easily added as a crop? Could harvesting techniques for proso be adapted for it? Anyone anywhere done taste tests on the two?
I have inquired why SSSA featured an article on this particular millet, and will share whatever I learn.
Of possible interest for further reading (if you have access to Jstor or a university library) is a book chapter by Steven A. Weber and Arunima Kashyap entitled "Panicum sumatrense: The Forgotten Millet."/4
DO
- www.soils.org/news/science-news/big-potential-little-millet/ - Little millet = Panicum sumatrense; proso millet = Panicum miliaceum. Among the dozen or so cultivated millets, these represent the only two from a common genus. - https://www.pinterest.com/drdonosborn/millets-plural/little-millet/ - MINNIS, PAUL E., ed. New Lives for Ancient and Extinct Crops. University of Arizona Press, 2014. Chapter 8, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1mgmcgt.11
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