Researcher Kevin Murphy currently has plots of 44 varieties of quinoa and 30 varieties of buckwheat in five different locations around the state, including the WU Organic Farm outside of Pullman.
His long-term goal is to breed varieties growers can count on regardless of where they live in the state.
We are trying to find a variety for each major ecosystem in the state," says Murphy.
His research, funded by WSU's BioAg project, got its start in western Washington where he was working with organic grain growers. "They are using small-scale equipment and want to keep using it, diversity a little and sell a new product to the local store," he explains.
Two markets have expressed a desire to purchase their products, he notes.
"Some organic growers raise grain, but they want to diversify their grain rotation," Murphy says. "Over the past couple of years, organic growers in western Washington have started to grow wheat for local consumption; bakeries that used to get their wheat from Canada, Utah or the Great Plains states prefer to source their grain from essentially next door.
"Based on that success, a lot of farmers want to keep going."
Making the new grains work in the PNW is not without challenges, he admits.
"Quinoa usually is not grown above the 42nd parallel, and we're at the 46th," he notes. "We're going to have to develop varieties adapted to long days, and a short growing season;. The biggest issue is funding a variety that will mature on time."
Quinoa is a dual purpose crop that yields both greens and grain. Leaves are nutritious – they taste like spinach – and enjoy a relatively long market life. The rice-like grain, mostly grown in the Andes, is able to pull salt from the soil. Saline soils are an unfortunate irrigation byproduct, and Murphy hopes to conduct studies using quinoa to remediate highly saline soils in Washington.
