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Two things spurred this post on. The first thing, I harvested amaranth yesterday and again I was struck at how much such a humble plant can produce. The second thing, I read a passage in the book *Welcome to Lagos* by the author **Chibundu Onuzo** that stuck with me for weeks now. The passage is about the parable of the 5 loaves and the 2 fish or the *feeding the multitude* in which Jesus fed either 4000 or 5000 people: 

> “This is one of those stories that make the Bible so unbelievable.”
“Why?”
[…]
“Well, how can five loaves multiply into five thousand?”
“Is it not a miracle?”
[…]
“It is not such a big miracle,” Fineboy continued. “I used to go to my grandma’s farm in the village. We planted maize there. You put four seeds in the ground and when you came back a few months later, if the soil was good and there was enough rain, a few seeds had multiplied into thousands.”

Back to the amaranth: from a humble number of small seeds, in a matter of months, I harvested 100-fold what I planted. Plus, I harvested leaves from them and used them like spinach. Another story. Some of my onions began to sprout and normally people will throw them out. I planted them an in 6 months I harvested about 6 smallish onions plus three of the others went to seed. 

In today’s post, I am musing and philosophising about this simple idea in the book of **Chibundu Onuzo**: how we as gardeners and homesteaders perform “literal” miracles when we plant a single seed and harvest hundreds. I am going to write about four plants that I harvested recently: common purslane, common white onion, wild and salad rocket, and amaranth. This is going to be a philosophical post interwoven with my (little) experience at growing food for myself. If you are not philosophical of nature, please do not feel threatened. Read on if you’d like, but interspersed throughout the post there will be talk about practical things about plants and food. Also, this post will radical reading of the *Feeding the Multitude* parable influenced by the author **Chibundu Onuzo**’s reading of the parable in her book *Welcome to Lagos*.

![_dsc1754.jpg](https://images.ecency.com/DQmQp2fBtcDEGest5dAcCChLFRYJsxK9Pk75RSGy48BYvmf/_dsc1754.jpg)

<center>  | ***Onion seed pods: From one there will be many*** |   </center>

(**N.B.**  *This is not a post endorsing Christianity or anything in that line. If you are not religious or from another religion, please do not think I am endorsing any of this. This is a philosophical post about gardening and multiplying food seemingly in a miraculous fashion.*) 

# A Radical Reading of the Feeding the Multitude Parable: Jesus as a Gardener

In the passage I provided above, the author **Chibundu Onuzo** through one of the characters gives a radical reading of the Feeding the Multitude parable found in the Christian Bible. In this parable, Jesus feeds 4000 or 5000 people with less than ten loaves of bread and a couple of fish. One might read this literary, and hence the miracle-nature of the story, but one might read it radically like **Chibundu Onuzo**: Jesus was a gardener. Throughout the novel of **Chibundu Onuzo** one finds these re-readings of the Bible with the focus on gardening or farming. (*Note:* Trying to find some sources online with people who read these stories in a similar fashion proved to be almost impossible. Jesus was mistaken for a gardener by Mary when He walked out of the cave, so all the Google searches take you to that story. In any case.) 

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<center>  | ***Six onions From One*** |   </center>

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This leads one to an interesting thought: Aren’t gardeners and homesteaders who grow food performing mini-miracles on a daily basis? Turning single seeds into food and hundreds of seeds which themselves can be future plants. Take the simple equation linked to, say, **basil**. If you propagate it via seed, you plant maybe 5 plants. Let it go to seed and it will provide you with maybe 50 seeds. Let us say the next season you plant 25 of those seeds and 15 make it to the next bolting phase. That is then maybe 150 seeds. In less than 3 seasons you exponentially grew your initial investment of 5 plants. This will quickly lead you to the idea of *infinite growth* when you grow your own food. (And we are not even talking about growing new basil plants from cuttings!)

# Infinite Growth: Onions, Purslane, Amaranth and Rocket

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<center>  | ***Tiny Wild Rocket Seeds with infinite potential*** |   </center>

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Three or four onions started sprouting in the food cupboard. They became unusable in the kitchen, and I opted to stick them in the ground. If they died, food for the bugs in the ground, if not, food for me! In six or so months, I saw the tops of what looked like three onions. I let them grow bigger and bigger, and last week or so I pulled six smallish onions from the ground. Where I planted one, I got back six! The other one is still in the ground, and yet another one bolted into three lovely seed heads with countless seeds waiting to be harvested! If that is not a return on an investment I do not know. All jokes aside, this again symbolizes the parable above: by placing one in the ground, I was able to take six out of the ground. Feeding the multitudes becomes a real possibility when you think about it in these terms. 

Another one of my favourite “infinitely” growable herbs is **wild and salad rocket (Diplotaxis tenuifolia and Eruca vesicaria)**. Spreading their seeds like weeds (they are “technically” weeds) they produce, on one hand, so much food (in the form of their leaves) and, on the other hand, so many seeds that with one successful harvest of seed you will never run out again. I am still using seeds that I harvested 5 years ago. I have three full jars of subsequent harvests. I also have unprocessed seeds in the bucket of wild rocket and salad rocket I need to sift. That is not to speak of the seeds that self-sow! 

![img_2509.jpg](https://images.ecency.com/DQmSEXgSzLsPW7JX72Yoq1TqvbuHfnFRQDkBLo5tx7QF2Sw/img_2509.jpg)

<center>  | ***Hundreds of Plants in the Palm of my Hand*** |   </center>

Let us move on to the two plants that produce the most seeds: **Amaranthus** and **common purslane (Portulaca oleracea)**. I fell in love with amaranth when I read that you could use the leaves like spinach. This coincided with my learning about African (or Xhosa) cuisine. Not only a great and tastier substitute to spinach, but it is also more nutritious and more abundant. Especially when you factor in the number of seeds it produces. Plus, you can then use the seeds in food as well. From a couple of square feet, I grew a couple of pounds of seeds. This is obviously not enough to feed you in the long run, but I grew these as experiments in a very small space. Plus, I eat more of the leaves than the seeds. 

![_dsc1753.jpg](https://images.ecency.com/DQmRJovEgboqC5x5r5b9hJN4T5JkT4hzyzP9ffrXQTWCkAN/_dsc1753.jpg)

<center>  | ***The many Amaranthus Heads*** |   </center>

Purslane is one of those plants that is seen as a weed, I am sure, due to the number of seeds it produces. One plant can apparently produce over 5000 thousand seeds. If you ever grew purslane you will know. From only a handful of cuttings I made, I produces what feels like 100’s of seeds. Normally I let them self-sow or self-seed, but this year for my own sanity I decided to store some seeds. 

![_dsc1765.jpg](https://images.ecency.com/DQmV23rMDE1GLrm3n9VqffajTHZPQKrFJqR75dGhk6HPFT7/_dsc1765.jpg)

<center>  | ***The Amazing Number of Purslane Seeds: How Much is too Much?*** |   </center>

# The Meaning of This All…:

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<center>  | ***Amaranthus Heads*** |   </center>

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This post is already too long, and I haven’t even written everything I wanted! In any case, what is the point of it all or the meaning of it? Well, I tried to home in on the point that gardeners are “miracle” performers. Okay, I made that point. Now the implication of this post: we gardeners and homesteaders have the ability to **feed the multitude**. Trying to research this parable in the Bible, I stumbled upon yet another reading of the parable that I think ties in so well with the above reading. [Tucked away in an answer on Quora, one of the authors (Ian Senior) provides their reading: there was enough food and the reason why Jesus did the “miracle” was to put people at ease to share, as they harboured a fear of sharing.](https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-scientific-explanation-for-Jesus-feeding-5-000-people-with-fish-and-loaves-of-bread) Is this not how we as miracle performers should act? Sharing our produce that seems to infinitely grow in our palms? 

# A sort of Post Scriptum

Infinite growth is a touchy subject due to its connotations to our modern systems that take more out of the earth than give back. I, however, use the notion differently. Also, the radical reading of the parable from the Bible comes from the novel *Welcome to Lagos* by the author **Chibundu Onuzo**; however, I built my own ideas on this. All the photographs were taken with my Nikon D300 and iPhone. 

Do you feel like a miracle worker when you harvest produce/food/seeds? Please share your thoughts in the comments! This post is way too long, but if you read everything, thank you so much! Stay safe, and happy herbalism! 

![img_2467.jpg](https://images.ecency.com/DQmeBqa7iNZPnL9pcq4AAjyEuCb52kqqFa1fZJHvay85nFm/img_2467.jpg)

<center>  | ***Harvested onions, onion seed head, amaranthus leaves*** |   </center>



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