Golden Seed

 I initially became interested in the chia seed (Salvia Hispanica) after taking up endurance long distance running in 2014. While researching and learning more about the nutritional requirements of this sport, I read multiple accounts of the Tarahumara Indians. This small and isolated Native American tribe in northwestern Mexico is famous for their ability to beat the best distance runners in the world. They swear by their energy gel recipe of chia seed shots mixed with lemon juice and honey before each race, which they claimed to boost their endurance and improve muscle recovery.

I had a jar of chia seeds in my store cupboard and had never given them much thought previously, but I learned that the seed’s characteristics make them a valuable meal addition for runners (and non-runners alike): they contain three times more iron than spinach, twice the potassium content of banana and seven times more vitamin C than oranges. They are unusually rich in omega-3 fatty acids, protein, iron, calcium, vitamins & antioxidants, all this goodness in a seed that is only 1mm in diameter. I began to have a portion of the seeds every day in my breakfast while training for my first half marathon race and have done so religiously ever since. I noticed an unusual mucilaginous coating that appears after the seeds have contact with fluid. They are hydrophilic, and absorb more than 12 times their weight in liquid when soaked, giving them this gel like consistency. I started soaking them in glass petri dishes to see what happened when they germinated and made photographs and cyanotype contact prints of their progress in what my young children and I came to refer to as the “germination station”. I eventually planted the seedlings and was able to grow them indoors with varying successes.

The edible seeds of this flowering plant from the mint family have a rich history. After the Spanish conquest of Latin America, chia seeds became a taboo food, prohibited for consumption under the new Spanish rule because they were so revered by the native tribespeople to whom the seed seemed to have religious connotations which unnerved the Spanish invaders. The 16th-century Codex Mendoza provides evidence that it was cultivated by the Aztecs in pre-Columbian times, it has been a staple food source for over 4000 years. Offerings to the Aztec priesthood were often paid in chia seed as a sign of its high value.

When the world began to cotton on to the great power of the tiny seed, demand grew and I wondered if it was a sustainable crop, dreading finding out that it was not, for fear that I would have to give them up. The humble chia seed surprised me again, the seeds and the leaves of the plant are rich in essential oils, and a bonus of this other than the health giving properties to us humans, is that the oils naturally repel herbivorous insects and can be grown without any need for insecticides.

All hail the mighty chia!