the.com/millet
the grain that fed empires before rice and wheat ever showed up to brag
means Millet is any of several small-seeded cereal grasses (and their tiny grains) grown for food and fodder, hardy enough to thrive where bigger crops would sulk.
from From Old French 'millet,' a diminutive of 'mil,' which comes from Latin 'milium' meaning millet — a word with deep roots in the grain-growing world, possibly a distant cousin of Greek 'meline.' The Latin 'milium' has sometimes been linked by folk reasoning to 'mille' (thousand), as if named for its countless seeds, but that tidy story is unproven and likely just a coincidence of sound.
- ancient staple
- Cultivated in China over 10,000 years ago
- drought proof
- Thrives where wheat and rice would die
- birdseed demotion
- Once human food, now mostly fed to birds
- gluten free
- Naturally contains zero gluten
- fast grower
- Matures in as little as 60 days
pearl millet — staple grain crop in africa and india, provides 3% of global cereal production
finger millet — grown across east africa and south asia, major protein source in ethiopia and uganda
proso millet — cultivated in china for over 8,000 years, now primary bird seed in north america