New Ground for Quinoa in Bhutan

New Ground for Quinoa in Bhutan

THIMPHU, Bhutan  — The morning light washes over Norbu Gyeltshen’s terraced fields with a soft, deliberate glow, catching the pale seed heads of quinoa that rise among the maize and chili. When Norbu and his wife, Pema Sedon, first planted the crop in their little town of Bartsham in eastern Bhutan, it was little more than an experiment: one row among many in the red soil that had only ever held rice and buckwheat. Now the crop stands at the cen…