The earliest recorded utilization of quinoa plant in history happened about 8 to 9 thousand years ago in the areas surrounding Lake Titicaca. There was an evidence of the native Bolivian community cultivating the crop. Ancient people were able to improve on the fruit of the plant to make the seeds much larger and at the same time making the size of the outer shell smaller. The plant is so versatile that ancient people not only used it for food but to hear certain kinds of diseases as well.

Quinoa was basically prepared and eaten like rice and it is one of the three staple foods of the early people of Peru and Bolivia. The other two are corn and potatoes. They were also able to come up with a beer made of fermented quinoa and they would drink it to celebrate new harvest.

The quinoa plant was so sacred that religious rites were held in its honor. The most important rite happened during the first planting of the first quinoa seed of the new season. The Incan emperor (whom they considered as a god) performed the planting by making use of a golden taquiza. The ritual was passed down through generations and lasted until 1532. This year marks the fall of the Incas to the Spaniards.

The Spanish Army killed the Incan emperor and destroyed the quinoa crop while taking over the lands. The conquerors suppressed all quinoa practices and usage but some of the natives would sneak to the higher portions of the land to secretly cultivate quinoa plant. People forgot about the plant until the 1970s.

Don McKinley and Stephen Gorad were students to a Bolivian spiritual leader Oscar Ichazo. The two mean built the Quinoa Corporation in 1983 in Boulder, Colorado and today quinoa is grown in the Colorado Rockies and in the Canadian Prairies. Most of the quinoa marketed in the U.S. though come from South America.