FAGOPYRUM ESCULENTUMAlthough treated like a grass-family grain (wheat, oats, barley, etc.), buckwheat is not a grass. The seeds are actually the fruits of an annual herbaceous plant that’s related to the Japanese knotweed and Silver Lace Vine.
The seeds consist of an outer layer or hull, an inner layer that is the seed coat (or middling), and a starchy endosperm and germ in the center. In milling, the hull—about 20 percent of the weight of the grain—is removed. A second milling removes the seed coat, comprising 4 to 18 percent of the weight, depending on how much is milled away. Most buckwheat flour has some seed coat remaining, making the flour a light greyish brown. Further milling yields a whitish flour.
THE ORGANIC FACTOR
Buckwheat is one of the chief “green manures” used by organic farmers and gardeners. It is sown thickly on a plot of tired ground previously used for a crop that takes up a lot of nutrients from the soil. When it flowers, bees love it and make buckwheat honey. If allowed to go to seed, we get the nutritious buckwheat seeds. But most farmers plow it into the soil just after it flowers for its strong fertilizing and soil rejuvenating powers.
NUTRITION
Buckwheat is high in calcium and protein, especially lysine, an essential amino acid that corn lacks, making any corn-and-kasha dish a source of complete protein (see recipe).
USES
Most of the buckwheat sold in the United States is ground into flour and used as an addition to enrich wheat flour for use in pancake batter, breads, and other baked goods. Some whole buckwheat is roasted, after which it is called groats or kasha. Whole buckwheat is also used in chicken scratch. Middlings are often fed to livestock, because they’re high in protein.
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