Buckwheat

Buckwheat is a frost-tender short-season green manure crop. A wonderful summer cover crop before readying a bed for fall planting. It can be used to reclaim badly degraded soils and subsoils. Grows quickly to 2’. Buckwheat will out-compete most tenacious weeds in fields with high weed seed densities. Planting several successions in a season can be effective for eradicating persistent annual weeds. An easy cover crop to work with, as brittle roots are easily chopped up. An accumulator of insoluble phosphorus that is released back into the soil when tilled in.

Leaves are eaten cooked like spinach. Seeds are also eaten raw or cooked, a nutty flavor but they have a gritty texture. Seeds can also be sprouted and added to salads. Seeds can also be ground into a cereal and made into pancakes, noodles, breads or be used as a thickening agent in soups etc. Buckwheat contains no gluten and may be eaten by people with celiac disease or gluten allergies. Protein is 18% with a high concentration of all essential amino acids, especially lysine, threonine, tryptophan, and the sulphur-containing amino acids. Rich in vitamin B6.

Buckwheat is a bitter but pleasant tasting herb that is frequently used medicinally because the leaves are a good source of rutin. Rutin is useful in the treatment of a wide range of circulatory problems, it dilates the blood vessels, reduces capillary permeability and lowers blood pressure. The leaves and shoots of flowering plants are acrid, astringent and vasodilator. It is used internally in the treatment of high blood pressure, gout, varicose veins, chilblains, radiation damage. It is best used in conjunction with vitamin C since this aids absorption. A poultice made from the seeds has been used for restoring the flow of milk in nursing mothers. n infusion of the herb has been used in the treatment of erysipelas, an acute infectious skin disease.

The nectar from buckwheat flower makes a dark-colored honey. A blue dye is obtained from the stems. A brown dye is obtained from the flowers.

Tags: Color: Green, Specialty: Cover Crop, Season: Spring Fall.

Despite the name, buckwheat is not related to wheat, as it is not a grass. Instead, buckwheat is related to sorrel and rhubarb. The name 'buckwheat' or 'beech wheat' comes from its triangular seeds, which resemble the much larger seeds of the beech nut from the beech tree, and the fact that it is used like wheat. Common buckwheat was domesticated and first cultivated in inland Southeast Asia, possibly around 6000 BCE, and from there spread to Central Asia and Tibet, and then to the Middle East and Europe. Domestication most likely took place in the western Yunnan region of China. Buckwheat is documented in Europe in Finland by at least 5300 BCE as a first sign of agriculture, and in the Balkans by circa 4000 BCE in the Middle Neolithic.