Buckwheat

Buckwheat

Zubereitung:
Buckwheat, common name for certain members of the Polygonaceä, a
family of herbs and shrubs found chiefly in north temperate areas and
having a characteristic pungent juice containing oxalic acid. Species
native to the United States are most common in the West. The largest
genus of the family, Polygonum (or Persicaria), contains the knotweeds
and the smartweeds, found in many parts of the world. The common
smartweed (P. hydropiper) is an annual sometimes called water pepper
for its acrid quality.
Several species of the dock genus (Rumex) are sorrels (the common name
used also for the similarly acrid but unrelated oxalis). The garden, or
green, sorrel (R. acetosa) and the sheep, red, or field sorrel (R.
acetosella) have long been used in Europe for salads and greens. Among
the plants used as potherbs are the patience or spinach dock (R.
patientia) and the tanner's dock (R. hymenosepalus); the latter is the
source of canaigre, a substance used for tanning. Economically the
important members of the family are of the rhubarb genus (Rheum) and
the buckwheat genus (Fagopyrum), both native to Asia. Most of the
rhubarb cultivated for the edible thick, fleshy leafstalks is R.
rhaponticum, called also pieplant and wine plant. Medicinal rhubarb is
obtained from this and other species of the genus.
The cultivated buckwheat (F. esculentum) has been grown in the Old
World since the Middle Ages as a honey plant and for its characteristic
three-cornered grain, which is utilized for poultry and stock feed.
Buckwheat flour is used in the United States, Japan, and eastern
Europe; the plant is sown as a cover crop and is a food staple. The
genus Eriogonum includes the wild, or yellow, buckwheat (E. alleni),
restricted to the Appalachian shale barrens, and many Western species,
e.g., the desert trumpet (E. inflatum), a desert flower of arid plains
and plateaus. The interesting genus Königia has only one species, but
it is found in arctic regions, in the Himalayas, and in Tierra del
Fügo. Buckwheat is classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class
Magnoliopsida, order Polygonales, family Polygonaceä.

Buckwheat Polygonaceä Fagopyrum sp.

Japanese buckwheat F. esculentum Mönch Silver hull (Common Gray)
buckwheat F. esculentum Mönch Tertary buckwheat F. tataricum (L.)
Gärtn.

Wing-seeded buckwheat F. emarginatum Mönch Buckwheat is believed to
have originated in Central and Western China. It is now a relatively
minor crop in the United States.
Average acreage grown, 1960-64 inclusive, was about 57,000. This
contrasts with near one million acres 50 years earlier. Present
production is probaly under one million bushels, tboug exact data are
lacking.

The buckwheat plant is entirely different from other grains and is not
a grass. It is a summer annual with rather coarse, branched stems and
large, broadly arrow-shaped leaves. Flower panicles and leaves rise
from the nodes, both on the main stem and branches. Growth habit is
indeterminate with flowers opening throughout a long season, so the
seed crop dös not mature at one time. The seed is partially but not
entirely enclosed by adhering flower parts during development.

Buckwheat is usually seeded only after the ground is thoroughly warm in
early summer. Plants will begin blooming in about 40 days from seeding
and first seeds mature about 35 days later.
Harvesting is done when a substantial part of the seed is ripe.
Fields are then mowed and plants are stacked to dry before they can be
threshed.


Seeds are pointed, broad at the base, and triangular to nearly round in
cross section. They vary in size in different kinds from about 4 mm at
maximum width and 6 mm. long to 2 mm. wide and 4 mm. long. The seed
consists of an outer layer or hull, an inner layer, the seed coat
proper, and within this a starchy endosperm and the germ. In milling
the hull, which comprises 18 to 20 percent of the whole grain weight,
is first removed. A second milling removes most of the seed coat or
"middlings" which comprise 4 to 18 percent of the whole grain weight
depending on how completely the seed coat tissüs are removed.
In most buckwheat flour some of the seed coat particles remain,
resulting in a light brown color. More complete milling results in a
white flour.

The Japanese buckwheat is most widely grown in this country. The seeds
are large, brown in color, and triangular in cross section.
Plants are tall, rather coarse growers with large, broad arrowshaped
leaves.

Silverhull plants are smaller than Japanese with smaller leaves.
The seeds are small, nearly round in cross section, glossy and gray in
color. The hulls are thinner than in Japanese. A kind tenned Common
Gray is probably identical with Silverhull.

Tartary buckwheat has small seeds, nearly round in cross section.
Color varies from gray to black. The hull may be smooth to rough and
spiny. Leaves are relatively small, narrow and arrow-shaped.
Plants may be almost viny in habit. The flour from Tartary buckwheat is
inferior to that from Japanese or Silverhull.

Wing-seeded buckwheat is similar to Japanese except that the hull at
the angles of the seed is extended to form a wing. It is not normally
planted, but may be present as a mixture in other kinds.

Uses of Buckwheat Most of the buckwheat grown in the United States is
milled into flour which is used largely in pancakes. For pancakes the
flour is usually blended with that from other grains. Whole buckwheat
grain may be used in poultry scratch feed mixtures. The middlings from
milling make good livestock feed as they are high in protein. The straw
is higher in protein but lower in digestable carbohydrates than grass
grain straw.

The buckwheat plant is an excellent honey source as the blossoms are
rich in nectar, and blooming continüs into the fall months.
Some beekeepers plant buckwheat primarily for such use.



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