8/8/2019 Buckwheat Science Factsheet

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BUCKWHEAT Science PageDID YOU KNOW?Roasted buckwheat is calledkasha. You can boil kashauntil it is soft, and eat it as acereal or add it to manymain dishes.

Kasha is a basicfood in Russia andEastern Europe.

ORIGINSBuckwheat is native to theHimalayas in southernChina.

The Chinese were growingbuckwheat over a thousand years

ago.

CLASSIFYING BUCKWHEAT

FAMILYPolygonaceae

(Buckwheat family)In Greek, this means many

joints. The stems have

many joints or swellings.There are about 1,000species in this family,which includes manyedible plants.

GENUSFagopyrum

In Latin, this means beechwheat. The fruit looks like the

nut from a beech tree.

SPECIESesculentum

In Latin, this means edible.

THE BUCKWHEAT PLANTThe buckwheat plant growsto about one meter high.

Leaves areshaped liketriangles.

GROWING BUCKWHEAT

In Japan,noodlescalled

soba aremade frombuckwheatflour.

NUTRIENT VALUEBuckwheat contains plenty of protein, B vitamins, andminerals.

Fruits areshaped likelittle pyramids.

In two weeks buckwheat will make adense cover over the soil. Ill cut itwhen it flowers. It will rot quicklyand add lots of organic matter to

the soil.

USESBuckwheat is a multipurposecrop. It makes a good covercrop, because it smothersweeds very well. You can feedit to animals. You can

roast the fruit tomake kasha, orgrind it tomake flour.

One cup of buckwheat flour has thesame amount of...

...proteinas 3 hotdogs.

...calcium as 1/6cup of milk ...potassium as 2

cups of milk

The white flowersare at the ends of branched stems.

buckwheatsugar beet

rhubarb

knotweed

Plant in the springor fall. Sprinkleabout 1 tablespoonof seeds persquare meter.Rake in and water.

buckwheat fruit

beech nut

Garden Mosaics is funded by the National Science Foundation Informal Science Education program, and bythe College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University.

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8/8/2019 Buckwheat Science Factsheet

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WORD SCRAMBLE

Garden Mosaics is funded by the National Science Foundation Informal Science Education program, and bythe College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University.

Learn about buckwheat when you unscramblethe letters in bold:

(1) cukethbaw is a (2) elutusmiprop crop. Itmakes a good (3) rvoce proc because itsmoothers weeds. You can feed it to(4) nasalim . You can (5) drign the fruits tomake (6) rufol . You can also (7) sorat them tomake (8) shaka .

SPOTLIGHTON RESEARCH

Bringing back buckwheat to New YorkState

Dutch settlers brought buckwheat to NewYork State in the 1600s. For the next 300years, it was a popular crop among New YorkState farmers. They grew buckwheat both forfood and to feed animals. Each year, farmerskept the seeds from plants that grew best andreplanted them. Thus, the buckwheat becamewell-adapted to the local climate and soils. Butat the beginning of the 20th century, high-yielding varieties of corn and wheat weredeveloped, so farmers began to grow thesecrops instead of buckwheat

In the 1990s, a plant breeder in New YorkState and a plant breeder in Manitoba, Canadabegan working to produce high-yielding varietiesof buckwheat for New York State. At that time,

there were some Japanese varieties of buckwheat that grew very well in Manitoba, butthey did not grow well in New York State.Summer days are shorter in New York than theyare in Manitoba, and short days triggerbuckwheat to stop producing new flowers andstart making seeds. Thus, in New York, theJapanese varieties only produce a few flowers

before making seeds, so yields are poor.The plant breeders reasoned that a

buckwheat variety for New York should makethe most of a short growing season. It shouldmake big leaves early in the season. Largeleaves can produce more food that the plantscan use to produce more flowers and seeds.

The plant breeders took the most promising

varieties from Manitoba and grew them in NewYork. They measured leaf growth, date seedsripened, and seed size. They also calculated theratio of seeds to plant by weighing the dry plantand seeds and then weighing the seeds alone.Then the plant breeders grew varieties with oneor more desirable traits, and crossed them.(They used pollen from the flowers of onevariety to pollinate the flowers of anothervariety.) After making several crosses, the plantbreeders successfully developed three high-yielding varieties of buckwheat for New YorkState.

Source: Bjorkman, T. (2004). Selecting Improved Buckwheat for theNortheast. New York State Agricultural Experiment Station. (Also personal correspondence with Dr. Thomas Bjorkman, Depart-ment of Horticultural Science, Cornell University, February 9, 2004)

BROCCOLI STIR-FRY WITH SOBAThis dish comes from Japan, where it is considered polite to slurp up the noodles!Serving size: 4-6

Ingredients* 2 tablespoons oil* 2 bunches of broccoli* 1 cup diced scallions* 2 tablespoons minced ginger* 4 cloves minced garlic* 1 package soba (buckwheat noodles)

...

Instructions1. Cook the soba according to the directions on

the package.2. Slice broccoli on the diagonal for stir-frying.3. Using a small amount of broccoli at a time,

stir fry in a little oil, along with scallions,ginger, and garlic. Add more oil if needed.

4. Serve the stir fried broccoli over the soba.

QUOTE

Kasha is on the spoon, baby will walk soon. Russian saying

These words are spoken whenkasha is fed to children when

they are baptized.

W o r d S c r a m b l e A n s w e r s : 1 . b u c k w h e a t ; 2 . m u l t i p u r p o s e ; 3 . c o v e r c r o p ; 4 . a n i m a l s ; 5 . g r i n d ; 6 . f l o u r ; 7 . r o a s t ; 8 . k a s h a

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