The History of Buckwheat

Buckwheat has been grown in America since colonial days, and the crop once was common on farms in the northeastern and northcentral United States. Production reached a peak in 1866 at which time the grain was a common livestock-feed and was in demand for making flour. By the mid 1960's the acreage had declined to about 50,000 acres. The leading buckwheat states are New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota. Canada has more buckwheat acreage than the United States.

Buckwheat enjoyed a resurgence of popularity in the mid 1970's that was brought on by the demand for commercially prepared breakfast cereal and by exports to Japan for making buckwheat noodles. This boom was due to the nutritional excellence of buckwheat. USDA-ARS analyses indicate that the grain has an amino acid composition nutritionally superior to all cereals, including oats. Buckwheat protein is particularly rich (6%) in the limiting amino acid lysine .