Buckwheat Cakes Still Popular in West Virginia

by Hanna Raskin, Posted Sep 23rd 2009 @ 11:00AM

A variety of buckwheat
in full bloom.
Photo: fishermansdaughter, flickr

Few American festivals celebrate a foodstuff as archaic as this weekend's Buckwheat Festival in Preston County, W. Va., which annually showcases a dish the New York Times deemed outdated nearly a century ago.

"According to millers, the consumption of buckwheat has fallen off not less than 30 percent in the last five years," the paper reported in 1910. "Where once the mounds of well-browned flapjacks, flanked by the molasses jug, reigned supreme at the breakfast table, now the patent breakfast foods alone are to be seen."

Corn flakes weren't the only culprit in buckwheat pancakes' disappearance from the American table: As new chemical fertilizers facilitated the farming of wheat, most growers abandoned the substitute crop. Buckwheat fields -- which occupied more than 1 million acres of U.S. land when the Times printed its buckwheat lament -- accounted for just 50,000 acres in 1964, when the USDA last bothered to count.

A few of those buckwheat farmers, no doubt, lived near Preston County, which pinned its economic hopes on the plant during the Depression.

"It was an easy crop, something the farmers could grow," festival secretary Darla Kuhn explains. "You wonder why Preston County was the one to do it."

Buckwheat ultimately failed to improve local farmers' fortunes, but the community's festival celebrating its possibilities remains a major date on the Preston County calendar. Since 1938, when area residents first gathered for sack races, rolling-pin throws and women-only hog calling and nail-driving contests, festival goers have congregated annually to feast on plates of freshly-ground whole-hog sausage, applesauce, milk and buckwheat cakes.

"We'll serve over 15,000 meals," Kuhn says. "People will stand in line."

While buckwheat is a staple crop in Asia, where eaters routinely devour groats and soba noodles, Kuhn doesn't think the crop has much of a domestic future. Buckwheat's popular with organic growers, but Kuhn isn't sure many American eaters share their enthusiasm.

"It has a bitter flavor," Kuhn says of buckwheat flour. "It's definitely an acquired taste."

What do you think of buckwheat? Are you a fan of the healthy grain? Tell us in the comments.

Filed Under: Farming, Ingredients
Tags: buckwheat, buckwheat festival, BuckwheatFestival, food trends, FoodTrends, nuts, outdated food, OutdatedFood, Preston County, PrestonCounty, seeds, southern states

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

9-23-2009 @11:40AM NCGourmet said... If you're ever in the area, this festival is a culinary delight.
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9-23-2009 @12:40PM DD said... I made buckwheat pancakes for my grandfather, who had talked about how much he liked them as a child. Next time I would probably cut the flour with wheat flour, as they had a very strong taste and were very heavy.

(The batter looked like mud, which was interesting.)
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9-23-2009 @3:19PM Thom said... My family is from Preston County, and every year at our family reunion there is a hearty buckwheat cake breakfast. If you have a chance to go, you will not be disappointed.
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9-24-2009 @6:54PM octovus said... Really it's a SHAME to see crops go out like this. We'd rather have our refined white flour, thanks. Buckwheat honey and buckwheat pancakes or crepes are two of my favourite flavourful brekkie foods...I would mix buckwheat flour in with anything in proportion, you may have to increase the sweetener a titch if you have a sweet tooth. It's our commercialized palette for mass-produced, refined-sugar, bleached-white products that kills off grains and other tasteful crops like this! And sure fertilizers or GMOs help other wheats grow, but wouldn't we do better to grow what would be happy WITHOUT these extra interventions (such as buckwheat), in those regions? As noted in the "organic growers" comment in the post? *end rant*
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