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CULTURAL AND WILD PLANTS
Sowing buckwheat. Legends, myths, symbolism, description, cultivation, methods of application
Directory / Cultivated and wild plants Content
Buckwheat, Fagopyrum sagittatum. Photos of the plant, basic scientific information, legends, myths, symbolism
Basic scientific information, legends, myths, symbolism Sort by: Buckwheat (Fagopyrum) Family: Buckwheat (Polygonaceae) Origin: Buckwheat is native to Southwest and Central Asia. Area: Buckwheat is grown in various temperate climatic zones of the world. Chemical composition: Buckwheat contains proteins, fats, carbohydrates, fiber, B vitamins, calcium, iron, phosphorus and other useful substances. Also, buckwheat contains rutin and quercetin - biologically active substances that have antioxidant properties and have a positive effect on the cardiovascular system. Economic value: Buckwheat is an important crop in the food and feed industry. Buckwheat grains are used to prepare cereals, flour, confectionery, and also produce feed for livestock. Buckwheat is also used in medicine and cosmetics for its medicinal properties. Legends, myths, symbolism: In ancient cultures, buckwheat was associated with the gods of fertility and harvest. In ancient Russian mythology, buckwheat was associated with the goddess Makosh, who was the goddess of agriculture and domestic life. Buckwheat was also associated with the gods of health and healing. In ancient cultures, buckwheat was often used as an antidote and cure for various diseases. In Christian symbolism, buckwheat is associated with repentance and sorrow. In some Christian countries, buckwheat was used as a symbol of fasting and mourning, and its consumption was prohibited during Lent. In public symbolism, buckwheat is associated with simplicity and modesty. In Russia, buckwheat was considered a folk grain and was often used as a symbol of nationality and simplicity. In Chinese culture, buckwheat also has a symbolic meaning. Its fruits are associated with wealth and prosperity, and were used as amulets, which should ensure well-being and good luck.
Buckwheat, Fagopyrum sagittatum. Description, illustrations of the plant Buckwheat, Fagopyrum sagittatum Gilib. Botanical description, history of origin, nutritional value, cultivation, use in cooking, medicine, industry
An annual herbaceous plant 50-150 cm high. The stem is erect, ribbed, knotty, branched, most often reddish or purple. The leaves are heart-shaped, pointed at the top, hairless, yellow-green. The flowers are small, fragrant, pink or white, forming an inflorescence-shield. The fruit is a trihedral nut. Blooms in June-July. Buckwheat was introduced into cultivation about 4000 years ago in northern India. It was cultivated in floodplains flooded in summer in conditions of abundant sun and moisture. From India, buckwheat came to China, Central Asia, America, Africa, the Caucasus and European countries. Buckwheat was brought to Russia from Greece. Slavic tribes, buying it from the Greeks, called the plant "Greek". Hence the name buckwheat. It is one of the most important cereal crops. Buckwheat is a relatively heat-loving crop. It grows well on light sandy and loamy chernozems. Sow buckwheat in the spring, when the soil warms up to 12 ° C. At all stages of development, the plant requires special attention. During flowering and fruit set, it needs moist warm air. During the flowering of buckwheat, up to a million flowers open daily per 1 hectare of crops, and each flower lives only one day. If these flowering masses of buckwheat are not pollinated by bees, then the number of grains on each plant will be greatly reduced. And harvesting is fraught with great difficulties. The ripening of buckwheat is very extended and lasts 20-25 days. While in some plants the fruits ripen and begin to crumble, in others branching, budding and flowering continue, which makes harvesting difficult. It is carried out separately, as the grains ripen. Of all the cereals used by man, buckwheat is the most nutritious and healthy. Buckwheat contains many valuable substances, and most importantly - easily digestible protein, similar in structure to the animal. According to the content of vitamins (groups B and P), minerals, especially magnesium and iron, it has no equal among cereals. Buckwheat contains starch, sugars, fats, fiber and organic acids, such as oxalic, malic, citric acids, which contribute to the rapid and complete absorption of food. The nutritional value of buckwheat does not decrease even during long-term storage, since the fats contained in the grain are resistant to oxidation. Not only grain is a pantry of biologically active substances. It has been established that during flowering, buckwheat grass contains a significant amount of rutin glycoside (vitamin P). Therefore, the infusion of herbs and flowers is recommended to be used as a vasoconstrictor. In addition, the infusion of flowers is known as an expectorant for dry coughs. An infusion of herbs is used for atherosclerosis, and if the disease is accompanied by high blood pressure, then cudweed grass is added as a remedy that calms the nervous system and lowers blood pressure. Phytoncides were found in buckwheat leaves, which have a detrimental effect on pathogenic microbes, and therefore the leaves are used to treat purulent wounds. A decoction of dried buckwheat shoots is recommended to drink for leukemia. Dry sifted flour is considered a good powder for diaper rash in newborns. Flowering buckwheat is a raw material for the industrial production of vitamin P. Buckwheat is a dietary product. Most often, it is included in the diet of people suffering from gastrointestinal diseases, obesity and diabetes, with anemia. Porridge, pancakes, pancakes are prepared from it. Buckwheat is very useful in combination with milk. Buckwheat straw, waste from seed cleaning and cereal production are considered excellent feed for livestock and poultry. A significant content of polysaccharides makes it a very promising product in the microbiological industry for the production of fodder yeast. It should be said about the special honey properties of the plant. 1-60 kg of honey is obtained from 100 ha of crops. In terms of protein and iron content, buckwheat honey is superior to linden and flower honey; The color of buckwheat honey is dark yellow, reddish or brown. Authors: Kretsu L.G., Domashenko L.G., Sokolov M.D.
Buckwheat. The history of growing a plant, economic importance, cultivation, use in cooking
Triangular edible buckwheat nuts containing seeds have been used by humans for food since time immemorial. Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov, who studied the places of origin of cultivated plants, believed that the culture of buckwheat arose in the East Asian center (Central and Eastern China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan), from where it spread to the Middle East. From Byzantium, together with the Orthodox Greeks, this culture penetrated into the Muscovite state, receiving the name "buckwheat", or "buckwheat". The popularizer of Russian cuisine V. V. Pokhlebkin, who called porridge one of the "most common national dishes", wrote that in the old days the people "most loved buckwheat cereals." To love, perhaps, and loved, but ate quite rarely. This happened because they sowed it very little. It is enough to refer to the statistical and documentary reference book "Russia. 1913" to make sure that buckwheat grain was harvested that year 25 times less than rye, 30 times less than wheat, 137 times less than barley and 18 times less than oats. And the thing is that buckwheat is a rather labor-intensive crop that loves warmth and moisture. Grows well in light, fertile, well aerated soils. That is why in Russia this crop occupied almost the last place among the main grain crops. Another reason for the relatively small distribution of buckwheat in agriculture in pre-revolutionary Russia was that buckwheat straw was a low-value pet food, and the roof, unlike the straw of rye, wheat and oats, could not be covered with it. As a result, there was clearly not enough buckwheat for everyone, and buckwheat porridge, without becoming a common "folk" dish, often appeared on the table of more or less prosperous urban residents and was a favorite food of landowners of different incomes. Buckwheat porridge was not neglected in the high society of the capital. Evidence of this can be found in the memoirs of the beloved maid of honor of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, the beauty A. O. Rosset, in the marriage of Smirnova: Potatoes played a big role, and Isabella Gagarina's cook made cabbage soup and Pooh porridge." To prepare "downy" porridge, boiled buckwheat was pressed through a sieve, and it acquired an airy or "downy" consistency. Gradually, buckwheat porridge became a part of all-Russian life, as evidenced by its numerous mentions in letters, memoirs and works of Russian writers and people who left their mark on Russian history. Traveling around Italy and tired of admiring its beauties, A.P. Chekhov wrote from Rome to the children's writer M.V. Kiseleva: “I saw everything and climbed everywhere I was ordered. cabbage soup with buckwheat porridge". Buckwheat porridge, which was served with cabbage soup, was not the easiest dish to prepare. In the book of the writer and translator N.P. Osipov, published in 1790, "An old Russian housewife, a housekeeper and a cook ..." in the notes to the description of the preparation of cabbage soup we read: "Many hunters use crushed garlic for these soups, they also eat omentum with them , fried intestines, porridge stuffed and fried in a mutton side". In other words, the same lamb side with buckwheat porridge was served to the cabbage soup, which in Yu. in the hall of the tavern, he ordered a decanter of vodka, granular caviar, salmon, fish soup with pies and lamb side with buckwheat porridge. It was still the same side of mutton that gave Sobakevich reason to speak unflatteringly about doctors with their advice on nutrition in N.V. Gogol's poem "Dead Souls": "Take a ram," he continued, turning to Chichikov, porridge! These are not the fricassees that are made in the master's kitchens from mutton, which is lying around for four days on the market! It was all invented by the Germans and the French doctors, I would hang them for this! They invented a diet, treat with hunger! " In the estate of the landowner Bragin from A.P. Chekhov's story "The Wife", cabbage soup was accompanied by a simple porridge without any culinary delights: "They served a cold white pig with horseradish and sour cream, then fatty, very hot cabbage soup with pork and buckwheat porridge, from which a pillar poured steam." Immediately after the revolution, buckwheat mysteriously disappeared, as V. N. Orlova-Pupysheva wrote in the memoirs, recalling the fate of the widow of the famous tea merchant Perlov: “I ate everything lean. hard to get buckwheat." With the disappearance of buckwheat porridge from the table of the population of Russia, other equally tasty dishes of Russian cuisine disappeared without a trace: krupenik, nanny, buckwheat pancakes, buckwheat pancakes. For a long time even the names of these once popular dishes were erased from the people's memory. Krupenik - a dish of buckwheat porridge baked with cottage cheese and eggs. Nyanya - a dish that was served with cabbage soup and consisted of a lamb stomach stuffed with buckwheat porridge, brains and legs. Buckwheat - dense bread made from buckwheat flour. They could only be eaten hot, richly lubricated with hemp oil. In the historical novel by the writer and playwright M. N. Zagoskin "Russians at the beginning of the eighteenth century" we read that at the market near the modern Stone Bridge "the whole space ... was cluttered with huts, huts, portable hearths on which cakes were baked, benches and benches with various petty goods, with shabby clothes, with all sorts of rags and broken iron. The sellers of this rubbish, called in the old days not merchants, but scavengers, shouted at the top of their lungs, praising their goods and inviting buyers. buckwheat with hemp oil, honey molasses with ginger and the famous Kaluga dough without any seasoning. In addition to a very peculiar taste and texture, this street food was also distinguished by a peculiar way of selling. M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin describes it in "Poshekhonskaya Antiquity": "The hawker, if he is called, will stop, dip the buckwheat in hemp oil, roll it between his palms so that the oil is better absorbed, and present it to the buyer." In the Moskvityanin magazine published in Moscow by M.P. Pogodin in 1856, it was written: “The main consumers of pies, pancakes, buckwheat and pea jelly from peddlers are coachmen and city cabbies. Pancakes and buckwheat are sold from one to one and a half kopecks in silver per pair , pies from money to two kopecks in silver apiece; the best of them are those that the merchant sells warm from a tightly closed box, and the most expensive - with treacle jam. "Kaluga dough", mentioned by M.N. Zagoskin, is another Russian delicacy that has disappeared. This sweet product consisted of a mixture of water, ground rye crackers, honey or sugar syrup. Sometimes, instead of crackers, they took steeply boiled buckwheat porridge. The well-known Russian writer and publicist of the early XNUMXth century, B.K. Zaitsev, whose childhood was spent in a family estate near Kaluga, spoke rather unflatteringly about this delicacy in his autobiographical epic "Gleb's Journey". Talking about an adult aunt, whom he liked, he wrote: "... she studied at the Kaluga gymnasium, walked around Nikitskaya with gymnasium students, started kissing officers early, regaled herself on Kaluga dough - a product of honey-mealy meal, very famous then (hardly anyone, except for a Kaluga resident, one might like it)". Buckwheat is a tasty and healthy food product. On average, 100 g of cereal contains 14 g of water, 68 g of carbohydrates, 3 g of fat, 13 g of protein, 2 g of minerals. Buckwheat grain proteins are well balanced in terms of the content of essential amino acids. The exceptions are sulfur-containing amino acids and isoleucine. Buckwheat is characterized by the almost complete absence of gluten components of prolamin proteins and the content of a significant amount of water-soluble proteins. The lack of the ability to form gluten leads to the fact that products made from buckwheat flour have a very dense, quickly hardening crumb. Therefore, buckwheat flour in its pure form is not used in baking, but only mixed with wheat, corn, rice or oatmeal flour. For example, a pancake mix consists of 40 parts of buckwheat and 60 parts of wheat flour. For baking bakery products, only 10% buckwheat is added to wheat flour. A larger amount of it leads to a change in taste, color, aroma and a decrease in the porosity of the bread crumb. The almost complete absence of gluten makes it possible to use buckwheat and flour for cooking for people who want to reduce the amount of gluten products in their diet. In the fats of the core, healthy mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids predominate, which are necessary for the construction of cell membranes, as well as helping to quickly cope with stress and tedious physical work. Among the most widely used cereals, buckwheat is distinguished by a somewhat lower content of carbohydrates, the sum of which is represented by dietary fibers (cellulose, hemicellulose, mucus), starch, sucrose, glucose, fructose, lactose, maltose. Buckwheat contains a well-balanced natural complex, which includes: fat-soluble vitamins A and E; water soluble B1, B2, B6, B9, PP; macronutrients - potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, phosphorus, iron, chlorine and trace elements - manganese, copper, zinc, cobalt, molybdenum, chromium, nickel, iodine, fluorine. Depending on the method of processing grains and their quality, buckwheat is divided into several types: ground and prodel, unsteamed and steamed, quick-cooking. The core is of four grades: the highest, the first, the second and the third. Quite often, Russian literature mentions "Smolensk" buckwheat, which in former times was made on Smolensk soil on hand millstones. It differed from ordinary buckwheat groats in that it was especially small. From half a pound (200 g) of such cereals and a bottle (0,6 l) of milk, milk porridge "slurry" was cooked for breakfast. Buckwheat, no doubt, can be recommended to people of all age categories. But it is hardly worth turning it into a remedy. Excessive consumption of buckwheat in the morning, afternoon and evening in the hope of getting rid of excess weight and numerous diseases, like any mono-diet, can cause significant damage to health. Therefore, I would like to wish readers to diversify their diet with delicious and attractive buckwheat dishes, while maintaining a saving sense of proportion. Given the fact that the methods of cooking buckwheat, as well as the names of dishes from it, we inherited from our ancestors, we offer affordable recipes borrowed from old culinary manuals.
Recipes from V. A. Levshin's book "Russian Cuisine..." State Councilor, Tula landowner, Russian educator, member of the Free Economic Society Vasily Alekseevich Levshin in 1816 published the book "Russian Cuisine, or Instruction on the preparation of all kinds of real Russian dishes and on the preparation of various supplies for future use." Among other dishes of real Russian cuisine, there were several ways to prepare buckwheat porridge. Dairy buckwheat porridge. Put in a pot of milk, cover with buckwheat; when the cereals are boiled and the milk is almost boiled away, add cream or fresh sour cream and put in a free spirit so that the foam boils. Buckwheat porridge is cool. Brew it coolly in water and, when it sits down, put it in the free spirit of the stove, overturning the pot with the mouth on the bottom, so that it will blow. Hot onuya is also eaten with cow's butter, and cold with milk or cream. Buckwheat porridge fried in a pan. In the already cooked steep buckwheat porridge, add chopped, finely thickly boiled eggs and mix. In a frying pan, put on fire, dissolve the oils, then put the porridge with eggs, fry, stirring with a spoon, and serve from the fire. Buckwheat porridge with worms. Boil steep porridge in water according to the above, when it cools down, crush with a spoon and rub through a sieve; pour on a dish with a slide and serve with milk. This porridge received a not quite euphonious name due to the fact that, being pushed through a sieve, it took the form of worms. More decently, this dish was called "powdery porridge" because of the airy consistency that occurs after punching. Recipes from the book by V. S. Filatova "A new guide to housewives. Home table and household blanks" The book was printed in 1893 in the Moscow printing house of E. Lissner and Y. Roman and, according to the author, was the fruit of her long-term observations of Russian cuisine and some of the recipes and tips from French cooking she tested. Buckwheat porridge large red. Wash 2 pounds of cereal, sift, fry in a pan until red, pour into the pot so that the cereal takes a little more than half of the pot, put a spoonful of oil and salt into it, stir until the oil blooms, pour in boiling water to cover the cereal, stir, cover pot and put in a hot oven for 3 hours. Buckwheat porridge in mushroom broth. Grind two glasses of fine buckwheat with two eggs and dry; boil the broth of 6 mushrooms, adding a few roots, strain and put 2 tablespoons of oil into 1 2/2 cups of broth, boil and add all the grits, cook for five minutes over high heat, stirring often; add more oil, put in the oven to brown. Buckwheat porridge with cheese. Take buckwheat porridge, cooked the day before. Put in a pot a row of porridge, a row of grated Swiss cheese (and even better parmesan), again a row of porridge, a row of cheese, etc. Put a piece of butter in the middle of the pot. Put a piece of butter on the very top, close and cover with dough. If done in a saucepan, then cover tightly with a lid and into the oven. Buckwheat porridge stuffing box with liver. Take a fresh lamb omentum (sheath covering the internal fat). Rinse it well with cold water. Overlay them with the bottom and walls of the mold (preferably clay), in which the omentum will be baked. Put inside minced porridge and minced liver, mixing them well. Bend the edges of the stuffing box to the middle and put in the oven for 1/2 hour. Krupenik. Pour boiling water over a glass of buckwheat, put it on a sieve and let the water drain. Mix this cereal with a glass of sour cream and a glass of cottage cheese, four eggs, four tablespoons of melted butter, salt, put in a pot and bake in an oven or in a Russian stove. Buckwheat porridge fried in a saucepan. Put buckwheat porridge on a hot saucepan, cover with pieces of butter and fry, stirring all the time so that there are no lumps. Buckwheat porridge fried with eggs. Put the porridge cooked the day before in a bowl, mash it so that there are no lumps, and finely chop the hard-boiled eggs, mix them with the porridge, add oil, and salt. Dissolve a spoon or two of butter in a pan, put porridge with eggs on it and let it fry, stirring more often. Recipe note. In the absence of a Russian stove with its "free spirit" - heat or heat in a melted stove left after shoveling coals - you can use a gas or electric stove oven. Recipes from the book by E. A. Avdeeva, N. N. Maslov "Cookbook of a Russian experienced housewife" Ekaterina Alekseevna Avdeeva - Russian writer, publisher of Russian folk tales, author of several books on home economics. She gained all-Russian fame by publishing in 1842 the "Hand Book of a Russian Experienced Housewife". In 1912, when Avdeeva was no longer alive, the “Cookbook of a Russian Experienced Housewife” appeared, which was prepared for a new edition by Nikolai Nikolaevich Maslov, a freelance cook and confectioner at the court of His Imperial Majesty, a teacher at the First Practical School of Cooking Art (in the confectionery department ) Society for the Encouragement of Women's Vocational Education. Broth with buckwheat dumplings. Prepare a broth from 3 pounds of beef, then make buckwheat dumplings: pour a glass of water into the pan, put 1/2 tablespoon of oil and salt; when it boils, pour in 1/2 cup of fine buckwheat, stir and, when it thickens, put covered in the oven for 1/4 hour, making sure that the porridge does not tint; then remove from the oven, stir with a spatula until smooth, make dumplings from hot porridge with a tablespoon or a teaspoon and dip into the broth in a soup bowl. Served with chopped herbs. Ordinary buckwheat pancakes. Take 3 bottles of warm water, 2 pounds of all-purpose flour and 1/3 pound of yeast for the dough. In the morning, when the dough rises, knead with buckwheat flour as thickly as they make dough for pancakes, put in a warm place and let rise. Then pour in 3 cups of hot water (but if the water boils with a spring, then let it cool a little), put 1/4 pound of cow butter into the dough, pouring in a little and stirring with a whorl. Let the pancakes rise a couple more times, salt and bake in small frying pans, greasing the frying pans with cow's butter. Pancakes are baked without anything, but also smeared with cottage cheese or sprinkled with hard-boiled and finely chopped eggs. Sprinkle with oil-fried onions or smelt during fasting. Hot milk is sometimes poured over instead of water. Specially melted butter, sour cream, finely chopped eggs, smelt, caviar, salmon, etc. are served on the table. Buckwheat pudding. Boil buckwheat in milk: take 1/2 pound of groats 1/4 pound of cow butter, beat it, mix in 6 egg yolks with raised whites, sugar, cinnamon, zest, salt and grated breadcrumbs. Stir all this well, put porridge boiled in milk into this mixture and stir, transfer to a napkin, tie and boil for an hour in water. Milk sauce is served with this pudding. Recipe note. Small buckwheat is a modern product. A pound is approximately 400 g. About 30 g of butter is placed in a tablespoon with a small slide. A glass of buckwheat is equal to 160 grams. In the absence of grains, you can take ordinary flour. Smelt - dried, dried, smoked, fried, salted smelt. Author: Sokolsky I.
Buckwheat, Fagopyrum sagittatum Gilib. reference Information
An annual herbaceous plant 50-150 cm high. The stem is erect, ribbed, knotty, branched, most often reddish or purple. The leaves are heart-shaped, pointed at the top, hairless, yellow-green. The flowers are small, fragrant, pink or white, forming an inflorescence-shield. The fruit is a trihedral nut. Blooms in June-July. Buckwheat was introduced into cultivation about 4000 years ago in northern India. It was cultivated in floodplains flooded in summer in conditions of abundant sun and moisture. From India, buckwheat came to China, Central Asia, America, Africa, the Caucasus and European countries. Slavic tribes, buying it from the Greeks, called the plant "Greek". Hence the name buckwheat. Buckwheat is a relatively heat-loving crop. It grows well on light sandy and loamy chernozems. Sow buckwheat in the spring when the soil warms up to 12 ° C. At all stages of development, the plant requires special attention. During flowering and fruit set, it needs moist warm air. During the flowering of buckwheat, up to a million flowers open daily per 1 hectare of crops, and each flower lives only one day. If these flowering masses of buckwheat are not pollinated by bees, then the number of grains on each plant will be greatly reduced. And harvesting is fraught with great difficulties. The ripening of buckwheat is very extended and lasts 20-25 days. While in some plants the fruits ripen and begin to crumble, in others branching, budding and flowering continue, which makes harvesting difficult. It is carried out separately, as the grains ripen. Of all the cereals used by man, buckwheat is the most nutritious and healthy. Buckwheat contains many valuable substances, and most importantly - easily digestible protein, similar in structure to the animal. According to the content of vitamins (groups B and P), minerals, especially magnesium and iron, it has no equal among cereals. Buckwheat contains starch, sugars, fats, fiber and organic acids, such as oxalic, malic, citric acids, which contribute to the rapid and complete absorption of food. The nutritional value of buckwheat does not decrease even during long-term storage, since the fats contained in the grain are resistant to oxidation. Not only grain is a pantry of biologically active substances. It has been established that during flowering, buckwheat grass contains a significant amount of rutin glycoside (vitamin P). Therefore, the infusion of herbs and flowers is recommended to be used as a vasoconstrictor. In addition, the infusion of flowers is known as an expectorant for dry coughs. An infusion of herbs is used for atherosclerosis, and if the disease is accompanied by high blood pressure, then cudweed grass is added as a remedy that calms the nervous system and lowers blood pressure. Phytoncides were found in buckwheat leaves, which have a detrimental effect on pathogenic microbes, and therefore the leaves are used to treat purulent wounds. A decoction of dried buckwheat shoots is recommended to drink for leukemia. Dry sifted flour is considered a good powder for diaper rash in newborns. Flowering buckwheat is a raw material for the industrial production of vitamin P. Buckwheat is a dietary product. Most often, it is included in the diet of people suffering from gastrointestinal diseases, obesity and diabetes, with anemia. Porridge, pancakes, pancakes are prepared from it. Buckwheat is very useful in combination with milk. Buckwheat straw, waste from seed cleaning and cereal production are considered excellent feed for livestock and poultry. A significant content of polysaccharides makes it a very promising product in the microbiological industry for the production of fodder yeast. It should be said about the special honey properties of the plant. 1-60 kg of honey is obtained from 100 ha of crops. In terms of protein and iron content, buckwheat honey is superior to linden and flower honey; The color of buckwheat honey is dark yellow, reddish or brown. Authors: Kretsu L.G., Domashenko L.G., Sokolov M.D.
Buckwheat. Interesting plant facts
Is it worth it to grow buckwheat? This question was asked to readers in 1886 by the Russian Zemledelcheskaya Gazeta. And not once. In four issues, the same plea was repeated - to deal with capricious buckwheat. Four years later, the paper returned to the issue at hand. This time the question was posed point-blank: should the buckwheat culture be abandoned? Then a completely pessimistic note "Forgotten Bread" appeared. Other publications did not lag behind. "An endangered plant," declared the Master magazine in 1901. What's wrong? Why should everyone's favorite buckwheat porridge disappear from the dinner table? What about buckwheat pancakes? Why did buckwheat, which gives not only grain, but also honey, turn out to be "forgotten bread"? After all, quite recently in Russia it was the first bread! Russia was considered the world's first buckwheat power (however, even now too!). On difficult days, buckwheat always helped out. When a bread beetle fell on wheat in the middle of the XNUMXth century, the peasants remembered buckwheat. She replaced wheat and saved from hunger. She attracted not only porridge and honey. There were three more virtues that no cultivated cereal could boast of. First, it could grow on such lean and poor soil, where other cereals failed. The second - did not require deep plowing. Got by with the smallest. And most importantly, she drove the weeds from the fields. Buckwheat was definitely specially created for the poor peasant fields of Central Russia with their eternal lack of fertilizers, shallow plowing and the dominance of weeds. Weeds were dealt with quickly. Even the mightiest of them drooped and withered under the canopy of its broad leaves. It was tropical darkness. Even aphids - the eternal scourge of gardens and orchards - were removed from the gloomy discomfort. In general, pests tried to bypass this creature. With such a winning situation, buckwheat quickly became fashionable. Most importantly, it did not require special care. And they bred it so much that even the surplus appeared for sale. In the Chernihiv province, a quarter of the arable land was occupied with this crop. It was introduced on a grand scale in the Kursk and Saratov provinces. The Oryol peasants acted wiser than all. They not only expanded the buckwheat wedge, but put waste into action - husks, husks that remain when grain is peeled for groats. Husk was replaced with firewood. It burned as hot as coal and was worth nothing. They began to refuse firewood both in cities and on estates. And although the lumberjacks had to look for a new job, but how many trees survived! How many forests have survived from felling! With the development of buckwheat fuel, ash began to accumulate, but the resourceful Oryol peasants found a use for it. All of a sudden, many potash factories appeared throughout southern Russia. Potash was obtained from buckwheat ash of the highest quality. The ash has gone down the drain. They paid ten times more for it than for ordinary rye. Thus, buckwheat turned out to be the only plant in the world that did not produce any waste. Ideal for modern farming and conservation! Alas, the buckwheat boom did not last long. By the end of the century, in about 30 years, the production of kernels had halved. Why? They began to say that the cause of everything was buckwheat disease. Indeed, there is such a misfortune. Its essence is this. Believing in the omnipotence of our friend, they began to feed livestock and buckwheat greens. And then some interesting facts came to light. If they fed black cows, everything went fine. If white - the disease developed. Eyelids drooped, ears drooped. A rash spread over the body. The cows stood with bowed heads, dejected and indifferent to the shining sun and blue sky. However, as soon as they were transferred to a dark barn, the symptoms of the disease disappeared - and after a few days the horned beauties again gave out the prescribed portion of milk. The sheep did the same. Of course, one story with black and white cattle could not decide the fate of buckwheat. The cause continued to be sought. And pay attention to the harvest. We compared them over several years and realized: there is no constancy in them! Either the grain bins are bursting, or the barrels are empty. True, in the harvest years, a capricious creature gave a hundredfold for a forced hunger strike, but it was never possible to say what lay ahead - gain or loss? The English, who loved the kernel no less than ours, in despair, gave up sowing it altogether. If they grow a little, then only for ... 8 pheasants! They found a substitute for themselves - oatmeal. With oats, the hassle is much less. Russian agronomists did not take the easy path. We decided to find out the problem to the end. And in 1898, the Shatilov Experimental Station in the Oryol region received a special task from the Ministry of Agriculture - to find out: what causes the inconstancy of crops? Indeed, what? What is missing from an unpretentious plant? What's the matter? In the soil? In climate? In the plant itself? Agronomists started with the soil. And not by chance. Manure - the best and most reliable elixir that can breathe life into the impoverished, plowed soil - seemed not needed for buckwheat. It was believed that he was even harmful to her! Contraindicated! The farther from the manure heaps, the higher the harvest - agronomists have already learned this. Observing the truth, I confess: buckwheat grown in manured fields is not at all bad. She's downright luxurious. Tall, prominent, magnificent. However, her modest companion from empty soil gives three times, or even ten times more grain. In a tall and beautiful, all the juices go into greenery. The plant is fattening. There is almost nothing left for the grain. And how surprised the scientific world was when one day it was possible to grow the highest crop in a field with manure. 180 poods were received from the tithe, but on an ordinary, lean field, only 5! At first they could not understand what was the matter. We checked the manure. Is it ordinary? No, not exactly normal. He was taken from the barnyard, where the cows were given a mandatory food supplement - salt. And the manure was salted. Many agronomists then rushed to pour salt under the buckwheat. Sometimes they received an increase in grain. Another time - no. But in general they understood: although buckwheat grows on empty soil, it’s still not bad to add fertilizer. However, the reason for the inconstancy of buckwheat remained unclear. Maybe it's the nature of the plant itself? Maybe. Buckwheat is a special plant. Start at least with flowers. They are different. In some, the stamens are higher than the pistils, in others the opposite. Such "leapfrog" is not accidental. It serves as cross-pollination. The famous scientist Charles Darwin noticed the diversity of flowers long ago and was the first to find out what role it plays in the life of a plant. Fortunately, in those years, buckwheat was still sown in England. Nature's calculation is simple and precise. Pollen from a long staminate flower should fall on a long staminate one. Darwin called this method legal. If pollen gets from short stamens to long pistils, pollination is illegal. With legal pollination, more fruits are produced. The offspring are stronger, healthier, more prolific. Bees provide legal pollination. If there is an apiary near the field, pollination is guaranteed. Beekeepers get excellent buckwheat honey. Healing honey. No wonder the townspeople are chasing after him when the flu epidemic begins. Help pollinate, of course, and wild bees, wasps and even ordinary flies. But there are few wild bees and wasps left. They are inhabitants of the uncultivated nature. Survived only in ravines and copses. And apiaries are not always near the field. Therefore, agronomists in desperation clutch at the last resort. They use brute force. A rope is dragged across a pink field, on which rags are tied. Or a piece of gauze. The stems are wrinkling. Flowers are shaking. Pollen gets on the pistils. But who can guarantee that lawful pollination will take place? The bee will do the job better. More graceful. Faster. Moreover, for good pollination, you need to visit each flower five times in a row.
Insects are attracted to buckwheat flowers by an irresistible force. L. Altauzen, an expert on this culture, spoke about how this looks in reality at the First Congress of Russian Agricultural Workers in 1902. The congress was convened mainly because of buckwheat. Altauzen reported on it about his experiments. He divided buckwheat plants into two groups. In the first, he covered the bushes with wire caps. In the second did not close anything. He left the flying 9 brethren complete freedom of action. The nets from the protected bushes were removed for a minute only in the evening, when the buzzing army dispersed to rest. Here the plants were watered. Just in case, as a precaution, a student sentry with a broom stood nearby. He drove away the occasional midge. Despite the double line of defense, the flies tried to storm the wire fortress. And not without success. Although the student violently waved the broom at the time of watering, they still broke through to the nectar. And as if stuck to the flowers. The student grabbed the impudent guest by the wings. The intruder squealed plaintively, but the temptation was too great. It was not possible to drag the fly away from the flower. In the same place, where the sentry managed to beat off the onslaught of midges, for buckwheat, time definitely stopped. The bushes that grew in freedom had already given fruit long ago, and the foliage, no longer needed, turned yellow and fell off. And under the nets, the leaves were still green, and although it was already September, the wide-open flowers shone with nectar. It could be seen with the naked eye. These flowers demanded insects with all their appearance. They gave off an intoxicating odor. It made the student dizzy. So, bees are a great force. However, they alone cannot solve the problem of buckwheat. They tried to surround the buckwheat fields with apiaries. The harvest has tripled. Seems like a lot? Let's calculate. Wheat per circle gives twenty centners per hectare. Buckwheat - five. If you create an ideal pollination regime, buckwheat will give three times more grain - fifteen centners. And the wheat still will not catch up. What's the catch now? If we recall the relatives of cultivated buckwheat, it turns out that they are all residents of damp places. Wild buckwheat climb higher into the mountains, where it is wetter. Or cling to the banks of rivers and lakes. There are also completely aquatic inhabitants - an amphibian highlander with a two-meter floating stem. Yes, and the companion of our table itself, running wild, gets out of the fields to the shore of reservoirs and bears fruit well there. All this suggests that cultural buckwheat comes from humid places. Historians have long argued: where? They agreed that they were from the Himalayas. Admittedly, the title is a bit confusing. Reminds me of Greece. It is possible that the culprit of the commotion came to us from Greece. The Greeks got it from the East, from the Himalayas. It is worth looking at the "portrait" of buckwheat, as it becomes clear: historians are right. It is very different from other grains: wheat, millet, rye. Those leaves are narrow. Often still covered with a bluish coating of wax in order to evaporate less. Buckwheat has wide foliage - it’s not for nothing that it shades and drives out weeds. Wide and delicate leaf blades - the memory of the humid Himalayan forests. A wide sheet evaporates uneconomically much. The conclusion suggests itself. In order for buckwheat to give excellent yields, it is necessary to create "Himalayan conditions" for it. More moisture. This is where one piece of advice given by old agronomists comes to mind: do not sow buckwheat far from the forest. She is more comfortable near the forest. The neighborhood of the forest, as it were, returns some share of the Himalayan environment. The climate becomes more even, the nectar does not dry out so quickly.
In drought, the nectar thickens and becomes inaccessible to bees. This old observation was recalled when looking for the cause of buckwheat's inconstancy. Isn't all the trouble that the forests have been cut down and the necessary moisture is lacking for buckwheat? The classic of agronomy I. Stebut was sure of this. He said so at the 1902 congress. But you can't turn back all the forests. And stubborn agronomists began to look for another way out of the impasse. Is there any way to escape the drought? And then Professor S. Bogdanov spoke at the congress and told how the farmers of the Poltava province were getting out of a difficult situation. They applied such an unusual method, which threw the whole scientific world into amazement. Disregarding the proverb “Do not expect a good tribe from a bad seed,” they began to do just the opposite. Leave not the best grain for seeds, but rump. The best sold. The peasants in the Moscow region also intended to do the same. And not because they were trying to get more money, ts tember. But the dimensions were enviable. Two meters high. The stems are thick, the seeds are large, like peas. And yet the fafra did not come out into the open. Her chilliness got in the way. Sensitivity to frost. For the sake of objectivity, I confess: our homemade buckwheat is not much hardier. Young shoots are especially affected. They do not tolerate even the slightest frost. Therefore, experienced agronomists start sowing buckwheat late. Other times in June. After oats and potatoes. June gives a guarantee against matinees. But then the already short summer is reduced. And another danger: the time of filling the grain can fall on a period of heat and land. How to be? The Kursk breeder I. Paulsen got out of a difficult situation in this way. He began to sow a chilly plant when 12 The calculation was different. On fertile soils, plants from large seeds give lush, mighty bushes. Their growth takes a long time. And then comes the drought. Buckwheat does not have time to set enough fruits. As a result, a lot of straw and little grain. The tail gives small, undersized bushes, but they are early. The grain ripens on time and does not suffer from drought. The delegates of the congress were so puzzled by the method of tails that they could not immediately evaluate it: either accept it, or criticize it? However, is it possible to find drought-resistant buckwheat in the world to replace the usual one? And since the Himalayas are the birthplace of ordinary buckwheat, they turned their eyes there. And soon they found what was required, Himalayan buckwheat, which was not at all afraid of drought. It was called in Indian - fafra. Professor A. Batalia got it somewhere and sent it to the Kyiv province for testing. Sowed in the fields for three years in a row. It worked out great. True, it grew for a long time - from April to weeding it out is impossible, namely in the midst of May matinees. The unfortunate little plants, just emerging from the seed, turned red, as if from a burn, and curled up, drying up. Paulsen's experimental plots looked like cemeteries. However, among the mass of dying plants, one could still find some in which life flickered. Units, of course, against the background of the general defeat, but these units were what the agronomist needed. In autumn, he collected seeds from them. Sowed. The operation was repeated ten years in a row. The result met expectations. Paulsen got a variety that could withstand frost of minus four degrees! And then the agronomist behaved again contrary to the usual order. Began to sow not later than frosts. And not even during them. And earlier. In April. No later than the 25th. Such a calculation. By the time May matinees are coming up, the plants will already get stronger and will not suffer. And so it happened. Agronomists unanimously dubbed the unbeatable variety "Paulsen's April buckwheat". So it's all about class? No, not only in it. Over the past decades, 25 breeding stations have struggled to create a productive variety. Alas, experts believe that it is impossible to create such a variety at all, because the point is not so much in the variety, but in the conditions in which buckwheat grows. There was such a case. The breeders brought out the Kalininskaya variety. The most excellent variety. But when in the Kalinin region itself I wanted to look at this variety, they told me: "You will find it only in one place - in the village of Emmaus." Went to Emmaus. Found a buckwheat field. Pink, fragrant. Only two hectares. I ask: "Why are there no other fields in the region? And why then receive seeds?" Agronomists say: "We sow for other areas. But it's hard to do it here. The conditions are painfully difficult ..." So, we return to where we started: the conditions ... Connoisseurs have calculated: on one plant our client has about 500 flowers . There are two or three billion per hectare. If a fruit grows out of each, the harvest will increase tenfold. Twenty, forty times! Buckwheat per hectare will give 200 centners, while wheat in the best fields so far yields only 70. Isn't this figure worth thinking about the conditions for buckwheat? Well, perhaps we can draw some conclusions. The situation with buckwheat is complicated. So far, this culture has not yet obeyed the will of man. And the world, having lost patience, turned away from her. Abroad, Canada seems to have grown the most. And now? In vast Canada, there are only ... 20 thousand hectares. Trifle. A plate of porridge per Canadian, and even then not for everyone. Buckwheat honey is popular, brown as chocolate, always melting in the mouth from the abundance of fructose. And with a smell that cannot be confused with any other honey in the world. Author: Smirnov A.
Buckwheat. Useful information
The most nutritious and tasty porridge, by all accounts, is buckwheat. Buckwheat is the fruits of the buckwheat plant. Buckwheat comes from Asia from wild buckwheat that littered other crops. Buckwheat with an oval juicy stem covered with arrow-shaped leaves blooms in summer with small white, pink or red flowers collected in a brush. A strong smell attracts bees to flowers, from which they collect nectar and accumulate dark buckwheat honey in combs. On a branched plant, there are up to 2000 flowers, from which up to 2000 triangular seed-pods covered with a dark skin are formed by the end of summer. To obtain buckwheat, this peel is peeled off, sometimes damaging the edges of the seed. The structure of the buckwheat seed is peculiar. The germ is hidden inside between the cotyledons, so you can even sow buckwheat, which sprouts. In other seeds, when receiving cereals, the embryo is also torn off along with the peel. Try to sow buckwheat in the garden or in a pot of earth and you will get graceful plants. Author: Verzilin N.
Buckwheat, Fagopyrum sagittatum. Recipes for use in traditional medicine and cosmetology
Ethnoscience:
Cosmetology:
Attention! Before use, consult with a specialist!
Buckwheat, Fagopyrum sagittatum. Tips for growing, harvesting and storing
Buckwheat (Fagopyrum sagittatum) can be grown in subtropical and temperate climates. Tips for growing, harvesting and storing buckwheat: Cultivation:
Workpiece:
Storage:
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