Grew a sizable plot this past season. Weeds got way ahead and I did not catch up, yet the plants coped rather well with the weeds.

I should have attempted to harvest while the weather was dry, but I didn't and several rain-storms came through and after that it was pretty much a loss. As with wheat and other small grains harvesting weather is the issue. On a very small scale it would be easy enough to keep on top of, I suppose, but OTOH the result would be little.

Do you have a mill of some kind? I have ground bought buckwheat, it grinds pretty well.

I agree that the ratio of return to planting space required is disproportionate.

It takes a big plot to end up with enough flour to be worth the work, not to mention the harvesting, threshing, and winnowing work. So growing it isn't something the average home gardener can do.

But if you have an acre or so available just plant it as a cover crop.

Dave

Dave, I have a quarter of an acre, so I think this is off the list of something to try. lol

I have ground up nuts in a coffee grinder, not sure if that would work with buckwheat, but I'll see if I can find buckwheat at the store. Thanks, PNBrown.

PM2, your local food coop may have buckwheat.

You can find buckwheat groats in a good grocery or health food store. Probably right next to the whole grain buckwheat flour! I buy both.

I love buckwheat and contemplated growing it for flour but after doing some as a cover crop and seeing the yield, it was just not worth it for the space. Grinding buckwheat in a coffee grinder would be rather tedious. It is not as hard as some other grains so I often soak mine with whatever liquid it will be cooked with and then grind it in the blender. This has worked for crepes, green onion pancakes, etc.

For self sufficiency, potatoes are always the best bet. You can manually harvest potatoes for a year with reasonable effort.

You can find buckwheat in the store - In Stop&Shop it called Wolf's Kasha, sold in international foods department. But if you want a cheaper price, you better find a Russian store. There you could buy 2 lb for about 4 dollars, when in S&S it is same price for less then a lb. It is also all over in internet.

Agree with Glib, it is hard to beat tuber crops for ease of culture, harvest, and storage in many climates. Ditto for maize and pole beans.

All the small grains and pulses are much more difficult.

Babs, do I have a local food coop? lol Not sure.

Rhizo,We buy buckwheat flour, but IâÂÂd like to try grinding some. IâÂÂll check the bins at WFoods. Thanks.

Tishtoshnm, IâÂÂm the only one who eats buckwheat. I love that it is full of fiber. So since itâÂÂs just me eating it, I thought the coffee grinder method wouldnâÂÂt be that bad. I do almonds and flaxseed that way and find it pretty quick and easy. Green onion pancakes, what do you eat those with?

Glib, thanks, potatoes I havenâÂÂt tried yet. I want to try sweet potatoes next year. We seem to be eating fewer potatoes, cutting back on carbs.

Galinas, thank you. IâÂÂll check that out!

PNBrown, I donâÂÂt know why IâÂÂve not grown potatoes yet, IâÂÂve been gardening for 30+ yearsâ¦lol. I guess we are not big potato eaters, but we do like sweet potatoes all winter, so IâÂÂm planning to try that next year. Corn, another starchy vegetable that we seem to be eating less of, and not sure I have enough room. I could try a small patch. I do love cornbread. :-) Pole Beans are a staple for us too. Love them.

I was just thinking this morning, about growing Flaxseed. I donâÂÂt think that would be hard to grow and I grind those in the coffee grinder all the time. I could really grow those in the Perennial beds.

Green onion pancakes are a snack food, I like them with an Asian soup or stir-fry. Dip them in soy sauce. I have a link below on a way to make them. This recipe is pretty easy. There are other more involved recipes that use regular wheat, etc., but these work for our family. I have never soaked the groats overnight.

One thing to note with buckwheat, is the flavor differs if it is toasted or not. I purchase raw groats from a health food store bulk section and I doubt I have paid more than $2 a pound.

Here is a link that might be useful: Green onion/Scallion pancakes

I grow potatoes, and as long as I control for potato bugs, they are really easy. Some years I've used bt, some years hand picked, but this year I bought some tulle fabric and draped it over hoops. Worked great! We really like the varied flavors and textures of home grown potatoes.

PM2, I grew sweet potatoes this year for the first time. I am the only one who eats them, so don't need a lot, but view them as a treat. I wasn't sure how they would do this far north, especially with our rainy and cooler than usual summer, but I got a reasonable harvest for a first attempt: two plants each produced one giant about a foot long and 4 inches wide as well as one more average sized, and the rest each produced several medium sized ones. I think I may use something to warm the soil in future efforts or plant in compost in large pots since they were slow to get started and had many just beginning tubers when I dug them.

Even with the amount of space I have, I am not particularly tempted to try growing buckwheat. My dried beans from this year will only last a few pots of chili - there's a lot of effort in hand harvesting small beans and grains.

Thanks for the recipe link, Tishtoshnm. and for the info that raw groats are only about $2. a pound. I like that flour would be so fresh if you ground it yourself too.

Babs, IâÂÂve been more concerned about the other potato disease IâÂÂve heard about, forget the name of it. Tulle over hoopsâ¦.I like the sound of that. LetâÂÂs a lot of sunlight in I bet. Do they also grow in less than full sun?

That actually sounds like a pretty good result to me too. IâÂÂm thinking of growing sweet potatoes in pots where I can give them full sun. I have a few 22inch pots I could use. I canâÂÂt understand how people can not like sweet potatoes. lol Our kids donâÂÂt like them either. Sadly.

You have a point about the labor intensiveness of small beans and grains. They used to do the bean cleaning in a rocking chair on the porch, didnâÂÂt they? While visiting with the neighbors? :-)

I'm a little baffled. Why grow buckwheat? I grow things because they taste better, and I'd be astonished if home-grown buckwheat tastes any different than the commercial variety. Worried about pollutants? Buy from a reputable source. Well, maybe if you're very rural, there aren't any such sources nearby. Saving money? Huh? On buckwheat?? OK, it's a "challenge". I'll buy that, I guess.

I *love* kasha, BTW. That's roasted/toasted buckwheat.

Here's a very handy tip for threshing beans that I read about in one of those recollections of old methods, in this case how to thresh cowpeas:

put the dry (very dry) pods in an old pillowcase or other sack (it was a burlap sack in the story but those are not easy to get hold of now) and hold it in one hand and give it a good beating with a stick in the other. Open the sack and the empty pods will be on top, take them out as much as possible without throwing beans away.

After that I dump the beans and small trash in a bowl and fill it with water, the trash floats to the top and is easily drained off. I get clean beans in a few minutes this way.

PNBrown, thanks for that tip on threshing beans. That sounds ingenious! I am going to give that a try the next time. Was it a book you were reading about recollections of old methods?

Yep, fresh bean cleaning is a very social endeavor. People start talking in a different way after a few hours of shelling. I prefer to freeze my fresh shelled beans, raw, in ziploc bags. In the fresh state they have fewer toxins than in the dried state, cook faster, taste better, and have more vitamins.

Although lately I have found that with two days soaking, 2 or 3 water changes, and thorough cooking, even dried beans are light on my system.

I find that also about cooking dry beans, and I also prefer them shelly, but it's too much work on shelling plus the freezer space and the electricity. A power outage and all the beans are ruint.

I read the bit about threshing beans in a gunnysack in one of those memoirs by a former slave, I believe.

gunny sack bean threshing -- I've used the "find a small child to jump on the sack" method, which is really fun and has the same result as wacking it with a stick.

Of course, when the kids grow up you have to wait for the next generation to become of jumping age.

Just did some with cowpeas - much easier than regular beans.