Common Buckwheat - Fagopyrum esculentum

Common Buckwheat, in Latin Fagopyrum esculentum, is an annual flowering plant classified as a pseudocereal, grown both for its edible seeds and as a green manure. Its brown seeds, rich in nutrients and proteins, are consumed boiled like rice, while the flour is one of the main ingredients in the famous buckwheat pancakes. Used as a green manure, buckwheat improves soil structure and effectively combats the proliferation of weeds. Buckwheat is particularly well suited to poor, heavy, acidic, compact soils, as well as humid climates. It is planted in spring.

Buckwheat belongs to the family Polygonaceae and not to the wheat family (genusTriticum, family Poaceae) despite its name 'black wheat'. It is used as a green manure, especially for its weed-suppressing properties and its strong covering power. Buckwheat has upright stems that reach a height of 30 to 70 cm (12 to 28in) and have a purplish color. The leaves are heart-shaped and the small flowers, white or pale pink, are clustered tightly together. Buckwheat is sensitive to frost. It thrives in all types of soils, including poor soils.

Widely used in organically cultivated gardens, green manures like buckwheat have many advantages. They nourish and improve the soil by providing it with various nutrients and stimulating the soil's microbial life. Their roots loosen and aerate the soil. In addition, the presence of a vegetative cover protects the soil from leaching (nutrient loss in sandy soil), rain compaction (formation of a crust in loamy soil), and erosion (caused by runoff in steep terrain during heavy rainfall). This vegetative cover also helps suppress weed growth by preventing the growth of unwanted weeds. Finally, green manures are often honey plants that attract pollinators.

Green manures are sown on uncultivated plots or between rows of vegetables. They are destroyed either naturally by frost or by mowing before seed formation. Once destroyed, they can be left in place as mulch, or they can be shredded and incorporated into the top layers of the soil, or they can be collected and added to compost.

Harvesting: the seeds ripen gradually, starting from late September.

In the kitchen: Buckwheat seeds, gluten-free (like quinoa and sorghum), can be cooked in various ways to replace rice or semolina. The gluten-free flour is perfect for intolerant and allergic individuals, but it is not suitable for baking bread. To make buckwheat bread, it is necessary to mix the flour with others that contain gluten.

A gardener's tip: just like for vegetable crops, it is important, for green manures, to consider rotations: don't always sow the same ones in the same place! Buckwheat husks also make excellent mulch against slugs and snails.