I can't believe how much I just learned from reading this!! My Dad used to talk about buckwheat pancakes, but I have never had them......so, want to come over for breakfast??? xxx
Jennifer - beautiful piece! I hope you'll find a platform for a broader readership because it certainly deserves it! In addition to making me think about buckwheat pancakes, and wishing I had access to those blueberries (though the frozen Maine wild ones are a good option for those of us without a friend’s supply,) this makes me think of Buckwheat as Buckwheat, before it's ground. Our friend Lily fled Ukraine with her teenage kids in the summer of 2022 and now lives on Omaha. I hope she's found local outlets now but in her early days she pined for buckwheat but couldn't find it on grocery shelves. That Thanksgiving while visiting us in Minneapolis she was thrilled to find it in our co-op. Little things like that make a big difference for homesick refugees. And it was a good reminder for my husband (who grew up eating buckwheat in his NY Jewish family) to pick some up as well!
Thank you for subscribing to Eat Right Here and for your kind words. You reminded me of a recent conversation I had with a couple who had immigrated to the U.S. – he from Russia decades ago and she more recently from Ukraine. Since I was working on this newsletter, buckwheat was on my mind. We started talking about this food that is so meaningful to them. After giving me clear details of how best to cook buckwheat grouts, they shared some from a package purchased from a Ukrainian store in Connecticut. I was so touched because I knew in offering me grouts they were also sharing an essential culinary element of their cultures, a deep part of their personal histories, and a longing for peace in their homelands.
Terrific column! I love buckwheat cakes; I often start from scratch with buckwheat flour and let yeast rise overnight instead of mix, though in a pinch I use the Birkett Mills mix, which is also very good (and fool-proof, unlike my method!). Buckwheat honey is a nice topping as well. Question: are maple trees the only trees to make a tasty syrup from? I ask because we made some sort of syrup from a Norway maple years ago; it wasn't very good.
Hi Rick, Thanks much! First, there are several maple species (Acers) that can be tapped for making syrup. Also, there are several species in addition to maples that can also be tapped and the sap can be reduced to syrup. The sap can be lower in sugar (around 2% as opposed to 4% in sugar maples in a good year), so it will take more sap for a given amount of syrup (about 66% sugar by weight). With sugar maples it will takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup. Here are a couple of links about tree species that produce sap that can be reduced to syrup.
I had no idea! Thanks so much for the links. I understand that sugar maple tree sap will have a higher sugar concentration, but compared to many of the others listed it is not so very much higher, so I wonder why we've never seen other tree syrups. Maybe they are out there and not widely available; then again, maybe the public just isn't ready for anything other than syrup from sugar maple trees. In any case, the syrup my kids and I made years ago from a Norway maple in our yard was really bad.
Thanks, Jennifer, for the shout-out and for the really informative and well- written essay. Your work is inspiring.
You are welcome! I am a very happy recipient of your seasonal harvests.
I can't believe how much I just learned from reading this!! My Dad used to talk about buckwheat pancakes, but I have never had them......so, want to come over for breakfast??? xxx
Jennifer - beautiful piece! I hope you'll find a platform for a broader readership because it certainly deserves it! In addition to making me think about buckwheat pancakes, and wishing I had access to those blueberries (though the frozen Maine wild ones are a good option for those of us without a friend’s supply,) this makes me think of Buckwheat as Buckwheat, before it's ground. Our friend Lily fled Ukraine with her teenage kids in the summer of 2022 and now lives on Omaha. I hope she's found local outlets now but in her early days she pined for buckwheat but couldn't find it on grocery shelves. That Thanksgiving while visiting us in Minneapolis she was thrilled to find it in our co-op. Little things like that make a big difference for homesick refugees. And it was a good reminder for my husband (who grew up eating buckwheat in his NY Jewish family) to pick some up as well!
Dear Lynn,
Thank you for subscribing to Eat Right Here and for your kind words. You reminded me of a recent conversation I had with a couple who had immigrated to the U.S. – he from Russia decades ago and she more recently from Ukraine. Since I was working on this newsletter, buckwheat was on my mind. We started talking about this food that is so meaningful to them. After giving me clear details of how best to cook buckwheat grouts, they shared some from a package purchased from a Ukrainian store in Connecticut. I was so touched because I knew in offering me grouts they were also sharing an essential culinary element of their cultures, a deep part of their personal histories, and a longing for peace in their homelands.
Jennifer
Terrific column! I love buckwheat cakes; I often start from scratch with buckwheat flour and let yeast rise overnight instead of mix, though in a pinch I use the Birkett Mills mix, which is also very good (and fool-proof, unlike my method!). Buckwheat honey is a nice topping as well. Question: are maple trees the only trees to make a tasty syrup from? I ask because we made some sort of syrup from a Norway maple years ago; it wasn't very good.
Hi Rick, Thanks much! First, there are several maple species (Acers) that can be tapped for making syrup. Also, there are several species in addition to maples that can also be tapped and the sap can be reduced to syrup. The sap can be lower in sugar (around 2% as opposed to 4% in sugar maples in a good year), so it will take more sap for a given amount of syrup (about 66% sugar by weight). With sugar maples it will takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup. Here are a couple of links about tree species that produce sap that can be reduced to syrup.
https://practicalselfreliance.com/trees-species-tap-syrup/
https://wildfoodism.com/2014/02/04/22-trees-that-can-be-tapped-for-sap-and-syrup/
Hi Jennifer,
I had no idea! Thanks so much for the links. I understand that sugar maple tree sap will have a higher sugar concentration, but compared to many of the others listed it is not so very much higher, so I wonder why we've never seen other tree syrups. Maybe they are out there and not widely available; then again, maybe the public just isn't ready for anything other than syrup from sugar maple trees. In any case, the syrup my kids and I made years ago from a Norway maple in our yard was really bad.
Rik
Lovely piece, Jennifer. Thanks so much!
Thank you, Mark! I hope you’re well. J