Buckwheat – revival in a new foodscape

In July 1749, when visiting Scania, Carl Linnaeus, noted the snow-white fields of buck wheat (Linné, 1749/1999). In those days, the cultivation of buckwheat was widespread in the southern parts of Sweden. It was used for porridge and gruel, staple foods the common people (Olsson, u.å.) Buck wheat thrives on lean, calcareous soils and require very little input. During the 1930s, when industrial fertilizers were introduced, production and consumption fell sharply as buckwheat was outcompeted by more high-yielding crops like oats and potatoes.