Buckwheat Fagopyrum esculentum

History of Buckwheat

Buckwheat was cultivated in China as early as some 3000 years ago. In Europe and in Finland the cultivation started in the 15th century. From the 1700s to the 1850s the cultivation of buckwheat was at its most widespread in Finland. In the early 1900s the cultivation reduced rapidly and stopped almost totally after the 1940s.

In the 1990s the buckwheat cultivation started to increase again in Finland due to the fact that buckwheat is – because of its gluten-free quality - an excellent nutrient for the increasing number of people suffering from coeliac disease and grain-allergy.