Greetings:

I thought I would pass along some information regarding sourcing
unhulled Buckwheat.

I was looking for some unhulled Buckwheat after reading about all the
great things it has to offer on morelife.org.
(http://morelife.org/personal/health/dietregmore.html)

I looked the two sources listed on the above page with no luck. At the
Bob's Red Mill site (http://www.bobsredmill.com) they no longer have
the unhulled Buckwheat and don't plan on carrying it according to a
woman I spoke to on the phone. I then asked about the Buckwheat flour
that they sell and even though it says whole buckwheat flour, she told
me that it did not include the hulls in the flour. She told me that
the hulls are first removed and then the groats that are left are
ground into flour. I asked why they say whole Buckwheat is used in the
flour when the hull is not included,and she said that this is the way
Buckwheat is ground as the hulls gum up the mill. I thought this is
very interesting and might be something to consider when buying
Buckwheat flour, ie whether any of the Buckwheat flours sold really
include the hull.

[The information that Bob's Red Mill buckwheat flour does not contain the hulls
of this grain is a real surprise, since they make the statement: "We've always
known how important whole grains are for good health." at the top of their page
on Whole Grains. http://www.bobsredmill.com/whole_grain_resources.php It sounds
from what you were verbally told that "whole grain" is more of a marketing ploy;
this company's management doesn't understand the health benefits of whole
buckwheat.
I did note that on the full product list, no mention of "whole" is included for
buckwheat flour. It's listed as "organic buckwheat flour".

I have now submitted an online questionnaire to Sprouts Markets where we have
bought buckwheat flour thinking it was from the whole grain. (We shop at their
Tempe and sometimes Mesa stores.) I will let it be known what answer I receive.
We will also question Harvest Moon in Bancroft the next time we are there for
the processing of their buckwheat flour. Interestingly this bulk food store also
sells the buckwheat hulls (in addition to groats), but not whole (unhulled)
buckwheat. In fact we've never seen whole buckwheat sold in a store. **Kitty]


Next, I called the (http://www.paulsgrains.com) company and spoke to
the owners who are very nice. They didn't have any Buckwheat left but
they said that they would by September as they had some in the field
at the moment. (BTW Kitty, the link to the pauls grains site on
morelife is broken)

[Thanks, Erich, for letting me know. It seems that Paul's Grains has changed
their website and internal pages no longer have unique URL's. I'll correct the
link on the More Diet Ideas page with next upload. **Kitty]


They also told me that they only plant Buckwheat every other year, so
if you want some from this company, you should buy enough for 2 years
it seems.

[Thanks for the information. I expect we will order about 25 pounds again in the
Fall; the original will then have lasted us almost 2 years. But if we find that
the marketed buckwheat flour in Sprouts and Harvest Moon do *not* contain the
hulls, we'll have to buy more and grind our own for everything. (And the
buckwheat does *not* gum up in our small coffee mill; nuts by themselves do,
however.) Lately we've only been grinding it for cooked cereal and when we've
run out of store-bought flour. **Kitty]


I looked into some other sources and by way of google I found the
following:

http://www.mannaharvest.net/product_info.php/products_id/520

http://www.barryfarm.com/Grains.htm

http://www.thebirkettmills.com/ (this company does not list unhulled
buckwheat as a product but as the following link shows they do sell
it, you just have to call them it seems.)
http://www.thebirkettmills.com/answers_2005.htm#unhulled

[I had found the first 2 companies when searching for sources after discovering
that Bob's Red Mill no longer carried whole buckwheat. But I didn't mention them
on the MoreLife.org page because their prices were both considerably higher than
Paul's Grains (charging $1.00/lb for 1-4 lb, $0.95/lb for 5-49lb, and $0.90/lb
for 50+lb.) But availability might be a problem at times, so having other
sources is worthwhile. Thanks for the information. **Kitty]


Hope this helps, if anyone else has a good reliable source for
unhulled Buckwheat, please post a reply.

[Qualified posters are urged to please do. **Kitty]


Warmly,
Erich Brueschke