Program

Hungry for History®

Subject

Folklore

Location

115 Brown Ave, Kingwood, WV 26537, USA

Lat/Long

39.4694121, -79.6888853

Grant Recipient

Preston County Chamber of Commerce

Buckwheat Cakes, or thin cakes made using milled buckwheat flour, were made popular by Preston County farmers who grew the crop. They are most often served with syrup.

As the popularity of buckwheat grew due to its robust nature and the quick yield it produces, recipes including milled buckwheat flour increased as well. Both were noted in an 1859 article featured in the Wheeling Daily Intelligencer:

Large quantities of buckwheat are being sowed throughout the frost bitten regions. Some 300 bushels were retailed for seed at West Middletown in a few days, as we are informed. Buckwheat cakes and honey are a very good substitute for bread and butter.

The impetus for the adoption of buckwheat occurred following the aforementioned frost, which struck the northeast states in June of 1859 decimating the, at the time, more popular wheat crop. With their summer crop ruined Preston farmers turned to buckwheat to supplement losses as it was viable within two months of being sown. Following the frost of 1859 buckwheat became a regular and popular component of Preston County agriculture. A new staple crop meant new recipes, and Buckwheat cakes became especially popular during this time.

Buckwheat proved so beneficial to Preston County, West Virginia that the Annual Preston County Buckwheat Festival was born in 1938.