Why Can't I Buy North Dakota Buckwheat?

 

  A few weeks ago, I received the sample of Dakota grown buckwheat from the address on the package above. I had contacted the organization to find out if there was a place I could buy North Dakota-grown buckwheat since, according to several sources, North Dakota is the nation's biggest producer of buckwheat. As a wholesale organization, they told me they could send me a free sample. I asked why I couldn't buy a package of North Dakota buckwheat in local stores and didn't really get an answer. My wife and I go to Regina, Saskatchewan, from time to time, where I can buy beefy packages of local products like lentils and chickpeas for far less than south of the border. If given the choice, I would rather buy a package of local lentils from right outside Williston, but that isn't an option unless I get it right from the farmer.

Buckwheat groats are the oatmeal and rice of Eastern Europe and countries of the former Soviet Union. It is also popular in Israel, where many former Eastern European people live. For years, I have purchased online or when I chance upon a store that specializes in Eastern European foods. The groats are often packed in Russia, Israel or Ukraine. I recently purchased packages from the People's Republic of China and Russia at a Ukrainian store in Bismarck. While the groats are packed in those countries, it would be interesting to trace whether some of the groats are, in the surreal logic of our global system, shipped from North Dakota to be packed in these countries, only to be sent back to small European stores in North Dakota. There is an opportunity to market the buckwheat super grain grown right here and keep the value added in state. It would be great to have the peace of mind to be able to buy locally sourced groats instead of relying on packages of dubious provenance from totalitarian countries. If I have the choice I purchase packages from Ukraine or Israel, but why can't I get one from North Dakota, let alone the United States?

In addition to buckwheat groats, I love Japanese soba noodles made of buckwheat. Again, when my wife and I want soba, my favorite all-time noodle, the noodles are imported from Japan or other countries. If most local stores have soba at all it may be only one variety. Again, we search out specialty Asian stores or shop online for more varieties of soba. I imagine North Dakota buckwheat shipped wholesale to Japan, which has very little farmland. After being made into soba, again, like groats, it is shipped back to the agricultural colony of North Dakota, where we just ship raw materials out wholesale and let other people sell things back to us at retail. Again, imagine making these wonderful noodles right here.

My dream is to grow a field of buckwheat pollinated by bees that produce the distinctive dark brown buckwheat honey, harvesting groats, grinding flour and maybe even making wonderful soba noodles with that flour. Maybe one day.