Beloved Buckwheat
Old-fashioned breakfasts have become traditional events
The Inter-Mountain photos by Edgar Kelley A group of customers sit at a table during the Odd Fellow’s Buckwheat Feed held last Saturday at the IOOF Lodge.
Christine Wood whips up some buckwheat pancakes during the Odd Fellow’s Buckwheat Feed last Saturday at the IOOF Lodge.
A tub of buckwheat mix is ready to be spooned out and put on the grill to make buckwheat cakes. The mix had set for two nights in preparation for Saturday morning’s breakfast.
The Inter-Mountain photos by Edgar Kelley A group of customers sit at a table during the Odd Fellow’s Buckwheat Feed held last Saturday at the IOOF Lodge.
Christine Wood whips up some buckwheat pancakes during the Odd Fellow’s Buckwheat Feed last Saturday at the IOOF Lodge.
A tub of buckwheat mix is ready to be spooned out and put on the grill to make buckwheat cakes. The mix had set for two nights in preparation for Saturday morning’s breakfast.
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ELKINS -- If you've a longtime West Virginia resident, there's a good chance you have attended a buckwheat feed or breakfast.
The traditional breakfast is a cherished event across many parts of the Mountain State, including Elkins, where the Randolph IOOF Lodge No. 116 hosted its annual event on April 17.
The IOOF Club has been hosting buckwheat feeds for close to 50 years and usually offers about eight or nine per year.
"The Odd Fellows started the buckwheat feeds during a time back in the 1970s when they didn't have any money," IOOF Treasurer Chuck Spanitz told The Inter-Mountain. "They were about ready to close up shop because they didn't have any resources coming in. So they decided to start these feeds and they have really been what has carried the lodge through the years ever since."
Spanitz said this year's feeds were at first delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. For the first events this year the organization was offering only take-out meals.
"We served 127 people from 7 a.m. until noon at our last feed," Spanitz said. "We didn't get started this year until February and it was all carry-out. And then in March we saw maybe a dozen people eat inside. But this last one we had a lot of people come in and sit down. We have a lot of room for people to social distance and I expect us to have a very big turnout for the last one (this season) in May."
All buckwheat recipes, if done the old-fashioned way, call for the mixture to sit overnight and to have a good "starter." Spanitz says the Odd Fellows' cakes definitely have that.
"They set the mixture on Thursday so it's ready to go on Saturday," he said. "And the starter that we have is probably 30 years old. It has just been carrying down from buckwheat feed to buckwheat feed."
The Odd Fellows have one more buckwheat feed planned for May, before they get things started again in September. The event will be at the IOOF Lodge on May 15.
"Either you love buckwheat or you hate it," he said. "It's a love-hate relationship. Pancakes are just bland, where you will get a charge out of buckwheat."
If buckwheat cakes aren't your favorite, most feeds also offer up other items for breakfast. At last Saturday's IOOF event, the menu also included regular pancakes, sausage, biscuits and gravy, eggs, milk, coffee or orange juice.
Elkins isn't the only place serving up buckwheat cakes, however, as feeds and breakfasts are offered monthly across West Virginia.
Buckwheat is so popular in West Virginia that Preston County holds an annual Buckwheat Festival. The event, which began in 1938, is offered every fall, drawing thousands of people from across the state.
A buckwheat pancake is made with buckwheat flour. Buckwheat pancakes are lighter than regular pancakes and are also darker, as buckwheat is darker in color than wheat. They are also lighter and more airy in taste than traditional pancakes.
Buckwheat is one of the world's first domesticated crops. Its use is thought to have originated around five or six thousand years ago in Southeast Asia. It spread to other regions of the world from there and was brought to North America in the 1600s.
Today buckwheat is grown in certain parts of the Northeast where the climate is appropriate. The areas best suited for growing buckwheat are West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and the higher elevations of New York.