sarrasin

Also known as blé noir, buckwheat grows on poor soil and is cultivated mainly in Brittany (notably in the Bas-Léon) and the Auvergne. Related to sorrel and knotweed, buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) is not technically a grain at all; its flowers make a pleasing red-tinted honey.

In general, you’ll only see it in galettes bretonnes or savoury crêpes, or in the classic Breton stew, Kig ha farz. But because buckwheat is naturally gluten-free, it has become more popular in other ways as well. Most French supermarkets now carry farine de sarrasin.

As in Italy (where it’s called grano saraceno), the French name recalls that buckwheat was introduced to western Europe by the Saracen-fighting Crusaders in the 12th century.

The great food writer Brillant-Savarin highly recommended buckwheat for fattening chickens.

What a present the Moors gave us by sending us buckwheat! It is its seed that makes chicken so attractive, so fine and so exquisite.

When I travel through the countryside and come across a field of buckwheat, I cannot tire of admiring this beneficial herb which perfumes the air when it is in flower; this perfume throws me into a sort of ecstasy, and I think I smell the scent of the very chicken of which it will one day be the food.