On Funen we do eat Bu´h-whea´-porridge?

On Funen we do eat Bu´h-whea´-porridge?
Buckwheat porridge - pronounced very softly - was a unique historical specialty in Funen. For although few contemporary people living on Funen have tasted the porridge, the dish is important to the island's history. An old proverb says plainly, that Funen inhabitants is doddering, when he walks past a buckwheat field. Therefore in Arent Berntsens book Denmark and Norgis Frutillity Glory from 1656, he called the porridge the Funen Porridge. And then the weird crop from Siberia is not even a real cereal. Buckwheat is one part of the Knotweed-family, but looks like cereal as much in its composition, so it is usually regarded as a cereal. In the 1300-century there was buckwheat fields all over the island of Funen, and the plant has been used by the Vikings and their descendants to make almost everything, from bread, soups and pancakes to mats and stuffing in cushions. The plant can also be used for dyeing clothes, animal feed and medicine. In 1546 Henry Smid wrote for example, that gruel softens hard stomach and helps urine- and milk production, while buckwheat flour in the wine casts heals black jaundice and bowel twisting. There is also some superstition attached to the plant. It was said, that if a married couple used buckwheat straw in their bed, the children would have red hair, and a square buckwheat seed can protected the household against witches.

Eat porridge

Give Milk and Butter and cheese - its sweet; Bless us with porridge. Let chicken give eggs on platter. For pancakes' and eggs on rye bread. Preserve our geese from all sorts of trouble, Makes cabbage fat and the duvet soft. Strong hop hang on poles, set bitter Wormwood in the beds. So wrote Carl Baggers in his song about the month of May in the book, My brother's biography in 1835. If you fancy eating the porridge, it's easy to make. Remember to rinse the grains first, since many are allergic to the dye fagopyrin found in buckwheat husks.

You need:
1.5 liters of milk
210 grams buckwheat
1 teaspoon of salt
Syrup and Caster sugar.

The milk is brought to the boil; buckwheat is sprinkled in while stirring. Reduce heat and let the porridge boil with the lid on at a low heat for approx. 45 minutes. Then you can turn off the heat and taste the porridge, adding perhaps a bit of salt. The porridge is served with a syrup and caster sugar. Buckwheat flour is used particularly for galettes, French pancakes with f.ex. meat or blinis, Russian pancakes.

Svendborg Buckwheat and Oat Mill
Today it may be difficult to find buckwheat growing in Funen. But in Svendborg a producing company still exists namely the Svendborg Buckwheat and Oat Mill. The company was founded in 1888 by Theodor Petersen, who made flower of buckwheat in his mill. Now the mill however imports its buck—wheat flower from a miller in the old East Germany near the Polish border. So instead of using the holidays to hunt buckwheat fields on Funen, you can choose to take the easy way out and pay the brewery Refsvindinge a visit. In 2004 this brewery brewed for the first time a bear on buck-wheat as a special weddingbrew to Crown Prince and crown princess’s wedding. The topfermented, light golden beer with an alcohol content of 5.7 percent is brewed from malt, authentic Funen buckwheat, hops, and pure water. Cheers!