French buckwheat ("Saracen wheat") flour

Vintage ads for buckwheat products

High school soba noodle event

This video heartens me, as I love to see tradition staying alive with youth participation. 

Authentic soba noodle-making

Traditional soba noodles, and how they're made. 

This video is both informative and enjoyable. 

Caring for my soba-cutting knife

The kiri (cleaver for slicing buckwheat noodles) has a stainless steel blade, so I looked up this information on how to keep the blade from rusting. The key seems to be to help the metal form a strong patina. 

Cutting soba noodles

This chef shows how it's done.

Restoring a rusty knife used for cutting soba noodles

The blade of a kiri is usually made of carbon steel and not stainless steel, and while I hope I never let mine get corroded by rust, it's good to know how to restore the blade, as in this video.

Ordered a knife to cut soba noodles!

There was a $5 price drop on a beginner's soba knife, and I decided to go for it.

Montana buckwheat comes in two forms

The buckwheat usually discussed on this blog is the long-stems variety with white flowers and dark kernals at the top. But Montana has two kinds of shrubby buckwheat, one more low-growing than the other.

Here is a link to information about "mat" buckwheat.

The same site has a different page about "smooth" buckwheat.