This is perhaps the most interesting area of the allergies so far. When I first met Meredith, I saw this buckwheat thing that she and Ethan did with the Levins family and found it very weird. I've come to like some parts of it and dislike others. I've also learned to embrace the grand little seed and give it a chance.

We buy our buckwheat groats from The Birkett Mills, a company I found early in our marriage. The Levins had previously relied on HEB and Whole Foods to stock buckwheat groats. The supply was from China, and prices and availability have made it harder to buy. Even though the Levins had already researched it and found that shipping costs made mail order unsuitable, I set out to find it wholesale and stumbled on The Birkett Mills. For about $80 I can get 50 pounds of the stuff, and its quality appears to be better than what HEB and Whole Foods has. There are some foreign particles in it, but Meredith takes care to pick them out.

For now, I believe that we will continue to buy from Birkett Mills.

How do we use our buckwheat? Here are some ways:

Buckwheat Pancakes

• 4 cups buckwheat groats, soaked overnight, rinsed
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 tsp baking powder

We soak buckwheat groats in water overnight to aid digestion. Blend the above mixture in a sturdy blender. Our Blendtec blender does the trick! Cook the pancakes on a cast iron skillet or non-stick pan. Add honey, molasses, or agave.

Since Meredith is sensitive to corn, we cannot use most baking powders. In fact, even the Rumford baking powder that Meredith liked could only be used on Saturday, the magical corn day on which we are able to eat that vegetable whose forms find their way into all sorts of food. Meredith thought we could omit baking powder, but I just wasn't a fan. Last week I bought some potato-based baking powder from Whole Foods. It turned out well, but since Meredith and Ethan are sensitive to potato, that only helps so much. Today was the first time that we used just Baking Soda and Cream of Tartar instead. 1 tsp baking powder = 1/2 tsp cream of tarter + 1/4 tsp baking soda Meredith says that it turned out well. I will see. Update: Brent liked it!

Buckwheat Bread

By pouring the above pancake mix into a shallow (1" deep) baking pan, we can make a bread that has the density of cornbread. Ethan loves it. We had stopped making this after discovering that baking powder has corn in it, but maybe we can make it again.

Cooked Buckwheat

This is more boring. Put olive oil and soaked buckwheat into a pot and cook for a little while. Then add water and cook until the water is gone.

-Brent