National Buckwheat Groats, Russian 1.5kg (3.3lb)

National Buckwheat Groats are a 1.5kg bag of Russian whole roasted buckwheat — grechka in the large-format bag produced by National, the Russian grain brand, for the Eastern European household that uses buckwheat as a regular weekly staple rather than an occasional health food purchase. National is a Russian grain brand producing the buckwheat, oat, and cereal products that stock Russian and Eastern European specialty stores, positioned as the reliable household grain brand for the diaspora kitchen that goes through buckwheat in quantities that require the large-format bag — the 1.5kg pour that the Russian, Ukrainian, and Baltic diaspora household keeps as the grain that gets cooked multiple times a week. Buckwheat — the foundational grain of the Eastern European kitchen — carries the heritage of the Russian steppe agriculture that made the Soviet Union one of the world's largest buckwheat producers: the grain that fed Russian and Ukrainian populations through the cold months, that Soviet-era households kept in the pantry as reliably as flour, and that the diaspora cannot find in regular North American supermarkets in the proper whole-grain, properly-toasted format that National produces for the Eastern European market. Cook in the 1:2 ratio with water and butter for the standard kasha, serve alongside roasted chicken or pork as the Eastern European grain side, prepare with sautéed onion and mushroom for the classic Russian vegetarian buckwheat dinner, or use in blini batter for the traditional buckwheat pancake that the Russian tea table demands.