.Buckwheat-  is actually a fruit seed that is related to rhubarb.  It is triangular in shape but similar in size to wheat.  It does not contain gluten.  It is widely produced in Russia and Poland. Easiest and most common way to prepare buckwheat is to make buckwheat porridge.  Boil it for about 30 -40 minutes mixing it every once in a while.  Blini are wonderful buckwheat pancakes

Quinoa – Is a relative of leafy green vegetables like spinach and swiss chard.  It is fluffy, creamy, slightly crunchy texture and a somewhat nutty flavor when cooked.  Quinoa cooks up like rice.  It usually takes 15 minutes to prepare.  You can serve it as porridge or add it to bread, soups, or stews.  The flour can be added to cookies or muffins. This grain is relatively new to North America but it has been cultivated in South American Andes since at least 3,000 B.C. and has been a staple food of millions of native inhabitants. The protein in quinoa is considered to be a complete protein due to the presence of all 8 essential amino acids.

Millet – is the 6th most important grain in the world.  It sustains 1/3 of the world’s population.  In the U.S. it is grown in Colorado, North Dakota, and Nebraska.   It cooks up like rice.  Millet is highly nutritious, non glutinous and like buckwheat and quinoa it is not an acid forming food so it is easy to digest.  Great for children.  You can use millet as a substitute for rice in any dish.  Keep millet flour refrigerated because it becomes rancid and deteriorates very rapidly.

Triticale  - is a cross between durum wheat and rye.  Today there are only a few 1,000 acres of triticale grown in the U.S.  Poland, Germany, China, and France account for nearly 90% of the world triticale production.  In making triticale bread you must use 50% wheat flour and do not knead the dough excessively.

Rye – is a cereal grass widely cultivated for its grain. It is a member of the wheat tribe and is closely related to barley and wheat.  It can be used for flour or it can also be eaten whole, either as boiled rye berries, or by being rolled, similar to rolled oats. Russia is the leading world producer, followed by Poland and Germany.  Rye production in the United States is mostly in South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Georgia.  Rye bread production requires blending of rye flours with wheat flours to provide sufficient dough strength. 

Kamut – Kamut is a close relative to wheat whose kernel is about the same shape as a wheat seed but a Kamut kernel is more than twice as big.  Even though Kamut is very closely related to wheat, many people who are wheat intolerant can eat Kamut with no problems.  Kamut also has some pretty amazing nutritional strengths.  And as an amazingly versatile grain, Kamut can be used in place of all the different wheats; the hard and soft varieties and also durum wheat.
A young Montana airman while stationed in the US Air Force in Portugal, was given 36 kernels  of this grain, telling him it came from the pyramids of Egypt.  Evidently, the serviceman believed him, and mailed the kernels home to his wheat-farmer dad who planted them.  Of the 36 kernels, 32 of them sprouted.  After carefully tending these seeds and their offspring for the next 6 years, these 32 kernels had grown to 1,500 bushels.  This unusual, large kerneled wheat was shown at the county fair and was called “King tut’s Wheat.”  Bob Quinn, just a boy at the time, was a youngster in the crowd.  The grain never really caught on at that time and the farmer ended up feeding it to his cattle.  In 1977, bob, now a agricultural scientist with a Ph.D., remembered that strange looking wheat and after scouring the country side came up with a pint bottle of it.  By 1988, Bob had the strain built back up and had generated enough interest in it that he could start marketing it commercially.

Kamut is a high protein grain, generally containing 30% more protein than wheat.  Because of its larger seed size in comparison to wheat, there’s less fiber in Kamut that wheat.