Instructions

1. Use raw hulled groats, not the toasted brown kasha sold next to them. Kasha has already been cooked and will never sprout, however long you leave it.
2. Cover the groats well with water and leave them overnight. They swell to nearly double, so give them more room in the bowl than looks necessary.
3. Rinse them until the water runs clear. Buckwheat throws off a thick slime as it soaks, and any of it left behind glues the groats into clumps on the tray.
4. Drain them well and leave them in the sieve at room temperature for two days, rinsing and draining every few hours. They are ready when each groat has pushed out a small white tail about as long as the seed itself.
5. Spread them one layer deep on a lined tray, breaking up any clumps with your fingers. A clump dries as a single lump with a soft core, and you will not find it until you bite one.
6. Dry at 46 °C for 7 hours, which keeps everything under the raw threshold. Start testing at the two-thirds mark by taking a spoonful out and letting it cool on a saucer.
7. A finished groat shatters rather than squashing, and a handful poured back onto the tray sounds like gravel. Warm buckwheat always feels crisp, so the saucer test is the only one worth trusting.
8. Fold the nuts, seeds and dried fruit through once the buckwheat is stone cold, and keep the mix in a sealed jar for three months. It is the nuts that set that limit — buckwheat alone would sit in the cupboard for a year.