Barley is a grain typified by its long-bearded spiked heads.

 

Once very widespread (from the edges of the Sahara to Sweden), barley was always much used in making malt, the basic ingredient of beer (the Gauls made cervoise, barley beer). In the 5th century BC, arriving in Italy to found Naples, the Greeks discovered a barley and water paste dried in the sun and made into a sauce that they called makaria (felicity).

 

The Hebrews saw barley as a symbol of strength and valor in war. It had the same connotations for the Egyptians, Roman gladiators and Vikings. Christopher Columbus brought barley to North America from Europe in 1493 and it has been cultivated here ever since.

 

It is suited to all latitudes. Gathered just about everywhere in its wild state, barley seems to have first been grown in Turkestan, Ethiopia, Tibet, Nepal and China. Digs carried out in Egypt, 100 km from Cairo, have shown that barley was being grown more than 5,000 years ago. It is grown from Finland to North Africa to Tibet, where the national dish is Tsampa, toasted barley flour.

 

Today only one-third of world barley production is used as food, most of it going to make malt for beer and whisky.

Did you know...
A bushel of barley yields a bushel of malt, which in turn yields a barrel of beer, which is 333 bottles!