“Up the barley rows
Stitching, stitching them together
A butterfly goes”
Barley Haiku by Kawai Sora
Sora’s Haiku
Kawai Sora was apprentice and traveling companion to 17th-century Japanese Edo poet, Matsuo Basho, developer and master of the haiku poem. Haikus consist of only three lines of verse, using seventeen syllables. The first line usually contains five words, the second line seven words, and the final line, five words. They almost always evoke the natural world.
Sora and Basho traveled extensively in Northern Japan, teaching and seeking out new inspiration for their beloved form of poetry. And since barley is used extensively in Japan (in miso, sochu, beer and barley tea) it is unsurprising that they’d eventually encounter a field of barley.
Sora’s simple lines about this popular crop at once conjures up hazy Summers, the barley neatly aligned in obligingly straight, narrow rows, and brushed by the beautiful yet fleeting wings of the butterfly. But, as with all the best poetry – and a sure sign that he had learned his skills from Basho – there are other ways we can read Sora’s haiku than at face value.
The barley and butterfly are metaphors for ordered thought becoming art, for the symbiosis of nature and arrangement – even for the fleeting quality of life itself.
It is an artful recognition of man’s conquering of the natural world.
A cropped history of Barley
Barley has long been associated with our harnessing of natural resources, not least because it’s been a cultivated farm crop for centuries. Archaeological finds date farmed barley crops back as far as 5000bce in Mesopotamia, 3000bce in Western Europe, and 1500bce in China.
It was a key ingredient in the daily bread of early Hebrews, Romans and Greeks and, because of its proliferation, became very popular in Europe in the mid-late 1500s – only a couple of generations in fact, before Sora wrote his diary.
Its popularity as a grain source is due to the ease with which it can be grown and harvested – it’s an altogether reliable and regular crop.
Farming Festivals
Representing for the ancient Greeks the goddess, Persephone, each year barley dies back and, like Persephone, overwinters in the underworld. It returns again with reassuring regularity and resplendence in the spring. The Greeks often used it in rituals commemorating Persephone (and in their hopes for a successful following growing season) for that very reason.
In Estonian tradition, wax dolls of ‘Peko’ (a farming deity) were buried with the newly sown barley crop each Spring. The ritual included lots of food and drink – largely consisting of the previous harvest’s barley. Any leftovers from the festival were handed out to the poor folk. (Sound familiar?).
Once the harvest was in later in the year, a wrestling match determined which lucky soul – the one with the first bleeding wound – would get to place Peko’s likeness in their granary for luck, until the following Spring.
The name ‘Peko’ is thought to have derived from the Swedish ‘beygivver’ meaning barley.
Able to withstand more climate variations than most other crops, it thrives in the arid heat of North Africa. But it’s equally at home in the cool, moist conditions of Europe and Western Asia. Its several cultivars then, are grown in many different regions – but all with pretty much the same properties and reliability.
So it’s understandable that the barley motif features in festivals similar to the Peko ritual, the globe over, including our own Harvest Festivals each Autumn.
How to Eat It
Barley’s most common use is in loaves and flatbreads, but it’s also great as a kind of porridge – which is how most North Africans eat it – or soft grain accompaniment to stews, soups and tagines.
I personally often use it to jazz up my salads, as a substitute for rice in ‘risotto’, or cooked in stock and served with caramelised butternut squash or sweet potato and sage butter.
But you can drink it too…
John Barleycorn
The name ’John Barleycorn’ has long been associated in British folk culture with the demon drinks of beer and whisky – both made from barley.
Robert Burns wrote his own version of the Scottish ballad of John Barleycorn, telling of drunkenness and destitution and finally the grim death of the eponymous drinker.
But in moderation even Burns recognised that barley was a gift of a grain. His poem Bannocks o’Barley is a rousing tribute to the fun that can be had with a quality dram of single malt!
And if getting thoroughly drenched on it isn’t quite your thing, the Victorians (who else?!) had a more sober way of consuming it!
As a result, the once maligned barley crop soon became almost completely synonymous with health.
Barley Water
Traditionally, straining the water off cooked pearl barley and adding sugar or other sweeteners and sometimes fruit juices – usually lemon), to it, creates the basic ‘barley water’.
Once chilled, it is – as it has been for decades – consumed as a treatment for weight loss and tummy upsets, (although not all its supposed health benefits are rooted in firm science!).
What is certain is that there’s plenty of goodness contained in these humble grains.
Firstly, it’s known to suppress cholesterol, thanks to its ‘tocols’, and its prolific antioxidants actively munch on free radicals in the body. It’s a good source of manganese, iron, copper and B-vitamin folate, making it great for pregnant women and improving connective tissues, hair and skin.
Unsweetened barley water prevents hunger pangs and controls sugar spikes. Its diluted fibre content improves the gut’s ability to process toxins and remove excess water, contributing to a healthy digestive system.
Of course this does mean anyone with fibre-related issues should avoid consuming it, as it can exacerbate underlying symptoms. It is also wise to avoid it if you are coeliac, as it is a gluten-containing grain.
Finally, it is now also believed to help prevent colon cancer – especially if your barley water contains an extra vitamin C boost of citrus fruit.
But for a real barley treat check out this little beaut of a recipe from the wonderful Yotam Ottolenghi…
Yotam Ottalenghi’s Pearl Barley and Sesame Pudding with Orange Syrup
Ingredients
1 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
1½ tbsp dark muscovado sugar
125g pot barley, (covered with cold water and soaked overnight)
750ml oat milk
½ vanilla pod, seeds scraped
Finely grated zest of ½ lemon,
Finely grated zest of 1 orange
Pinch salt
20g tahini paste
For the orange syrup
1 medium orange
40g caster sugar
¼ tsp orange blossom water
Method
- Shave off a long strip of orange peel, (not the pith), and put in a small pan.
- Trim off the top and bottom of the orange, then cut down its sides to remove all the skin and pith. Working over a small bowl to catch its juice, cut out the segments by slicing between the membranes. Add these segments to the bowl and set aside.
- Add caster sugar to the pan with the peel with 75ml water. Bring to the boil, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. This should take less than a minute.
- Set aside to cool, then add the orange segments and juice, and orange blossom water.
- Roughly crush the sesame seeds with a teaspoon of muscovado sugar, and set aside.
- Drain and rinse the barley. Tip it into a medium saucepan with the remaining muscovado sugar, milk, vanilla pod and seeds, citrus zest and 1/8 teaspoon of salt.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce to a medium-low heat and simmer until the barley is cooked but still has some bite. This should take around 40minutes. If it becomes thick, add a splash or two of the oat milk towards the end.
- Leave to cool for five minutes, then remove the vanilla pod and divide the mix between four bowls.
- Drizzle the tahini over each portion, then spoon over the orange segments and syrup, sprinkle with sesame and serve.
Growing Barley at Home
Barley is a large-scale arable grass crop but can also be grown at home for use in brewing, making into flour, adding to soups and stews, or for juicing.
It can be grown in pots, although grain yields are usually small.
It grows in well draining soil and comes in either hulled, hull-free or malting varieties.
This will mean choosing the correct variety for what you want to use it for is essential – so do your homework before buying!
Plant in manageable rows rather than broadcasting it to prevent loss to birds and small mammals. Keep the soil moist and weed free and check regularly for pests and rot.
You should expect to harvest no sooner than 90 days from sowing.
