Barley in Farmstead World — crop in the game, and what it is on a real farm.
Barley is a tough cereal that ripens earlier than wheat, so it grows further north and higher up, and it is used for feed, food and malt.
Malting barley is the premium grade for brewers and distillers, which is why its quality is judged as carefully as any food grain.
Farm facts about barley
Barley was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9,000 BC — one of the first grains humans ever farmed. (en.wikipedia.org)
By the Sea of Galilee around 23,000 BC, people were already grinding wild barley — stones with barley starch traces were found at the Ohalo II camp. (en.wikipedia.org)
In ancient Mesopotamia, barley was money: the shekel began as a standard weight of barley. (en.wikipedia.org)
The English inch was once measured in barley — three barleycorns laid end to end made an inch. (en.wikipedia.org)
The word 'barn' originally meant 'barley-store', from the Old English bere-aern. (en.wikipedia.org)
Barley grows its spikelets in triplets: in two-row barley only the middle one is fertile, while a single gene change makes all three fertile — six-row barley. (en.wikipedia.org)