Importance of Barley

How important is barley to mankind?  It is an extremely versatile cereal grain that can be used in a multitude of foods, as animal feed, and is one of the direst ingredients in the beer making process.  Barley has many uses from skincare to hair benefits to health benefits, where it has a great source of nutrients, antioxidants and minerals. When we take a look back in history, barley grains can be traced back to 10,000 BC in Southwest Asia in an area known as the “Fertile Crescent” where it was one of the first cultivated plants.  With a post-Ice Age climate, the area was warm and steady, yielding perfect conditions for barley cultivation.  From this easy cultivation, nomads began transitioning from hunter-gatherers to agriculture and farming.  Barley domestication led to domestication of other plants and animals, and a new form of society and living known as the Neolithic Revolution.

Barley is the fundamental raw material in beer.  Brewing dates back to Mesopotamia where this “barley water” would be used for various ways: from just a normal drink to medicinal purposes where it was even considered “healthier than water.”  Different types of barley are used to produce different types of beers.  The process of malted barley is when you allow the barley seed or grain to germinate (sprout) to a certain point where it is dried after.  The seed is soaked in water for about 40 hours, then drained and held at a steady temperature for about 5 days until it begins to sprout.  The barley is then dried slowly for about 30 hours.  This germination process converts the starches to sugars by enzymes that are created during the process, in order to be turned into alcohol by the yeast.

Carlsberg prides themselves in their brewing quality, especially with their cultivation of raw materials like barley.  The company does not genetically modify their crops, but have researchers developing this technology in case it becomes okay to use in the future (which they believe it will be).  They have the largest R&D and laboratory for brewing in the world.  Carlsberg Laboratory identifies “advantageous trains in barley mutants, old cultivars and elite varieties” and “by incorporating these traits we secure well adapted barley varieties for the future” (carsberglab.dk).

Barley is a wonder-plant that is currently the fourth largest crop in the world.  It has a quicker growth period than most crops and is able to be grown in a multitude of climates, able to resist drought and colder temperatures.  Barley led to the domestication of plants and animals and a change in living conditions that was monumental.

Barley Fun Facts!

1) Breakfast cereals often contain barley, either directly or as a malt

2) Different flavors in whisky are imparted by differing malts

3) Pearl barley is ground to remove the outer husk.  It has been a common ingredient in our diet for centuries

4) Barley is often grown for animal feed on a farm but is a common ingredient in many sorts of animal feed like dog food

5) Barley flour is not often used for baking, but does find its way into specialty breads

Source: http://www.ukagriculture.com/food/fast_facts.cfml?Food_name=Barley

Picture Sources: http://www.starch.dk/isi/starch/img/barley.JPG
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http://www.faceofmalawi.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/carlsberg.jpeg
http://timeforhistory.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/5/9/13599610/2517816_orig.jpg

Check this site out! http://www.carlsberglab.dk/Pages/default.aspx

How The Spice Trade Changed World History

When you open your kitchen cabinet, the innocent containers of spice looking back at you don’t show much of their amazing past.  You may not have known that at one time nutmeg was more valuable in weight than gold. Or that there was a time in the 1500s where English dockhands asked for their bonuses in cloves.  Spices were an extremely important part of history, at one point being one of the centers of business and trade.  The spice trade both created and devastated territories, pioneered the age of exploration leading to new land discoveries, and even caused tragedy and war.

Spices have a rich history that we now take for granted: cheap prices and easily accessible.  They were once an extremely pricey commodity used only by the wealthy and were very difficult to acquire.  Originally traced back around 4,000 years ago, the Arabs began the spice trade.  Spices were known to come from the “Spice Islands” now called the Moluccas, where the Arabs would not reveal the location.  For centuries they would control the price of spices, with merchants not disclosing the locations of these rich Spice Islands in order to guarantee high yields from trading. 

Thousands of years later, the spice trade was completely altered due to Europe’s Age of Exploration.  Europe still had control over the waters with better technology and navigational equipment than the other nations.  Fed up with the high prices, European merchants and discoverers set off to find these Spice Islands themselves.  Due to the Treaty of Torsedillas, Spanish Christopher Columbus set out to the west, while Portuguese Vasco De Gamma set out to the east.  Columbus found himself in America.  While he did not find India, Columbus brought back other spices such as vanilla and chilies (that Columbus call “peppers” to satisfy his letdown of not discovering peppercorns).  It is interesting because we still call them Chile peppers today!

Portuguese merchant Vasco de Gama sailed around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa leading to his discovery of India, where he found actual peppercorns and subsequently found cinnamon in Sri Lanka and later cloves in the Moluccas.  This success was the start of Portugal’s Spice Empire.  These pricey commodities began to fall as Spain and Portugal cultivated and took over the spice trade.  Later the Dutch would take over the clove trade from the Portuguese with the triumph of their powerful Dutch East India Company, massacring native tribes for control of the Spice Islands.  Shortly after the English East India Company took over a majority of the Spice Trade as well, generating wealth and power for Britain.  Humongous profit was generated from the Spice Trade, even though prices gradually started to go down as more spices were bought and more companies formed.  Trade routes began to form and grow, and later different nations starting to develop growing processes of the plants alone, adding to the devaluation of the spice.

Spices were fundamental in European exploration, leading to new establishments and discoveries that changed the world forever.  Though tremendous bloodshed and brutality are sometimes overlooked, the search for spices greatly developed and expanded European countries and their wealth, and connected new nations in the beginnings of globalization.  The price of spices is not as expensive as it used to be, but they are still a vital part in everyday meals where people shouldn’t overlook their importance.

Fun Facts: 

1) Nutmeg is a psychotropic and in high enough doses causes hallucinations, delusions and an impending sense of doom.

2) Despite being synonymous with blandness, vanilla is one of the most complex spices in the world and the second most expensive, next to Saffron.

3) Red peppers are unusually rich in vitamin C, and that paprika made from them retains more vitamin C by weight than even lemon juice. Paprika is also high in other antioxidants

4) Pepper is the number one selling spice in America

5) Cinnamon bark is one of the few spices that can be consumed directly

http://honestcooking.com/10-cinnamon-facts-you-should-know/

http://blog.americanspice.com/index.php/fun-facts-on-pepper/

http://kickassfacts.com/35-kickass-interesting-facts-about-herbs-and-spices/

Images: http://www.sabato.co.nz/images/default/products/SPIBLAPEPWHO120_Web.jpg

http://spiceislandsblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/mollucanspicediscovery_map3.jpg

http://keithlorren.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/spices-for-health.jpg

http://orlandochilicookoff.com/bkgr.jpeg

Interesting Site: http://www.livescience.com/7495-spice-trade-changed-world.html