Unearthing Barley's Secrets: Top 6 Amazing Fun Facts You Never Knew!
1. Ancient Chinese Brewing Innovators
Hold onto your broomcorn millets and Job's tears, because this ancient Chinese brew is about to rock your tubers: Archaeological evidence reveals that beer was brewed in China over 5,000 years ago using an advanced technique, with a fascinating recipe that included broomcorn millet, barley, Job's tears, and tubers, even pre-dating macrobotanical remains of barley by a millennium and possibly motivating its initial cultivation in China.
Source => pnas.org
2. Gladiator Vegetarian Barley-Eaters
Gladiators: Breaking diets, not hearts! Contrary to their love for heart-pounding action in the arena, these ancient beefcakes owed their swoon-worthy physiques not to their rumored meaty feasts but to their rather subdued love affair with barley and fellow legumes: In reality, the fearsome fighters packed on protective subcutaneous fat courtesy of a high-carbohydrate vegetarian diet featuring beans and grains—an unexpected diet secret that even earned them the affectionate nickname "hordearii," or "barley eaters," and allowed for the perfect blend of gore and glamour in their battles.
Source => atlasobscura.com
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=> Fun Facts about Wheat
3. Barley: Party Powerhouse Grain
From frothy pints to smoky drams, barley's been the life of the parties since the cave-dwelling shindigs: This versatile grain is not only the fourth largest crop grown worldwide, but it also feeds grazing livestock, graces our plates as flour, and, most importantly, brings power to your pint and finesse to your whisky as the essential backbone of malt.
Source => vocabulary.com
4. Becoming the "Barleycorn" Measurement
Once upon a barleycorn and a half: a medieval English tale of measurement innovation unfolded. In fact, barley was the foundation for an entirely new and rather grainy measuring system during the Middle Ages, where "three grains of barley dry and round" were believed to measure an inch, and 12 inches made a foot – quite the tootsie transformation! In a related twist, the British unit of length called barleycorn remains in use today, wherein eight barleycorns laid end-to-end make up an official inch in the UK measuring system.
Source => satra.com
5. Barley's Versatile Magical Wizardry
Once upon a bubbly time in the kingdom of inebriation, barley reigned supreme as the magical wizard behind our most beloved libations: This age-old grain is not only the backbone of beer and other spirits since the Renaissance, but found its way into hearty soups, robust stews, and crusty loaves of bread, doubled as a trusty ingredient in animal feed, and even dabbled in the medicinal arts to soothe tummy troubles and fight off pesky infections.
Source => alcoholproblemsandsolutions.org
6. Barley Cuneiform: Ancient Texting Method
You know what they say – one man's humble grain is another man's ancient form of texting: Barley transactions in ancient Mesopotamia were recorded in cuneiform writing, forming some of the earliest known examples of written language, which Sir Henry Rawlinson deciphered, transforming our understanding of ancient civilization and the history of writing.
Source => edsitement.neh.gov
