RYE -  Secale cereale

Like oats, rye was a weed annoying early growers of wheat and barley. Rye may have come from southwestern Asia or northwestern Europe, depending on who you consult. European farmers took a new approach to the weed, allowing rye to grow stem to stem with wheat and harvesting both together. The combo crop was named “maslin,” meaning “mixed.” Workers milled the pair into one flour. From the 1300’s to the 1600’s, maslin was the most common flour in Europe. Even today rye bread is usually made with some wheat flour.
 

Rye is a huge success at growing in poor soils under frigid conditions. The world’s top rye producers are Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, China and Canada—places with harsh climates.
 

  Rye plant (HFCA)
 
 Harvesting rye in Austria, 1930’s. (HFCA)
 
 Swedish rye bread stuffed with pork and fish (Time-Life Series: Cooking
of Scandinavia
 
  Letterhead of a rye whiskey distiller, 1913, with stalks of rye around the
bottle (HFCA) 

 
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