• Home
  • About
  • Books
    • My Father is the Gardener
    • God’s Word for Gardeners Bible
  • Devotions Blog
  • Events
  • News
  • Plant Guide
    • Plant Index – God’s Word for Gardeners
    • Plant Research
    • A-to-Z Primer of Plants from God’s Word
  • Contact
  • Search

Mobile Menu

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • About
  • Books
    • My Father is the Gardener
    • God’s Word for Gardeners Bible
  • Devotions Blog
  • Events
  • News
  • Plant Guide
    • Plant Index – God’s Word for Gardeners
    • Plant Research
    • A-to-Z Primer of Plants from God’s Word
  • Contact
  • Search
  • Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to main content

Garden In Delight

Grow your garden, flourish your faith

Header Left

  • Home
  • About
  • Books
    • My Father is the Gardener
    • God’s Word for Gardeners Bible
  • Devotions Blog
  • Events
  • News
  • Plant Guide
    • Plant Index – God’s Word for Gardeners
    • Plant Research
    • A-to-Z Primer of Plants from God’s Word
  • Contact
  • Search
  • Home
  • About
  • Books
    • My Father is the Gardener
    • God’s Word for Gardeners Bible
  • Devotions Blog
  • Events
  • News
  • Plant Guide
    • Plant Index – God’s Word for Gardeners
    • Plant Research
    • A-to-Z Primer of Plants from God’s Word
  • Contact
  • Search

An Easter Feast with Barley Bread

Home » Garden Moments » An Easter Feast with Barley Bread
3 barley loaves and hyssop sprigs

by Shelley S. Cramm In: Garden Moments, Garden Recipes on Apr 2, 2015

Our Lenten bread adventure simply must end with barley, for this humble grain stands witness in God’s Word to all we celebrate this weekend. The time of barley harvest was the background of the Israelites’ deliverance from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 9:31), the epic story celebrated as the Passover meal. In turn, Passover is the context of Jesus’ death and resurrection (Luke 22:7-8), the ultimate deliverance celebrated as Easter.

 

Digging deeper into author Jo Ann Gardner’s book, Seeds of Transcendence, I came upon this small sentence, and have been wondrously changed ever since—overcome with the Lord’s breathtaking alignment.

 

Passover commemorates both the barley harvest and the Israelites’ redemption by God from slavery in Egypt. 

—Jo Ann Gardner, Seeds of Transcendence, 2014

 

Admittedly, I have been hungry for any teaching about grains, flour, or bread lately! However, this beautiful connection of barley to redemption has sent me in a whorl of pondering about God’s greater work of deliverance, his grace, and all he has created in the land to remind us of it. “In this way the physical and spiritual worlds are bound together and interdependent,” writes Gardner.

 

Barley Horticulture

 

Barley and wheat are the central cereals of ancient Israel, yet barley is more adaptable to soilbarley field at sunset shortcomings,  cooler temperatures, and water fluctuations; in other words, barley doesn’t have to be “babied.” It is hardy and resilient, standing firm to most inclement weather (except the intense hail of the seventh plague, of course). When processed for flour, kernels do not contain the gluten content of wheat, and thus yield a more dense, rustic bread.

 

Barley Signpost

 

Barley does not hold the delicacies of “finest wheat flour” for dainty cakes and pastries—not delicate but rugged, not noble but unpretentious, barley gives its baked goods a flavor of being close to the earth.

 

For this is what the high and exalted One says— he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.

Isaiah 57:15 NIV

 

Barley is the perfect background to the work of the Lord to deliver: First, the Israelites from slavery in Egypt; next, all of us from the slavery of sin and the bondage of death. The barley detail hints to us that the Lord has entered into the humble, common, poor places of enslavement. He willingly lives with us in our lowliness, and lends his power to liberate us. Embracing Christ sets us free from death to live with Him, redeemed to remain with God forever.

 

I will deliver this people from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. Where, O death, are your plagues? Where, O grave, is your destruction?

Hosea 13:14 NIV

 

Didn’t Ruth know God’s redemption, returning to Israel during the barley harvest, redeemed by her kinsman Boaz? Was Christ whispering his deliverance when he multiplied the barley loaves for the crowd 5,000 strong? May these careful details delight us! May we be convinced of his plan from the beginning, and smitten with his beauty, the richness and hearty depth of his Word and its sustenance.

 

May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.

Ruth 2:12 NIV

 

Amid gentle spring breezes and the harvest time for barley, bondage was broken; relief was granted from the days of trouble. The Almighty Lord saved his people from slavery.

—“Festival of Unleavened Bread,” God’s Word for Gardeners Bible, 2014

 

Photo Credits:

© 2015 Shelley S. Cramm Three little barley loaves decorated with hyssop sprigs are ready for an Easter feast.

© 2014 Jake Cook, Creative Commons  Sunset on a local farmers barley field.

 

Side Notes on baking Barley Bread:

 

My favorite source for barley flour is Bob’s Red Mill (stores in my area do not stock it so I order online at www.bobsredmill.com). Barley flour may substitute regular flour in your favorite bread recipe. Bob’s recommends a ½ cup substitution, but I mixed 2 cups barley flour and 2 cups whole wheat in my recipe and added an extra 1-½ teaspoon yeast, adding unbleached white flour during kneading.

 

If you still have your Beard on Bread book out from last week, James Beard includes a more authentic barley recipe to the Passover-Easter feast: Barley Crackers…unleavened, of course (see “Norwegian Flatbread,” page 201)…maybe next year!

 

You can also bring barley to your table in a side dish. See our Weed & Barley blog for a recipe idea.

FacebookTwitterShare

Related Posts

You may be interested in these posts from the same category.

Christmas goodies fill a holiday plate, cookies from a neighborhood cookie exchange

Christmas Goodies

Forest of Praise

grapevines remind of Jesus' proclamation, I am the Vine

I am the True Vine

joy in drought? don't ask these leeks, ask the Lord!

Joy in Drought

Glimpse the Feast

entwining tendrils of a grapevine

Entwining Hearts

Red quinoa, red beets and red onions make a tasty celebration of the Red Sea deliverance in Exodus 14

Red Sea Recipe

raisins and apples from Song of Songs 2:5 catch the autumn sunshine

Strengthen Me with Raisins, Refresh Me with Apples

Seedtime and Harvest

Artemisia 'Powis Castle' catches a ray of sunshine in the Days of Awe

Days of Awe

Fill the World with Fennel

two sheep stand for the wool that is good for the garden!

Father, Gardener & Good Shepherd

« Previous
Next »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • A-to-Z Primer of Plants from God’s Word
  • About Shelley S. Cramm
  • Blog
  • Book Table
  • Books
  • Checkout
  • Contact
  • Continuing the Biblical Botanical Gift Book Series
  • Devotions Blog
  • Events
  • Events & Speaking
  • Family Garden
  • God’s Word for Gardeners Bible
  • Home
  • In the News garden in Delight links
  • Modern Calendars Page
  • News
  • Plant Guide
  • Plant Index – God’s Word for Gardeners
  • Plant Research
  • Proclamation of Faith
  • Resources
  • Speaking Calendar
  • Speaking Topics
  • test events

Site Footer

Garden in Delight - with Author Shelley Cramm
FacebookInstagramPinterestLinkedIn

Keep in touch with garden in Delight

Your information will never be shared with any third party.

Copyright © 2023 · Isaac Gardens, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Website by Stormhill Media
Log in