Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 31 on 16/02/2007.

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Fields of Gold

Sue Lawrence provides a few recipes using that most traditional of Scottish ingredients, barley

I can think of few places in the world where there is evidence of a similarity of diet spanning 5,000 years.

But in Orkney, I was lucky enough to visit the fascinating Skara Brae, a Neolithic village dating back to 3,100 BC, centuries before the Pyramids of Giza were even thought of.

At Skara Brae, the best-preserved Neolithic village in Europe, you can see inside these houses built in the middle of the Stone Age. They had a central fire and a large stone to cook their bread or bannocks on at the side; you can see the “saddle querns” where barley was ground between two stones; and it is known that as well as sea birds such as fulmars, gannet and auks, the villagers of Skara Brae ate shellfish, fish, cheese, meat, game – and barley.

This diet pretty much reflects what we eat nowadays, apart from the sea birds, but the interesting feature of this diet is barley. It would have been the ancient variety of barley known as bere, grown since Neolithic times on these islands.

Barley continues to form the basis of many traditional Scottish dishes, from Scots broth to barley bannocks, but it also has a crucial role in whisky production.

I was delighted to visit a distillery to see whisky made in the traditional manner on Speyside. Glenfiddich has been making whisky since 1887 and though, today, some barley must be imported to accommodate its requirements, local barley is used when possible.

The barley is first steeped in water to start it germinating.

Germination lasts about a w.....

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By Sue Lawrence

Section : Scottish Food

Page number : 49