Beremeal is an earthy, nutty and nutrient-rich flour made from bere, an ancient six-row barley. It was traditionally used to make bannocks, soft rolls that are a speciality of Scotland’s north-eastern ilses, and now the only remaining mill to process this grain is in Orkney. The bere barley shaped the diets of Orcadians for generations, but came into sharp decline in the 1950s with the birth of white supermarket loaves. It was also less productive as modern barleys and required a lengthy milling process. By the early 1990s, the last remaining mill closed and bere almost entirely disappeared until a campaign was launched to bring bere back. Now, 200 tonnes are being milled today as people start to redisocover this ancient grain.
Hear all about it on the BBC’s Food Programme. Then head over to Genesys and reassure yourself that should these efforts fail, there are quite a few samples of “bere” in genebanks. Though those responsible for that of Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture may want to check some of the longitudes in their database.
I guess that “//www.sasa.gov.uk/”
is a misprint for “http://www.sasa.gov.uk/”
But then «The connection has timed out. The server at http://www.sasa.gov.uk is taking too long to respond.»
What has SASA done to deserve this?
Indeed, I’ve always known it as the Scottish Agricultural Science Agency, and it does indeed appear to be down at the moment. I’m sure they’re working round the clock to restore normal service.
Link fixed. Thanks for pointing out the typo. As for SASA’s new name, and the stability of its servers, we won’t take the rap for either.
One time Erlend and I came home from toon and while we were unpacking some of the bags inside of the house the barn cats jumped into the pickup truck and snatched our bere bannock and Orkney Smoked Cheese! We found the bannock, half devoured, on the flagstone walkway and the remains of the cheese, riddled with fang marks, abandoned on the lawn.
The bit about “only remaining mill to process this grain is in Orkney” is wrong. We buy our beremeal from Golspie Mill in Sutherland but there a lot of outlets and some mail order. They also sell peasemeal. I made my first bannock on a griddle over a fire from bere and peasemeal – lovely with cheese. Not so nice the beer made from bere: had it once and it was horrible.