Rye

It is in Isaiah’s prophetical writings that rye, or rie as it was first written, is mentioned in the Bible as a lower class of grain to the heralded wheat and barley. The grains were defined by superiority in order of planting, with rye on the outer borders surrounding and shielding the proud rows of the prominent crops. The ancient Hebrew word kussemeth was given to a variety of grains and grasses that were not specifically wheat or barley, which in the Book of Isaiah, translates to mean a “bearded grain”. The same noun has been used in many other biblical translations to denote any inferior cereal to wheat, including rye and spelt.