Cynthia Harriman, director of food and nutrition strategies at Oldways/the Whole Grains Council, says she has theories about why barley is “always a bridesmaid, never a bride. One is that it falls somewhere in the middle on the grain spectrum We have the go-to group of grains we know really well, which includes wheat, rice, oats and corn. Then, there are the darlings of the ancient grain group, where we have kamut, teff, quinoa and amaranth. And kind of forgotten in the middle are barley and sorghum.”
Sorghum has also recently gained more attention, given its status as a gluten-free grain, and it benefits from being neutral-tasting and inexpensive because it’s widely grown, Harriman notes.