We grow a lot of barley in Oregon, but it’s mostly used to make beer or feed cattle. Most of what we actually eat is pearled, a process that grinds the tough hull off the barley berry. Unfortunately, it takes most of the nutrients and fiber, so pearled barley lands in the same category as white rice or industrial bread, an incomplete carbohydrate best eaten only occasionally.

Plant researchers at Oregon State University Barley World are working to reintroduce eaters to naked barley. Varieties that easily shed their tough outer hull, naked barleys have been around forever, but not widely cultivated as a food crop. It’s a shame, because naked barleys are delicious, and they provide regional farmers another crop for feeding us.

Purple Valley naked barley gets its name from the color of the uncooked grains. It fades with cooking, but the Haitian-style pickled cabbage provides plenty of color to this simple salad. It gets a flavor boost from some of our favorite Sicilian olives. Giarraffa olives are an ancient native variety, and cracking each olive allows the curing brine to penetrate and remove the bitter compounds more quickly. It also makes pitting easy.