FARRO–GRAIN OF THE LEGIONS.

FARRO–GRAIN OF THE LEGIONS. I went to an elegant restaurant in New York City recently with a couple who are knowledgeable about fine restaurants. We all had an appetizer which featured farro as an ingredient. We didn’t know what farro is. I looked it up here. It turns out that farro is the “original grain from which all others derive, and fed the Mediterranean and Near Eastern populations for thousands of years.” In its article on emmer, wikipedia says that domesticated emmer has been dated to 7700 B.C. (Joseph Coleman Carter in METAPONTO notes that the Romans called emmer “far”, from which “farro” evidently derives.) Farro’s cultivation dwindled because of low yields. There has recently been “renewed interest in farro among gastronomes”, which explains why it was found in the elegant restaurant. It has a chewy texture and seems ideal for absorbing sauces. But for me, even better than gastronomic properties, is that this is a food which goes far back in time and was “the standard ration of the Roman Legions “