After Passover, we count the omer, which has its origins in counting the days until the wheat crop is ripe. If wheat is not ready to harvest yet, what grain was traditionally eaten at Passover?

Barley ripens earlier than wheat, and in ancient times, Passover celebrated the barley harvest. At Neot Kedumim, the Biblical Landscape Reserve in Israel, wheat and barley grow in fields next to each other. The barley is planted after the first winter rains, and some is always ripe for Passover, said Paula Tobenfeld, president of the American Friends of Neot Kedumim (http://www.n-k. org.il/public/index.htm).

At Neot Kedumim’s hands-on installations, people can experience the 11 tasks that the Talmud lists as needed to “bring forth bread from the earth”: to plow, sow, reap, bind the sheaves, thresh, winnow, sieve, grind the grain, sift the flour, knead, and bake. The barley harvest at Neot Kedumim also includes dancing, said Tobenfield.

Since our climate is similar to Israel’s, we can plant barley at the same time: at the beginning of the winter rains. Although in Arizona we are often more aware of our intense monsoon rains that usually run from July through mid-September, our winter rain pattern is generally the same as the Mediterranean: from November through March, said Gregg Garfin, deputy director for outreach of the Institute for the Study of Planet Earth at the University of Arizona.

Jo Ann Gardner, North American Bible garden consultant for Neot Kedumim, recommends common barley (Hordeum vulgare), from Bountiful Gardens in California (www.bountifulgardens.org), which sells heirloom seeds that originate in the Middle East. These seeds have very little hull and are ideal for home milling. Barley sold in health food stores may have had its hull mechanically removed, so that the grains that it produces are harder to use for milling and cooking. Gardner recommends that people sow barley grains about a half- inch deep, in rows, scattered, or in clumps. Sowing some red poppy among the barley is not only attractive, but is similar to how barley grows in a field, said Gardner.

Grains such as barley and wheat can be ground with a hand mill, said Gardner. When I searched on the web, I also found that I could purchase a grain mill attachment for my juicer.

Although it’s too late to grow my own barley this season, I can still make barley matzah as I have for many years. I buy barley flour at a health food store, add a pinch of salt, quickly mix in just enough water to hold the flour together, hastily make balls in my hands, and then press the dough into the shape of a pita, which was probably similar to what our ancestors baked.

According to modern regulations for kosher for Passover matzah, no more than 18 minutes can pass from the time that the water hits the flour until the mixture is put in the oven. Matzah can bake in two to three minutes on very hot tiles.

When I hastily mix the dough and form the matzah, I can make a batch of four breads in two to three minutes. At 450 degrees, they bake in about 14 minutes when placed on a cold cookie sheet. I find it easier to start with a cold sheet and lightly grease it with olive oil. If you heat the cookie sheet in the oven, they bake even faster.

Since our ancestors were experienced at making pita, perhaps they could make flatter bread more easily than I can. Without taking the time to roll the dough out on the counter, my pieces of matzah are thicker than commercially made matzah.

I don’t prick them to aid the escape of air bubbles as is often done with matzah, because this is not part of the process of making pita bread, and I doubt our ancestors did it. Friends have enjoyed the heartiness of my homemade matzah, and the flavor of the barley.

I’ve made unleavened pita from a variety of flours, including some of the five species of glutenous grains that are used to fulfill the mitzvah of eating matzah at a seder (barley, wheat, rye, oats and spelt), and other specialty flours available at health food stores including buckwheat, rice, quinoa and a mixture of garbanzo and fava beans. They all made nice unleavened pita, although some fell outside the bounds of the kind of matzah prescribed by halachah.

There are also some non-wheat matzah available commercially. Rabbi Ep­hraim Kestenbaum of London, England has bred gluten-free oats and produces shemura matzah from them. Distributors can be found at http://glutenfree oatmatzos.com. If you buy these to use for your Seder, it may still be fun to try making some of your own matzah as part of stepping into the sandals of our ancestors as they prepared to flee from Egypt.

Deborah Maayan is a freelance writer in Tucson.