Adlay or Job's tears (Coix lacryma-jobi) is our millet-of-the-month in December. Adlay is native to southeast Asia (the name "adlay" is from the Cebuano language of the southern Philippines), and its cultivation and use have spread north and west in Asia. It is not to our knowledge grown at scale in North America, but there are growers who produce small quantities of seed in the US, some of whom use them as ornamentals of for crafts. Adlay is a tall plant, domesticated varieties of which apparently can be cultivated as a perennial in warm climates. It grows best in more humid settings. The seeds hang in a way that inspired botanist Carl Linnaeus to give it the specific Latin name that we have in English as "Job's tears.". The seeds of most varieties are larger than those of other grains considered millets, being roughly the size of a corn kernel, usually very pale in varieties cultivated for food, but in other varieties, can apparently be gray or reddish. Botanically, adlay is in the Andropogoneae "tribe," along with corn, sorghum, and the little-known Taiwan oil millet (more on the latter in another post). As a food it can be cooked as one would cook rice, or in soups. I personally just recently tried some and it's quite good. The flavor is a bit ricey, with its own character. You might see it in a market as "Chinese barley," but it is *not* closely related to true barley. Adlay is also used to make a tea, and brewed for an alcoholic beverage. Various parts of the plant have found uses in traditional medicine of several cultures, and the dried seeds of some varieties are also used as beads. The plant is sometimes grown as an ornamental. Here are a few links for more information: * General information ** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job%27s_tears ** https://www.britannica.com/plant/Jobs-tears ** https://www.cabidigitallibrary.org/doi/10.1079/cabicompendium.15648 * Culinary aspects of adlay ** https://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/jobs-tears-you-need-to-check-out-this-... ** https://www.bonappetit.com/entertaining-style/trends-news/article/jobs-tears... ** https://youtu.be/lFJ9HZWOiKU * Adlay in the US ** https://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/1714 ** https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/coix-lacryma-jobi/ * Medicinal aspects of adlay ** https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-1164/jobs-tears ** https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3942904/ * Ornamental uses of, and seeds for, adlay ** https://www.rareseeds.com/job-s-tears ** https://sowtrueseed.com/products/jobs-tears ** https://southernseedexchange.com/products/jobs-tears-10-seeds-gluten-free-gr... Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance