Adlay or Job's tears: December millet-of-the-month
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
On the recent history of adlay / Job's tears, here are a couple of notes: First, it turns out that the proposal to use "adlay," a term from the Philippines, for the food grain of Coix lacryma-jobi came in 1920 from a Swedish-American sgtivultursl botanist. This I learned from a 1952 article I came across in earlier research./1 Peter J, Wester (1877-1931)/2 spent the final two decades of his life in the Philippines, during which he did various research and writing on tropical crops. I was unable to access a copy of his 1920 article./3 However, I did find a 1922 article of his on the subject of adlay, of which the first page is freely accessible online as a "preview."/5 Second, the 1952 article mentioned above/1 was by Reimar von Schaaffhausen and includes various observations about adlay as a crop, including what he described as interest in it in Brazil. It would be interesting to know what became of that optimism./5 I'm not sure how adlay, with its larger grain size and growth preference for more humid zones, became grouped with the millets. However, since it is in the group, it definitely seems worthy of more attention. The previous efforts over the last century to promote it over the past century seem to have had only modest and localized effect. Don DO, EL, MI, US NAMA Notes: 1. Reimar v. Schaaffhausen. (1952). Adlay or Job’s Tears: A Cereal of Potentially Greater Economic Importance. *Economic Botany*, *6*(3), 216–227. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4252082 (by setting up a free JSTOR account, you can view 100 articles online per month) 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Jansen_Wester 3. Wester, P. J.. Philipp. Agr. Rev. 14: 217.1920. 4. Wester, P.J. (1922) "Adlay — A New Grain Plant From the Orient: A Relative of Indian Corn Found in Eastern Asia in a Great Number of Varietal Forms — Offering an Untouched Field of Work for the Plant Breeder." *Journal of Heredity*, Volume 13, Issue 5, May 1922, Pages 221–227, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.jhered.a102209 5. Another article on adlay in Brazil from the early 1950s is one by G.P. Viegas, "Aspectos da cultura do cereal 'Adlay"' for which the summary can be read at https://www.scielo.br/j/brag/a/sNrFHZKF77yRJb46XXJjkyG/ On Sun, Dec 24, 2023 at 4:09 PM Don Osborn <don@milletsalliance.org> wrote:
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
* agricultural (sorry for the imperfections in the text) One other note about the name "adlay" - some sources have it as being from Cebuano language, and others Tagalog. DO, EL, MI, US NAMA On Sat, Dec 30, 2023 at 10:15 AM Don Osborn <don@milletsalliance.org> wrote:
On the recent history of adlay / Job's tears, here are a couple of notes:
First, it turns out that the proposal to use "adlay," a term from the Philippines, for the food grain of Coix lacryma-jobi came in 1920 from a Swedish-American sgtivultursl botanist. This I learned from a 1952 article I came across in earlier research./1
Peter J, Wester (1877-1931)/2 spent the final two decades of his life in the Philippines, during which he did various research and writing on tropical crops. I was unable to access a copy of his 1920 article./3 However, I did find a 1922 article of his on the subject of adlay, of which the first page is freely accessible online as a "preview."/5
Second, the 1952 article mentioned above/1 was by Reimar von Schaaffhausen and includes various observations about adlay as a crop, including what he described as interest in it in Brazil. It would be interesting to know what became of that optimism./5
I'm not sure how adlay, with its larger grain size and growth preference for more humid zones, became grouped with the millets. However, since it is in the group, it definitely seems worthy of more attention. The previous efforts over the last century to promote it over the past century seem to have had only modest and localized effect.
Don
DO, EL, MI, US NAMA
Notes: 1. Reimar v. Schaaffhausen. (1952). Adlay or Job’s Tears: A Cereal of Potentially Greater Economic Importance. *Economic Botany*, *6*(3), 216–227. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4252082 (by setting up a free JSTOR account, you can view 100 articles online per month) 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Jansen_Wester 3. Wester, P. J.. Philipp. Agr. Rev. 14: 217.1920. 4. Wester, P.J. (1922) "Adlay — A New Grain Plant From the Orient: A Relative of Indian Corn Found in Eastern Asia in a Great Number of Varietal Forms — Offering an Untouched Field of Work for the Plant Breeder." *Journal of Heredity*, Volume 13, Issue 5, May 1922, Pages 221–227, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.jhered.a102209 5. Another article on adlay in Brazil from the early 1950s is one by G.P. Viegas, "Aspectos da cultura do cereal 'Adlay"' for which the summary can be read at https://www.scielo.br/j/brag/a/sNrFHZKF77yRJb46XXJjkyG/
On Sun, Dec 24, 2023 at 4:09 PM Don Osborn <don@milletsalliance.org> wrote:
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
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