In Australia and New Zealand, rye is most commonly eaten in bread made from a blend of rye flour and lighter cereal flours such as wheat. To a lesser extent, we also consume it as pumpernickel, a rich dark bread very popular in Europe. Rye is primarily grown to produce flour, but is also used for stock feed and hay and for the distillation of alcohol. Roll your cursor over each topic to view the image Click here to find out more about cereal grasses and the structure of grains.
Rye seems to be the new kid on the block compared to other cereal grains.
It probably originated in Turkistan in Asia Minor, perhaps as a weed in crops of barley and wheat. It was certainly known to the ancient Greeks and Romans but has not been found in any of the Egyptian ruins or Swiss lake dwellings, where older cereals such as wheat and barley have been discovered. In fact, from the Middle Ages until the turn of this century, wheat and rye plants were grown and harvested together in Britain, in a crop known as maslin. Europeans took rye to North and South America in the 16th and 17th centuries. During the 19th century, rye was introduced into South Africa and Australia.