In spring
1) This letter was written in 1983 only about 3 weeks after the barley harvest had started in the middle of May. 2) The writer was obviously knowledgeable about barley, being the director of a department within the Ministry of Agriculture in Israel. Therefore it was natural to count seven weeks of seven days, 49 days from the time of the barley harvest to the wheat harvest. We call this tradition the Counting of the Omer. In this period, the fierce struggle between the easterly and the westerly winds intensifies in Eretz Israel. “Wheat ripens later than barley and, according to the Gezer Manual, was harvested during the sixth agricultural season, yrh qsr wkl (end of April to end of May)” (page 88; also see the chart on page 37 of Borowski’s book, reproduced below). This barley ranged between Soft Dough to Hard Dough, or 85-87 on the Zadoks Scale of cereal grain developmental stages. There is almost always some Aviv barley in Israel by the spring equinox, and the wheat harvest usually begins to be harvested in late April in Israel. In ancient Israel the primary harvest season extended from April to November. This harvest period might be subdivided into three seasons and three major crops: the spring grain harvest, the summer grape harvest and the autumn olive harvest. Pesach is also called Hag Aviv (Spring Holiday), which marked the beginning of the barley harvest. The practice was to cut the first sheaves of barley the day before Pesach, and to bring an offering from this early harvest on the second day of the festival. Some people claim that the timing of the barley harvest in Israel should be the deciding factor as to when to start the new year for determining the observance of God's annual Feasts and Holy Days. “In the early stages of the Israelite settlement the most important cereal was barley…because of the necessity to settle fringe areas and barley’s tolerance of harsh conditions” (Oded Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 1987, page 7). The three main feast days of Israel are each associated with a different harvest. The barley ripens first around the time of Passover; the wheat ripens next around the time of Pentecost; and the grapes ripen last in the fall around the time of Tabernacles. These three crops depict three classes of people. 1Kings 4:28 Barley also and straw for the horses and dromedaries Throughout Israel shepherds would tend their flocks in fields of grass like barley where the sheep would graze in quiet peaceful meadows sweet eating the fine grain. Much care was need to harvest this tender and valuable grain.
http://www.franknelte.net/article.php?article_id=43 http://www.ahbjewishcenter.org/harvest.htm https://www.gci.org/law/festivals/harvest http://www.shemayisrael.net/articles/firstfruit-barley-2011.html https://www.gci.org/law/festivals/harvest http://www.ahbjewishcenter.org/harvest.htm http://www.franknelte.net/article.php?article_id=43 https://www.gci.org/law/festivals/harvest http://www.goodnewsaboutgod.com/studies/spiritual/home_study/passover.htm http://latitude5.com/ttobh.html
when is barley harvested in israel