Making Barley-Sugar for Frey
by Geordie Ingerson
What could be
more wonderful than sacred candy dedicated to Frey, the Barley-Lord? To make
old-fashioned barley-sugar candy, boil 100 grams of pearl barley with 900
millilitres of water. As soon as it is boiling, lower the heat to a simmer for
an hour or so, then remove it and let it sit to cool and let the barley
separate out. The sediment will fall to the bottom, and a clear top layer will
form. This layer is what should be spooned out carefully without disturbing the
barley sediment beneath. When you have spooned out all you can, press the
barley sediment down with a large spoon and let it settle again — you will have
another layer of clear barley water. Repeat until you have removed all you can.
Put the barley water in a clear vessel, hold it up to the sunlight, and say:
Gracious Ingvi, Barleycorn Lord,
Share your sweetness with us,
And your ever-present love.
Then add 300 grams of sugar, 100 grams of golden honey, and a bit of cream of tartar. Bring it to a boil until it reaches the hard-crack candy stage. You can tell this stage because when you drizzle a bit of the syrup into cold water, it will solidify into brittle threads. At that point, take the syrup off the stove and place the whole pan in a larger pan of cold water to bring the temperature down slowly. As soon as it is cool enough to handle, oil your hands and a marble slab with butter, and very quickly pull strands of it out and turn them into barley twists. The base of each twist can be affixed to a stick if you like. The syrup can also be poured quickly into moulds — it is possible to find candy moulds in all sorts of shapes. I have seen suns, moons, flowers, cornucopias, and even — if one is brave enough — “adult” candy moulds that are phallus-shaped, which is perfect for Frey.
After the candy-making is done, take the barley sediment outside and return it to the earth, ideally pouring it around the roots of food plants in the garden to fertilise them in honour of Frey.
Artwork by Righon.