Q. We went camping in an area where wild cereal plants grow around the camping grounds. What bracha does one make when eating raw wheat or barley seeds?
A. Shulchan Aruch (O.H. 208: 4) rules that the brocho on raw grain is ha’adama. Kaf Hachaim (202: 93) quotes Birchei Yosef that even though food usually eaten when cooked or baked, when eaten raw the brocho is shehakol, grains are different and due to their singular status retain their brocho even when the kernels are not whole. Rema (ibid.) maintains that barley seeds are different and since they are eaten raw only in need even when scorched on fire, their blessing is shehakol.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld
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