Rye was introduced to North America by the Dutch. They had long been familiar with this grain as part of their ancestral diet and in distillation since the 1500s. The first American-grown rye was harvested on Manhattan Island, New Amsterdam, in August 1625. While wheat, barley, oat, and rye plots were planted, scarcity prohibited grain distillation. William Henrick was permitted to distil cider into brandy in December 1640 on neighbouring Staten Island. America’s second rye crop was harvested at Lynn in 1633, just outside Salem, Massachusetts. Virginia’s Jamestown colony followed five years later.
Whereas wheat and barley were the principal grains for human consumption, English colonists were less familiar with rye, as its agriculturaldisease resistant and flourished in the region’s frigid winter conditions.
