as promised

what was the significance of the barley harvest?

Barley ripens first. Firstfruits of all crops. Promise of more to come, signifies abundance and plenty.
That first cutting of the sheaf of grain in spring was the beginning of the harvest season with the barley harvest. The Feast of Weeks, Pentecost, marked its culmination with the wheat harvest - a true harvest festival. Bible readers probably pass over some texts related to the Festival without putting them in context.
In sum, those who `follow the Lamb' are a firstfruits spiritual harvest. The symbolic fifty days from the first of the firstfruits - the resurrected Jesus - until the 'first resurrection' (Revelation 20:5) represents the nearly two thousand years since that first Christian Pentecost (Acts 2) until the resurrection of all true Christians at the return of Christ.

for a detailed study of barley..... Click here, Barley Harvest People