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So, on my grocery run a week or two ago I decided to skip Trader Joe's and Whole Foods and check out Piazza, which is rather conveniently located with respect to Lee's Comics. I found barley in the same section as the other dried beans, but only the pearled variety, which I had reason to believe might be nutritionally inferior. Next to it, however, was a bag of some semipearled "farro" variety, so I made the best of a dubious business and got that.
I was later perplexed to discover that my next batches of bean soup congealed into a solid mass in the fridge, quite unlike my initial effort. I was also puzzled that I seemed to be having more skin problems than could be explained by anything in the recipe other than, perhaps, tomatoes. Then I went by Piazza again on Wednesday afternoon, and on some whim I checked out the beans section, picking up one of the bags of farro and noticing for the first time the subtitle: "triticum dicoccum". I was pretty sure I recognized that species name, and I was also pretty sure that it wasn't barley. Later checking revealed that, indeed, it's emmer wheat, known and grown in Italy as farro. The Italians apparently also have it in soup, but I doubt they simmer it for 3 hours, since judging by my pressure-cooker simulations it disintegrates entirely under such treatment.
Anyway, so much for that stuff. I got more dried barley at Mountain View Market, and once my hands have improved a little I can see if I really have a sensitivity to flax oil or if my unknowingly eating a few handfuls of wheat is to blame for the whole thing.