The mitzvah (commandment) of the omer (sheaf offering) is done by bringing barley from the fields closest to Yerushalayim. We have a rule: we don’t pass up opportunities to do mitzvot. So when they were trying to get barley for the omer, the people harvesting it should take the first stalk they find in the fields on the outskirts of Yerushalayim. If the barley closest to Yerushalayim wasn’t fully ripe and couldn’t be offered as the omer, because the omer barley has to be fully ripe, then they should go to any place in Eretz Yisrael (Israel), but outside of Eretz Yisrael is not acceptable. So they could bring it any place in Israel. Outside of Israel, that would be a problem.
It once happened that the barley for the omer came from the faraway fields of Gagot Tzerifin, and the shtei halechem, which was the korban (offering) that was brought—the two loaves brought on Shavuot—the wheat for that came from the faraway fields of Ein Socher. All the grains in the Yerushalayim area were destroyed through warfare, through the destruction of the fields, and therefore they had to go to faraway places to get the proper grain they needed.