Glaming Barley

It's no longer fashionable to count just calories.  Calories do count in the whole scheme of things but they don't count as much as nutrition.  An example:

Barley!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alright raise your hand if you have purposely cooked or have ate barley.  Here are some nutritional facts about barley.  I know - b-o-r-i-n-g.  I'll be brief and to the point - info from USDA and the ADA (American Diabetes Assoc.)

 

• The glycemic index (GI) is low.
• It contains 5-8% gluten.
• High in dietary soluble fiber; particularly beta-gluten soluble fiber. Research shows that barley beta-gluten soluble fiber promotes healthy blood sugar by slowing glucose absorption. 
• High in insoluble fiber helping with bowel function.
• Cholesterol free.
• Low fat.  (1/2 gram of fat and only 100 calories per half cup serving.) 
• Vitamins A, B2, B6, B12, C, D, E & K.  Minerals include niacin (Vitamin B3), thiamine (Vitamin B1), selenium, iron, magnesium, zinc, phosphorus and copper.
• Contains protein.
• Contains antioxidants.
• Contains phytochemicals.
• Low in sodium. 

Barley, Hordeum vulgare, is an annual grass like plant grown world wide.  It may be the oldest known food grain.  Currently it is number five most grown cereal crop.

If I tell you it is grown as a base for brewing beer or other fermented beverages you may have an "ah ha" moment.  It's also used for breakfast cereal, in soups, casseroles, breads and cakes.  Both the straw and grain are fed as fodder to animals.

For getting maximum nutrients, always opt for whole barley (or hulled barley). No doubt, it takes longer time for preparation. But, you can consider soaking whole barley grain overnight in order to minimize cooking time.

 

Nutritional supplements do not contain the important fiber - one of the major keys to it's benefits.

 

Barley is an important ingredient in vegan and vegetarian diets.  It's a nutty flavored grain when used as a hot cereal. 

 

Barley can be the headliner or a supporting actor.  It does well at both.  It absorbs flavors easily.  The nutritional value is above rice, potatoes, pasta and other grains.

 

For additional health facts www.WHFoods.com and look up barley.  Seriously, this little grain has so many exceptional health benefits we all should be eating it at least once a day!

 

Today I'm making a crock pot of healthiness.  A ham bone, chicken broth, broccoli, onions, barley, kasha, Ouenoa, dried cranberries and lentils.  The trick with using a variety of ingredients is they each have their best attribute.  Combine and the benefits as well as the taste is enhanced.

 

Barley can be grown from seed.  It doesn't like temperatures above 55 degrees.  I've seen plant starts of barley used as an ornamental and they are beautiful with the nodding seed heads.  Plant winter barley in October and Spring barley in January.  It's similar to raising wheat.  Hand weed and don't water too much.      

From the Heirloom Organics web site.

 

 

  

 

 

 

  

New Beginnings?

Sitting around doing garden dreaming.  It's a hazard spurred on by new catalogs and cold winter nights.  I've included a few photos of some pretty interesting stuff.

 

This LARGE limestone three-tier fountain is on my garden bucket list.  If I had bought this in my garden beginning instead of the multitude of cheap substitutes no longer in my gardens, the cost would have been a wash.  Why! Oh! Why! did I let myself believe the $99 plastic fountain will be a good substitute?  WHY?  Obviously the why is the cost of the pieces, the hauling, setting and plumbing but then in the middle of winter I'm a little less tuned in to practical.

Terra Sculpture's Kismet, an oxidized steel sculpture, is such a graceful piece and enduring with one inch steel bands.





I have this sheer curtain with LED lights on my screened porch.  It provides gentle light on warm summer nights and since the lights aren't warm, it doesn't attract insects. 
This aluminum outdoor bench from Orange22 comes in various colors but I favor the cool turquoise.  I like a mix of modern and antique although not jumbled right next to each other.  It's the advantage of having acres and trees; private venues can accommodate different styles without looking wrong. 



This Longshadow 690 lb. bench can be a focal point or tucked among plants to offer a private resting place.  A smaller and cheaper cement bench is easier to handle although not quite as sturdy or enduring.  Both do well if the ends braces are sitting on something stable and level such as cement.


http://youtu.be/qRFBLm8NcpY

This kinetic copper wind sculpture is from Stanwood Imports.  It needs to be in the sun where it catches the rays and out of the way of traffic so it isn't damaged.  Watching can be hypnotizing and restful.

Enjoy your cold evening cataloging - it's what a gardener does in January and February.
   

Nothing to Do But...

Daylily "Donnie's Delight"

Busy mothers will often fantasize about a day with “absolutely nothing to do” except what they want.  It flashes through the brain somewhere between picking cheerios out of the refrigerator vent grate and handling a fifty minute instructional meeting for two hundred employees. 

If you’re a gardener, that absolutely “nothing to do day” can be a really wonderful fantasy until you flick that last cheerio into your eye and have to drag two kids under the age of five to the ER with you, but, I digress. 

Dreaming about that moment when we can leave work behind, children are raised and gone and the day is yours – yes that’s what I’m talkin’ about!

It’s looking at photos in magazines of gardeners stretching their legs out on the $2,000 custom lawn chair while gazing into the 1,000 gallon koi pond while holding a glass of 100 year old wine from the wine cellar built into the custom pergola and knowing someday that will be you.

Daylily "Fly Catcher"

Its hybridizing daylilies (Yes, my own special daylily vacation dream.) and introducing the very first all blue daylily the size of a Texas dinner plate that stays open for a week.

 It’s having the hoity-toity snooty-patooty garden publication call and ask if they can take pictures of my gardens to use at their seminar because no other garden is so perfect.

Its walking through my gardens in July and not one insect bothers me or my plants.  AND, it rains just enough and only at night between midnight and 4 am.

It’s when you’re in labor for the fourth time in six years and your husband shouts, “I love a big family!”  This is when you take that little mental break (because you can’t reach anything to throw) and dream about a garden where there are no weeds and every plant thrives upon your touch. 

Yes, these are the things a gardener can dream about when the going gets tough and life never seems to hit the highs of our expectations.

Daylily "Megan's Love"

It’s that family picture with everyone is strategically placed among your flowers and it doesn’t rain, no child gets stung by a bee, and no one has to potty until it’s done. 

It’s when you realize you will have the Griswold family cookout and you have “nothing to do but” visualize a Martha Stewart magazine article of the outdoor cookout with real cloth napkins and granddaughters wearing custom made silk shifts and running barefoot around the yard with butterfly nets and ribbons in their hair.  Grandsons with little blue knee pants and starched white shirts and striped ties blowing in the wind.  Seriously have you ever seen Martha’s parties???

Flower beds are magically and perfectly edged in my dream get away.  The cat doesn’t leave bird heads and feathers where little kids will be warped and the dog doesn’t poop where someone steps in it and then walks through the house.  I know but it’s my dream, OK?

And if you think the dream “nothing to do but” are only for the employed, Oh silly silly you.  Retirement is billed as the perfect time to go all laid back and enjoy the fruits of your labors.  Right?  Those are the words that keep everyone working like crazy until they retire.  And then by golly not one of us retirees has any more time for “nothing to do but” and we’re still all taking a dream get away while living life. 

Dreaming about “nothing to do but” is good for the brain and the spirit.  It’s a refreshing vacation and costs nothing.  Actually having nothing to do is a mental and physical killer.  Even a baby somehow knows waving its hands and feet is better than simply laying there.

Enjoy your little “nothing to do but” moments but come back to the garden of real and enjoy life as its happening.  Your life – my life – weeds and all.

All A Flutter

A few photos of our snow birds over the past few days - looking much like Christmas cards.

Downy Woodpecker

Yellow Breasted Woodpecker

Female American Cardinal

Gold Finch and House Finch

Male American Cardinal

Wishing you a Merry Christmas from my garden to yours.

 

The Perfect Snowman

We had the perfect snow for making snowmen and I expect to see them once people stop shoveling and the kids get bored enough.  Here are some good ones I've borrowed from pinterest and other places.  Enjoy! And inspire?

Tired out from all the snowman making.

Sweet.

Everybody gets in the act.

I think I know this guy.

This sculpture might be more than my yard will ever hold.

This BIG snowman has red painted tires for lips and skies for eyelashes.

Cute little puppy.

Wow a family of super energetic kids.

There must have been some magic in that old silk hat they found!

 

Winter Solstace

The Winter Solstice today at our house is more like winter stuff and such.

Starting yesterday, we had our first major snow storm of the winter.  Started with rain, freezing rain, sleet, large wet snow flakes and then a blizzard with 40 mph winds.  It was beautiful and today it is still beautiful. 

The other side of the coin is the roads are really awful since the temperature dropped from 45 yesterday to 10 this morning.  Right now it's 22 and dropping again.  The ice melt isn't working because it's so cold.  The plows are having a tough go of it because the snow is so heavy and the drifts so deep.

It's been awhile since I've seen one lane roads banked with packed snow.  Some roads were closed because there were so many stuck, stalled or wreaked vehicles blocking the path. 

Lots of power outages from the heavy stuff on lines and trees coupled with the strong winds.  Our linemen and road crews have been busy in pretty awful conditions.  Ten of the Ameren folks were trapped in Monmouth last night because all roads leading back to Galesburg were closed and impassable.  The Monmouth Fire Department was kind enough to host them for the night. And another reason to love a fireman!

The garden side of the coin is most evergreens are laboring under a frozen layer of ice and snow.  Branches touch the ground and tops bent over.  It's impossible to dislodge this mess because it is frozen to the tree and beating it would damage it more.  It'll be a wait and see situation.

The birds are loving the sunflower seeds and I'm loving seeing them.  Each with their own habits and personalities.  Right now I'm looking at a female cardinal, Morning Dove, House Finch, Goldfinch and various sparrows.  Busy Busy Busy.

I've used this stay at home time to bake Christmas goodies.  Some tried and true and a few new.  One new will now become bird feed as they are so hard a three day dunk in hot coffee doesn't soften them.  Hate it when that happens.

As you or your family travel this Christmas season, we pray for safe trips and joyous reunions. 

     

Old Friends

It's been so many years since we've had a real live tree (why do we call them "real live" as opposed to unreal live or real dead???).  I'd forgotten how much fun it is to work around crooked stems, bare spots, watering and all.  And I mean fun not in the least bit sarcastic because it was like a walk down memory lane.

With an artificial tree, everything is in perfect proportion and conditions.  That's why we buy them.  They offer the perfect solution to all things tree.  Except perfect doesn't always have a personality.

Aren't the most beautiful people the ones that have a physical imperfect something.  It's what makes them unique. 

I realized as I was decorating my real live tree, there were many ornaments I hadn't used in years because they were essentially fillers for those bare spots.  When my oldest son, Trent, was a baby I made most of our tree decorations because I didn't have the money for much else.  Not that I didn't enjoy making them, it was fun to have a tree with the brightly colored paper and glitter ornaments.

Sooo, it's probably been twenty years since I hauled those paper and glitter ornaments out and they were mostly wrinkled and flat.  Amazingly, I was able to tug them into acceptable hole fillers. 

All the grandkids ornaments I've received over the years went on the tree in spite of the glue loosening essential elements.  Handmade ornaments from grandparents, my mother, a work friend and others. 

I smiled and remembered each person and each instance of why an ornament was created or received.  What a great time with Christmas memories.  I figured it was my own little special time.  I was wrong. 

Gracie, five year old granddaughter, came out and spent hours sitting beside the tree, looking at ornaments and asking about them.  Where did they come from, can I touch this one, "Look Grandma, this one spins!", why do lights get hot and more.  My special time became our special time and that folks was a Christmas memory to beat all.  It wouldn't have happened had we not put up a real tree this year.  I'm thinking it's a habit which may totally replace my perfectly elegant artificial tree.  Perfect isn't all it's cracked up to be.