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College Cooks -- Barley

This week we feature barley, a grain so versatile it’s often referred to as the chicken of the grain world! It’s a thirsty grain (an invention – really) that absorbs whatever liquid it’s cooked in. Barley was developed to make long-cooking wheat kernels into “fast food”. You’ll mostly find pearled barley (not the best choice because pearling strips the barley of it’s germ and most of it’s bran) in your food markets but I encourage you to look for hull-less (not hulled) barley. Hull-less barley – introduced to us over the past few decades -- is simply barley without the hulls (they fall off during the harvest); the bran is intact and there’s no need to pearl this barley so no nutrients are lost.

A Healthier, Happier Organic Lawn

  Each year, in America, over three million tons of synthetic fertilizer and 70 million pounds of pesticides are used to obtain a "perfect" lawn. These chemicals may help make your lawn look good initially, but at what price?  Paul Tukey, author of The Organic Lawn Care Manual and founder of safelawns.org, wants to help educate homeowners about the importance of going organic for a healthier lawn. "It's a matter of health and the environment," he says.  Yes, it can take a couple of years to make the transition, the final results are worth the wait. Healthy organic soil soaks up nutrients and water like a sponge and makes the grass less vulnerable to drought and disease.  It also permits you to spend less time working on it.  A few tips-

Natural Herbicide is Safe and Biodegradable

Phydura™ is a non-selective herbicide made from natural, biodegradable ingredients: soybean oil, clove oil and vinegar for herbaceous broadleaf and grass weeds including:

Garlic Mustard
Burdock
Dandelion
Clover
Crabgrass
Queen Ann's Lace
Pigweed
Velvet Leaf
Ragweed
Quack Grass
Leafy Spurge and more!

If you're looking to prepare for more gardens and less lawn, this may be the way to go.
Phydura sells for about $17 per gallon and can be found here and here.

Backyard Habitat

The National Wildlife Federation recently certified my garden/yard as a “Backyard Habitat”. I don’t know why I waited so long to apply. I’ve always had wild flowers, a water source (a bird bath or shallow bowl is plenty – a pond or stream is better), shelter, and food. And I never use pesticides. But recently, after visiting several local “habitat” yards, I was inspired to go for certification and I'll proudly display my NWF sign as an inspiration to others.

To go along with the NWF sign, I ordered a sign that reads “Pesticide-Free Zone”.

For those of you looking to start a wildflower garden for the bees and birds, I highly recommend Prairie Moon -- the best source for native plant seed (and plants) I can find.

Below are some photos taken on the day of the Backyard Habitat tours. Thanks to all who opened their yards for the tours!

Please Welcome NATURES INVENTORY to GH

Check out our great, new sponsor, NATURE'S INVENTORY.  Their mission is to provide natural options in health and wellbeing and to empower consumers in experiencing wellness. 

Their founder was diagnosed in the latter stages of Lupus, and was told there was “no cure”.  So, she turned to natural health and along the way created many of the products you can buy from them today.  Her success with her own products allows her to be Lupus and pain-free today.

David Blume touts Alcohol Can Be A Gas !

Noted ecological biologist David Blume has been promoting his book, Alcohol Can Be A Gas and continues to talk about the importance of alcohol-based fuels, and of how the oil industry has worked against the developement of alternative fuel sources.  Many of the early cars, Model T for example, were flex fuel (running on either gas or alcohol), and Henry Ford was an advocate for alcohol fuel. But, he was fiercely opposed by John D. Rockefeller who pushed for Prohibition, which stopped the manufacture of alcohol for any purpose, Blume detailed.

College Cooks Wednesday - Quinoa

This week’s featured ingredient is quinoa (keen wah). Most commonly considered a grain, quinoa is actually a relative of leafy green vegetables like chard. The seed is rich in amino acids -- this means it’s a good source of protein and in the case of quinoa – a complete protein! Quinoa has a fluffy, creamy, slightly crunchy texture with a nutty taste when cooked. It is so utterly nutritious that it was once considered the “gold of the Incas.”

Washing: Wash quinoa in a bowl of water several times and drain well.

Cooking: One cup of quinoa to two cups of water or stock with a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, cover, and cook for 15 minutes. You can tell it’s done when the seeds resemble tiny ringed planets – you know – like Saturn.

Continue reading for recipes.

Adventures in a CSA Kitchen, Vol. 1 No. 4

The latest CSA box contained lots of herbs and lettuces and cabbages again. We also got corn, ball squash, onions, scallions, carrots, eggplant, cucumbers, cauliflower, kohlrabi and purple broccoli! Obviously I've got some prep work to do along with some cooking/storing/freezing.

Since you've got the gist of what needs doing when you're a CSA member, I've decided this column will undergo a few changes. Mainly, you'll be finding a list of the box contents and some links to recipes you might not think of or that are just wonderful. These recipes will be for the actual foods I receive in the box or they'll be for sauces and other accompaniments for those foods. Adventures in a CSA Kitchen will be a great resource for recipes to use with seasonal produce. And it'll be anecdotal when I can find the time or have a story to tell. I'll continue to recommend organic wines, as discovering them is an exciting adventure in itself.

This time round I'll share recipes for Salsa Verde, Kohlrabi in Herbed Cream Sauce, First Day Salad, and several dressings for almost any salad.

Eco Question of the Month

WHAT ECO-FRIENDLY CHANGES HAVE YOU MADE IN YOUR LIFE?

Please share your comments; maybe we can all learn something new!

Coffee Grounds Perk Up Compost!

For those of you who haven't heard about the nitrogen-producing goodness of coffee grounds you can read about it here. This is a great idea for those of you who fear the pathogens in manure. I've been successfully using coffee grounds in my home compost for years! Coffee grounds are an economical soil amendment and it makes sense to keep the grounds out of your garbage! Visit your local Starbucks for free grounds!