Are you looking for a salty, crunchy treat? But want to keep it healthy? Popped Wheat Berries may just be what you're looking for! I've been catching MaMa sneaking a palmful of these little fellas everytime she walks past the dish. Popped Wheat Berries by Joseph's Grainery www.josephsgrainery.com Full Post Print Email Text A fun and crunchy treat for the whole family. Ingredients 1 c Joseph's Grainery Hard Red Wheat Berries 2 Tbs coconut or olive oil salt flavored seasoning (optional) Instructions Bring 3 cups of water to a boil in a pot. Add wheat berries, return to a boil, reduce heat to medium, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes. Drain the water from the wheat berries and with a paper towel pat the wheat berries dry. Place wheat berries in a cast iron skillet on medium heat. Let the heat sizzle away any remaining water on the wheat berries for a couple of minutes. Add the oil and cook the wheat berries for several minutes until they are golden brown. Make sure to stir the wheat berries as they are cooking so they don't burn. The wheat berries won't actually all pop (a few will), most will just swell in size. The name is a bit misleading. Add the salt and flavored seasoning, to taste. Mix well and serve. Popped Wheat Berries - Who says a salty, crunchy snack can't be healthy?

All are UNESCO World Heritage sites, so you know they’re special.

With the folks at Animal Planet currently airing the first full season of Restoration Wild , we thought this was the perfect time to take a look back at the creation of our Silo Bar . We were thrilled when Chanteclaire Farm was chosen for the pilot episode of the new series, which firs

Explore AstridWestvang's 8518 photos on Flickr!

Traditional raised Sami storehouse, displayed at Skansen, Stockholm. A similar structure, the izbushka, is mentioned in Russian children stories as a house with chicken feet. I haven't found any further information on this design. The izbushka is mentioned in a Wikipedia article on Baba Yaga: He journeyed onwards, straight ahead [...] and finally came to a little hut; it stood in the open field, turning on chicken legs... Ivan walks for some time before encountering a small hut identical to the first... After walking for some time, Ivan eventually finds the chicken-legged hut of the youngest of the three sisters turning in an open field. There are a number of images of chicken-legged huts retrievable at Google Images, most of them related to the Baba Yaga tale. I would have to assume that the Sami structure is a practical rather than a whimsical creation, developed in response to the types of wood/driftwood available and probably the presence of a difficult-to-penetrate (frozen) ground or unstable (thawing) tundra and the need to elevate the storehouse above predators. No time to look it up now. Some readers may wish to pursue the matter on their own. Photo credit m.prinke. Addendum: Reader Steve notes the similarity to English "staddle stones": ...originally used as supporting bases for granaries, hayricks, game larders, etc. The staddle stones lifted the granaries above the ground thereby protecting the stored grain from vermin and water seepage. In Middle English staddle or stadle is stathel, from Old English stathol, a foundation, support or trunk of a tree... The staddle stones usually had a separate head and base which gave the whole structure a 'mushroom' like appearance. Different areas in the United Kingdom had different designs. The base varied from cylindrical to tapered rectangular to near triangular. Flat topped cone shaped staddle stones are to be found in parts of the Isle of Wight. The tops are flat to support the beams, however some variation does exists, such as square tops, fluted designs, slate tops, etc. Old land deeds in northeastern United States often refer to Oak Staddle or Walnut Staddle. These deeds are from the late 18th century to the middle 19th century. Either the owners would cut a tree leaving the stump and request that the surveyors measure to it, or the surveyor would measure out to the location of a new lot corner and a staddle would be inserted into the ground like a boundary stone.

My Grandfather's old wheelbarrow leans against the wall of the grainery in our barnyard. If you have been following this blog, and I hope you have, you may notice that I have been shooting a lot lately near my home in Gray's Chapel and my studio in Old Greensboro. I would love to be able to share images with you from Venice, or Scotland, or Yosemite, or even the Outer Banks of North Carolina, but unfortunately, no one has been willing or able to pay me to go to those places lately, so I am spending a lot of time close to home. This has actually been sort of inspiring. I have begun to see that there is a world of things to shoot just outside my door. The wheelbarrow is less than a hundred yards from my deck. My neighbors provide an ample supply of characters for portraits. I've had a lot of downtime lately (ie, no jobs), so instead of sitting around and waiting for the phone to ring, I'm making an effort (and it is an effort in slow times) to produce images of what's around me. Must be the anthropologist in me coming out. The worst thing a photographer can do is not shoot, so I'm shooting what I have, and it's fun. Comments are welcome. (images copyright 2009 by Dan Routh)

dogon granaries in the cliff, above the village of teli

Sometimes, restaurants can be so much more than just places to eat.

I pass this door frequently on my Marais tours and clients ask me if it was ever featured as a Door of the Month, and I am sometimes embarrassed to say I haven't, since it's such an outstanding door. The...

Well, we had a fun weekend taking part in Colfax's Hullabaloo. Grandma's poodle, Maggie (dressed in her tutu) and I participated in the annual Pet Parade, while Grandpa and MaMa were busy selling whole grains and freshly ground flours. They tell me that our new Multigrain Pancake Mix sold like hotcakes (yes, pun intended). One of the most frequent questions of the weekend was, "How do you cook your Barley?" Well, the way you would cook Joseph's Grainery Barley may be a bit different than the way you'd cook, say, pearl barley. This is due to the fact that our barley still has the hull. It's important to note that most of barley's nutrients are located in the hull, so without the hull, you aren't getting the full nutritional value of barley. Joseph's Grainery Barley 1. Soak the barley. The most important step cooking barley is to soak the grains. You'll want to soak the barley for at about 24 hours, so if you're wanting to make a soup or stew, you'll want to plan accordingly. Place the barley in a container and cover it with double the amount of fresh water, then let it soak away! Be sure to drain and rinse before cooking your barley recipes. 2. Cook the barley. There are several methods for cooking barley, MaMa's favorite way to cook it is in soups and stews. If you are making a soup or stew, you'll want to make sure that you let the barley simmer in the soup/stew for at least 45 minutes. Or you can put all of your ingredients in a crockpot and let everything cook all day. If you're not making a soup or stew and you just want cooked barley, all you have to do is boil 3 cups of water for every 1 cup of barley. Add the soaked barley, return to a boil, reduce heat, cover and let simmer for at least 45 minutes. One of the most important things to note, no matter the method of cooking, is to NOT ADD SALT until the barley is completely done cooking! The salt can keep the barley from becoming tender. It's definitely the season for soups and stews, so go for it...add a handful of (soaked) barley to your favorite recipe and enjoy the wonderful health benefits of this mightly little whole grain.

Have you ever dreamed of having your very own swimming hole? These five historic creekside houses offer just that, plus much more.

18 pounds of all natural, thoroughly cleaned, unhulled barley shipped to you straight from the farm. Absolutely no preservatives. Barley is a cereal grain that can be used in soups, stews, breads and other health foods. Barley has a rich, nutlike flavor and an appealing chewy, pasta like consistency. Barley is a great source of fiber and other important nutrients. Because of it's good nutritional content, barley is a good survival food to always have on hand. Store barley in an air tight container placed in a cool dry place. Unhulled Barley must be soaked for 24 hours prior to cooking.

I started diggining into HDR probably a little more than a year ago and these pictures from Rowley date from that period. In fact, I thought they were pretty bad at the time and decided I will never share them with anybody however, going through some of my old archives the other day to see […]

Faro: Roland semi-pearled farro is particularly nice but any type of farro or grain — wheat berry, barley, etc. — will work nicely. You might be able to find semi-pearled farro at your local supermarket, but if not, you can order it here. Of course, whole farro will work just as well.

Brooke and Brent’s wedding day at Red Gate Farms in Savannah, GA was one that I had been looking forward to for a year, and I am so sad that it is actually over! Their day was filled with so much love and happiness and it is just one of those days that truly remind …