I thought I hated barley until I actually tried it. Chris and I have been hooked on it for a couple weeks. Delicious! And, dare I say, nutritious.

The trick to making barley tasty and not mushy is rocking the pilaf. Instead of a sticky, health-foody mess o glop, you get lovely little individual grains that pop oh so slightly when you chew them. Delicious!

Ingredients

• 2 T butter (or 1 if you’re wimpy/dieting/short on butter)
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 12 crimini mushrooms, sliced nice and thin
• hefty pinch of salt
• about 12 fresh sage leaves, cut into ribbons
• 1 C pearl barley
• 2 C water

1. Melt butter in a medium saucepan. Add garlic and cook until soft, then add mushrooms, salt, and sage, and cook until mushrooms are all nice and cooked.
2. Add the barley and stir to get each grain coated with butter. Keep stirring and cooking until you smell toasty goodness.
3. Add water, cover, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and cook for 30 minutes.
4. Check the barley — it might still need a few more minutes. If there’s still liquid in the pan, give it a little more time. If it’s ready, fluff with a fork and serve. Sprinkle with nooch if you like.

Isn’t it great when a baking experiment turns out well? These biscuits aren’t as flaky as your standard all-flour biscuits, but the flavor is unbeatable. Slather ‘em with butter while they’re still hot, and top with poached eggs, herby beans, or a nice thick gravy.

Ingredients

• 1 C cornmeal (I use medium-ground, but anything finer that polenta/grits should be fine)
• 1 C all-purpose flour
• 1 T baking powder
• 1 t kosher salt
• about 20 fresh sage leaves, cut into fine ribbons
• 4 T butter
• ¾ C milk

1. Mix the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt, and sage together in a bowl.
2. Cut the butter into the dry mixture. Rub together with your fingers until there aren’t any big chunks left.
3. Pour in the milk, and stir with a fork until the dough comes together.
4. Knead the dough for a minute or two.
5. Divide the dough into eight equal pieces. (Alternately, you can roll the dough out and use a biscuit cutter to cut out perfect little biscuits. I think this’ll make for a more biscuit-like texture — maybe? Of course, if you are like me and own neither a rolling pin nor a biscuit cutter, you’re best off just dividing the dough.)
6. Arrange dough pieces in a 9-9½ inch glass pie dish. No need to grease it beforehand.
7. Ultimate gluttony option: dab a wee sliver of butter onto the top of each biscuit.
8. Bake at 450°F for 15-20 minutes, or until they brown just a bit.

(A quick update: I left my job at that other farm last week, and after a few days of downtime, have started farming on a little almost-quarter-acre field on my friend Ernie’s property.)

Today I:

• finished double-digging my first 5′ x 20′ bed. Heck yeah John Jeavons! (233 minutes)
• set up my garden hose for watering the raised beds, and rolled out the header for watering the rows (12 minutes)
• planted chioggia beets. So many beets. (62 minutes! Gotta get faster!)
• enjoyed a horchata milkshake and got to see Riley’s new farm spot (’bout an hour)
• showed Riley my little patch o dirt, did an irrigation store run, decided on general bed/row layout, and took a break to walk the goats with Ernie (173 minutes)

I also sunburned my lower back, forearms, and face. I have cuts and blisters on my hands, and my palms are so sore that it hurts to high-five. Of course, everything else is sore too. And I’m tired, so tired. Two days of farming has totally kicked my pansy, used-to-parking-itself-on-a-padded-chair-all-day ASS.

But today when I walked into my favorite diner, my favorite cashier said, “You look happy!” I am SO happy, I can’t even tell you. I’ve never had a job where I was so elated at the end of the second day. In my last job, I read dozens of intern applications that waxed poetic on the soulful joys of farming. Now I’m finally feeling it.

On tomorrow’s to-do list: another irrigation errand run (I fear that this is going to become a theme), rolling out drip lines, planting (popcorn, dry beans, green beans, zucchini, summer squash, cucumbers, muskmelons, lettuce, more beets, and spinach) double-digging half of the next bed. And most importantly, visiting Mark and Velma, who I’ve barely seen in the last year and a half — largely because I’d been working so hard for a pretty crappy company. Hooray for my new independence!