18 Mar 2021
Recipe Jen Langdon 0 comment

Chicken and Barley Soup

Chicken and Barley Soup

There’s nothing quite like soup to provide comfort and nourishment when the weather is less than ideal! If you have an Instant Pot or a stovetop pressure cooker, this soup can come together in a jiffy, but it’s also delicious made entirely in a pot on the stovetop.

Print Recipe

Ingredients
  

  • 1 whole pasture-raised chicken
  • 2 sprigs rosemary, divided
  • 1 small bunch thyme, divided
  • 2 Tbsp Butter or olive oil
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1-2 quarts chicken stock, homemade or store-bought for a collagen-rich homemade stock, check out our recipe here: http://green-acres.org/chicken-feet-stock/
  • 3 lb carrots, diced
  • 2/3 cup pearl barley, wheat berries, farro, or another whole grain
  • 3 stalks celery, including leaves, diced
  • 1 15 oz can white beans, undrained
  • 1/2 lb sturdy greens (kale, spinach, collards, cabbage, etc.), chopped
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions
 

  • If you have an Instant Pot or stovetop pressure cooker: place chicken, 1 sprig of rosemary, half of the thyme and 4 cups water in the Instant Pot or pressure cooker. For extra flavorful broth, add the trimmings from your vegetables to the pot. Cook for 20 minutes at high pressure, using the quick steam release method at the end of cooking.
  • Alternatively, add ingredients from step 1 to a pot on the stove and simmer gently until chicken is fully cooked and very tender, 1.5-2 hours.
  • While the chicken is cooking, heat oil or butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion and saute until caramelized, stirring often. Add celery and garlic. Mince remaining rosemary and thyme and add to onion mixture, stirring until very fragrant.
  • Add 1 quart broth to the onion mixture, scraping up any browned bits in the bottom of the pot. Bring to a gentle simmer. Add barley, beans and their liquid, and carrots to the pot and cook until grain is tender, about 30-40 minutes.
  • When chicken is fully cooked, carefully separate the meat from the bones, reserving the bones to make your next batch of chicken stock. Dice meat and add to the soup.
  • Strain broth created while cooking the chicken and add it to your soup pot.
  • Add greens. Continue to simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 10-15 minutes while the flavors meld and the greens become tender. Add additional broth if desired to make the soup the consistency you like, more chunky or more broth-y. Add salt and pepper to your taste.
  • This soup is excellent served with rye toast or whole-grain crackers.

 

08 Mar 2021
Learn Jennifer Mansfield 0 comment

The Spotted Lanternfly

The Spotted Lanternfly

(Updated February 2026)

The spotted lanternfly has become more firmly established in Ohio, with established populations in 18 counties and the species observed in several additional counties. Spotted lanternfly was first detected in Ohio in 2020 and in Hamilton County in 2022, and it is now considered established in the region. As of February 17, 2026, the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) issued a statewide quarantine for spotted lanternfly, requiring inspection of certain trees, nursery stock, and related materials before they are transported out of the state.

U.S. Department of Agriculture - Lance Cheung/Multimedia PhotoJournalist/USDA Photo by Lance Cheung, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Ohio Department of Agriculture is no longer asking residents to report sightings of spotted lanternfly since the insect is now considered established. However, residents are encouraged to learn to identify the insect and destroy it when possible.

      • Eggs- scrape them off the tree or other surface, double bag them and throw them away. Alcohol or hand sanitizer can also be used to kill them. Egg masses are typically found from fall through spring and may appear as gray, mud-like patches on trees, outdoor furniture, stones, or other surfaces.
      • Specimens- If you encounter nymphs or adults, they can be destroyed by squishing them. Nymphs emerge in May and are black with white spots, developing red patches as they mature. Adults appear in summer through fall and grow to about one inch long with a black head, gray wings with black spots, and bright red hind wings.
      • Identification apps such as iNaturalist can help confirm whether an insect is a spotted lanternfly.

The following link provides additional information and control recommendations from the Ohio Department of Agriculture:

https://agri.ohio.gov/divisions/plant-health/invasive-pests/invasive-insects/slf

(This post was originally written in March 2021)

Traveling this summer?  Beware of unwanted hitchhikers.  The spotted lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula) was first reported in Pennsylvania in 2014 and has since spread to several eastern states and the Midwest. Lanternflies are poor fliers but can hitchhike.  Large egg masses are formed and these masses are laid on trees, wood or rusty metal (e.g. old train cars). Egg masses can also be found on vehicles, outdoor equipment, stone, or other smooth surfaces, and it is these egg masses that are often moved by human assisted spread.

The spotted lanternfly can congregate in large numbers and preferred hosts are Tree of Heaven and grapes but spotted lanternflies have been documented on a variety of species. These phloem feeders concern fruit producers as their large numbers can cause a nuisance.  They squirt honeydew from their abdomen (which can rain down on people) and this substance promotes the growth of black sooty mold on leaves, bark, and outdoor surfaces such as decks and patios.

If you are traveling east, do not pack up the lanterfly when you return home. Check yourself and your belongings for any tag-alongs.  Adults are the easiest to spot and are most abundant late summer through fall. With populations now established in Ohio, residents may begin seeing more lanternflies in the coming years.

The spotted lanternfly can congregate in large numbers.
The lanternfly with its wings open.
16 Feb 2021
Uncategorized Peter Wheeler 0 comment

Emily Pickett – Saturday Stream Snapshot Organizer

Emily Pickett – Saturday Stream Snapshot Organizer

Emily has been an Environment Educator at Greenacres since 2019. She took over Saturday Stream Snapshot in 2020 after participating in the program many times herself. She has been working on building awareness of the efforts to protect the watershed ever since.

Why is it important for people to get involved with programs like Saturday Stream Snapshot?

Protecting the water quality of our rivers and streams is incredibly important for both human health and the health of the plants and animals that make the watershed their home. Clean water is one of the most important resources on the planet! There are just too many bodies of water for one person or organization to protect, so we are absolutely dependent on our volunteers to make sure we are doing our part.

What is your favorite part of the program?

I love working with our volunteers who are passionate about caring for the environment. Even though we all have different backgrounds we are all coming together over this shared goal. The time spent running chemical tests is a great opportunity to get know and learn from each other.

What are you looking forward to with the program this year?

Watching the program grow with the support of our volunteers! The pandemic really slowed down our efforts in 2020 as we worked on a plan to resume the program safely. We’re fortunate enough to have plenty of room to spread out and I’m looking forward to getting samples collected and tested again.

 

Emily will be leading a Virtual Kickoff and Training session on February 20 for those interested in volunteering this year. You can sign up to attend here.

09 Feb 2021
Local Food Peter Wheeler 0 comment

Cold Weather Garden Preparation

Cold Weather Garden Preparation

With the snow and cold arriving, it’s a great time to stop and think about what it means to eat fresh, local produce in the winter. Believe it or not, we start growing produce for the winter in May. It begins with sweet potatoes, moves to winter squash and root crops (carrots, beets, and radishes) in August and ends with greens planted in October. None of this process is easy, but the reward of having crisp winter carrots, tasty sweet potatoes and sweet winter greens is worth it!
The part of our winter production that is the most work is our winter greens. Many of the greens you see in our farm store during the winter months are what we call cold hardy. Cold hardy means that they can survive a range of cold temperatures and conditions, each to a varying degree. Things like spinach can handle freeze and thaw with no issue, while crops like arugula need special protection to be harvested throughout the winter. That’s where farming ingenuity comes in!

By using plastic-covered structures (tunnels), we are able to protect these cold hardy, yet not invincible, crops from the harshest winter conditions. These tunnels help capture heat, keep the rain, ice, and snow off the crops as well as protect them from bitter winter winds. When the temperatures really drop, we also use something called row cover, which is a bedsheet-like material, that helps keep the plants insulted from the cold even more! The greens you have been eating from our farm store this winter were seeded in late October and have been babied all winter long, so we can harvest them fresh for you weekly.

No matter how much we prepare, Mother Nature is still the undisputed champ. She takes her share of the harvest every winter and seems to be especially fond of using February’s cold weather to make sure we remember who is really in charge!