For close to four years Piedmont Virginia Community College has used its viticulture and enology programs to school students in the ways of winemaking.

Although Virginia may be in a pre-emptive state of emergency as Tropical Storm Hanna approaches, local vintners aren’t worried that the rain will hurt their grapes.

Recently I have been serving barley as an accompaniment to meat or chicken instead of rice, pasta or potatoes. I use the quick cooking variety, which takes only about 10 minutes to cook unless other ingredients have been added as flavor enhancers. Frequently the longer-cooking version of barley is the basis of Beef and Barley Soup, a famous German specialty.

One of my favorite interests is history, particularly food history. The other day I was wondering about who created our cooking techniques and early cuisines. I often had wondered when and by whom national and ethnic foods came into being. Did they start with the Chinese, Greeks or Romans? Or did they start at about the same time from many sources?

I frequently use only use one leek when I make soup or a stew. It gives a sweetness and mild onion-like flavor to the dish and is not as strong as an onion. Occasionally I also use leeks as a vegetable to accompany roast beef. A British friend gave me the recipe, saying that the sweetness of leeks balanced the heavy flavors of roast beef.