I am not a decorator and often lack creativity. When a small galvanized bucket arrived in the mail from Red Hill General Store, I needed an idea.
Fill it with golf balls as a gift for my husband?
Fill it with milk and feed the farm kittens?
Plant a flower in it?
Have my daughters decorate it with paint and stickers?
Of course my creative, artistic sister and mother both looked me with smiles as I threw out bland ideas and they shared more creative ones.
Fill it with barley to hold candles as a centerpiece, they suggested and we all agreed.
Barley holds a special place in my heart. Barley in a bucket sounded perfect. And I am not referring to barley as beer.
Barley is grown on our family farm. I make Beef Barley Soup and it reminds me of how the barley is raised on our land.
It’s harvested each summer (occasionally plugs a combine Hunter learned last summer.)
My dad, Farmer Fred at GriggsDakota, specifically contracts malting barley through Anheuser Busch. Malting barley makes beer, not soup and on our farm is grown to make Budweiser brands of beer.
My dad still has some of last year’s barley crop in grain bins. It was too wet last fall to be hauled in and has been in an air bin drying over the winter. It will be hauled into an Anheuser Busch facility in North Dakota in next few weeks.
On Father’s Day morning, I dashed out to a grain bin with my dad…in our church clothes and filled the Red Hill General Store bucket with barley.
Then I tweeted Red Hill General Store and shared on Facebook what I was up to. I couldn’t keep it a secret for long.
This little bucket could serve many purposes but on Father’s Day filling it with barley alongside my dad was a perfect use.
Inside the house, my mom shared two taper candles with me and I placed them into the barley filled bucket.
With a Father’s Day family feast hosted and created by my mom, all 23 family members loaded up their plates.
We sat down to enjoy food, family and fellowship with our barley bucket centerpiece. Around the table sat four generations of family on the farm, the barley in the simple bucket represented the fields and the family.
It was more than I ever expected from a bucket and was an easy yet creative way to honor my dad on Father’s Day.
Now what should I do with the bucket next? Ideas please.
Check out what some of my fellow Real Farmwives of America and Friends are doing with their buckets today. Find them on Facebook. Plus one lucky reader is going to win an embossed galvanized tub on Real Farmwives of America from Red Hill General Store. Don’t miss this give away and register here.
While Red Hill General Store did provide me with a bucket to blog about for this post, the pictures, ideas and opinions shared here are my own.
So cool. It would look good with soybeans or corn in it too!
Great idea! I did something similar with one of my grandma’s old serving bowls, corn, and pumpkin candles for a Thanksgiving meal.
P.S. LOVE your new header! The burlap is some homey! It made me smile!
Love this!
that’s very cool. 🙂
Fill it with red, white, and blue M&Ms. Dip pretzel rods into white bark half-way and sprinkle with red and blue sprinkles. Stick the uncoated end of the pretzel rods into the M&Ms. Makes a fun and festive 4th of July centerpiece that is also edible.
Shelly D.
So glad you found such a neat use for your bucket! We have a blog post from last month that might help with more ideas on how to use your bucket: 101 Bucket Uses
I love this idea!
but Shelly has now officially made me hungry!
So sweet… sometimes the simplest decorations are the best. And the memories and conversation they create are so fun! I made some with hay cubes once, wish they weren’t so messy! 😉
The barley is a nice, unique touch and something straight from your family’s farm…..perfect for a family get-together!
What a cute idea!
Fill it with wildflowers next?
What a cool memory!
I need something new to put on my table, and I have a small bucket just like this–THANKS for the great idea!!
Beautiful pics of the barley harvest. So glad the bucket could be apart of your family get-together.
A great use for that bucket and that barely! Also a rather nice tribute to your dad.
Love the center piece idea! Barley is good but i sure liked the M&M idea too! haha
Thanks
Leontien
Love the centerpiece! I’d have to fill mine with soybeans or corn here in IN! Following your blog now, btw!