This recipe comes from the first What's Cooking at Moody's Diner cookbook. Moody's Diner is a vintage 1930's Diner in Waldoboro, Maine and every year when I went to visit, my grandmother would take me there to get breakfast. I never had *this* recipe at Moody's, but this is my favorite stew that my mom made when I was growing up, and I want to make sure I don't lose this recipe. The barley was her addition to this stew, and she always made it in a crock pot, although I'll give the instructions to make it in a pot on the stove as well. Mainer's shorten oleomargarine to oleo , unlike all the rest of the world that shortens it to margarine , so in the recipe, where it calls for oleo, it is asking for margarine or butter. You can use a bag of frozen stew veggies instead of preparing the fresh ones, to make it a bit faster to put together, and if you use quick barley, add it in the last half hour or so of cooking, so it doesn't get mushy. This recipe is great served with homemade yeast rolls, or biscuits.