Dark Days Challenge Recap: Week 7 (EAST Group)

Winter is slowly, but surely, arriving in more states as the weeks of winter go by in this challenge. Some participants are combing their shelves and freezers for the preserved bounties of long past summer crops hoping for a glimmer of sunshine to add to their meals while others are still able to go to farmers markets that have stands overflowing with fresh winter produce.

Be sure to check out the companion post to see what the leaders of the WEST Groups are cooking up this week for their meals.

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UPPER New England with Ryan from Phoenix Hill Farm

Barbara from the Crowing Hen week has been full of observations about her animals response to the cold weather and frozen ground. Seems like everyone is doing well, the goats can prance on the hard surface and her pullets have started laying tiny eggs! This week she made a made a Spanish omelette using the tiny eggs from her own flock and other local ingredients.

Anne-Marie from the green(ish) monkeys made Pumpkin waffles with bacon and apples. Her multiple CSA shares provide her family with ample opportunities to bring local and sustainable foods to the table like flour and pumpkins. Rachel from Great Faith in A Seed avoided food waste, used up some leftovers, and invented a great dish she calls Tzaitziki Eggs – scrambled eggs with onion and feta, topped with homemade tzaitziki sauce.

Lindsay from the 100 Mile Locavores made a Dutch Honey Cake with local rye flour, honey, milk and spices. She really likes to make this cake as a portable breakfast or quick snack.  As temperatures dropped in New England, Emily from The Finicky Farmer warmed up with a bowl of potato-leek soup, which was garnished with local cheddar cheese and dried thyme.

I agree with Brynne from You Got Me Cookin’ and her sentiment that it is impossible to resist mashed potatoes and cheddar stuffed inside sour cream cheese dough stuffed with caramelized onions. I’m not sure who would disagree with that!

Stephanie from This Little Monkey Went to the Market  gave me yet another reason to raise my own duck for meat this year. Her duck ragu using the leftovers from the duck they had the week before, and cheddar beer soup using a local, organic Quebec beer had my mouth watering and excited to have duck to use in the future. Lella from 31 and holding is a big fan of her crock pot and was thankful for being able to make her meal using canned tomatoes from summer bounties and locally made bread.

In their sixth week of the Dark Days Challenge, Lindsay and Erik from eatlocal365 learned to appreciate curly kale. They are big fans of the lacinato/Tuscan/dinosaur/black and Red Russian varieties, but for some reason they hadn’t every felt like trying the standard curly variety. Like most biases, they just had to meet an individual curly kale recipe in “person” to let go of their stereotypes. Oh, also, the chorizo helped!

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SOUTH (MD, VA, NC, SC, GA) with The Other Emily from Sincerely, Emily 

(I will be “The Other Emily” this week!)

Susan (VA) over at Backyard Grocery cooked Slow Cooker Chicken and Celery Root for her meal this week. With a freezer full of venison she feels like she had been cheating on this challenge. I don’t think so. It’s local meat, and that is how they eat. She decided to make chicken the star of her meal. Working long hours she decided to use a crock pot to cook the chicken, celery root and potatoes. A nice salad made from her first winter harvest from the garden finished off the meal. Head over to her blog to see her detailed receipt and her local resources.

Annie (MD) over at AnnieRie Unplugged used her crock pot and made a slow cooked beef short rib with a boat load of nice veggies. Potatoes, leeks, kale, Red Onion, Napa Cabbage, Carrots! That is one long list packed full of flavor and nutrients. She also added a tomato sauce that was also packed full of other veggies from the garden. She topped off this list with some additional herbs and spices. A perfect meal for a cold night.  Stop by her blog to check out her resources.

Victoria (MD) from The Soffritto prepared Egg Noodle Carbonara with Roasted Broccoli. With Return of the Jedi playing the background and only 10 minutes to go, their meal cooked in 9 minutes and at the end of the movie dinner was on the table.  Recently they stocked up on local veggies, noodles, grains & honey from Breezy Willow Farm in Maryland. What a great place to have nearby. Visit her blog to see her recipe and more details.

Jessica (SC) from Eat.Drink.Nourish. Between battling yet another cold that is making its way through their household to arriving a tad late to Charlotte Farmers Market for some of her ingredients, Jessica was still able to make Braised Short ribs over Garlic Mashed Potatoes served with a beet, spinach and goat cheese salad. Visit her blog to check out her meal.

Rebecca (VA) from Eating Floyd had a busy day but she managed to pull off a really nice local meal. A jar of preserved asparagus soup saved the night. She paired the lovely soup with a nice pear salad topped with pumpkin seeds and some no-knead bread to make ham salad sandwiches. To me, her meal feels comfortable, warm and inviting. Stop by her blog to learn about her local resources.

Jasmine (VA) over at 40 Shades of Green made a mostly local meal. Sausage with roasted beets, carrots and shallots with lentils. She has searched high and low and has been unable to find a local source for beans and legumes. So, even though the lentils are not local, she did find a company out in Idaho that works to preserve heirloom beans and lentils. Head over to her blog to see her newfound source and read about her meal.

Jes (VA) from Eating Appalachia stopped by her favorite place up the mountain in Floyd and picked up some fabulous ingredients for her meal. Spaghetti Squash with Brazil Nut Basil, oven Roasted Tomatoes & Spinach. She creatively tossed her spaghetti squash with her homemade basil pesto. Check out her blog to learn about her favorite place up the mountain for local foods and the surprise flavors in her pesto.

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OHIO VALLEY
with Susy Morris from Chiot’s Run
(click on the photos to be taken to post with recipe)

Here in the Ohio Valley Area – the Dark Days are officially upon us. Up until now, the weather has been more spring like. We’ve been having bright sunny warm days. As I sit and write this recap however, the sun is hidden behind the clouds, the wind is howling outside my window, the snow is drifting by the back door, and the temperatures are dipping down into the single digits – BRRRRR. No doubt this is why our numbers are dwindling in this group, perhaps everyone is snowed in?

Allison from The Life of a Novice went to Whitefeather Meats (the place that processed the half a hog I ordered earlier this winter) to get some delicious local sausage.

For her other DD meal Allison’s husband made a venison roast, which she wasn’t too keen on in the beginning, but ended up enjoying. Here at Chiot’s Run we only eat venison as Mr Chiots is a big hunter.

Gabe from life, from the ground up. always has wonderful creative recipes and these last two weeks have been no different. When I read the title Spelt “Risotto” with Butternut and Sage I was ready to make some for dinner. Butternut and sage is one of my favorite combinations (especially if you throw in some browned butter). It looks like his little boy will grow up loving it as much as I do! How wonderful for kids to be able to experience REAL food along with their parents!

For his second meal Gabe rolled up his sleeves and made some pasta – which is something I love seeing people try. Once you make it at home, you’ll never be able to go back to store-bought – it’s well worth the effort and I would highly recommend giving it a go. He topped this pasta with some delicious lamb meatballs and homemade tomato sauce.

Margo from Thrift at Home celebrated cast iron cooking with her first DD meal. I loved seeing this as I’m a huge fan of cooking in cast iron. She made roasted butternut squash and greens, it looked heavenly (and there was some bacon thrown on there for good measure).

I’ll let her describe her second meal in her own words because they’re perfect “The black eyed peas were cooked long and slow, salted, and then thickened at the very end with a little milk and flour batter. They were plain and creamy. Then the collards were spicy, meaty, and touched with vinegar. A lovely counterpoint.” All this goodness was followed up with Peach Kuchen – that’s one lucky family!

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LOWER NEW ENGLAND/MID-ADLANTIC (NY, CT, DC, NJ and England)
with The Other Emily, from Tanglewood Farms

It sounds like the Mid Atlantic and Lower New England groups have had the same mild weather we’ve had here in Michigan! Still, this doesn’t affect the availability of warm-weather foods, much, so we’re all tucking in to our winter recipes together.

I’d like to start this week’s recap with Angela (DC) from Bumblelush, who recently took a pre-holiday holiday to Iceland with her husband! While she was there she enjoyed a local meal of Icelandic Fish and Chips, and while revisiting her photos after the trip realized many of her meals enjoyed overseas were from local foods, as Iceland is remote and has to be fairly self-sufficient as a result. How cool!

Our next Dark Days Dabbler is Samantha (NY) from Listen, Foodie! She recently posted about an adventure in making baked beans from scratch and I just can’t wait to give this a go. She’s a fantastic writer and made this recipe seem super easy and approachable. Can’t wait to try it!

Many of our Dark Days participants are struggling with finding local grains and flours, but it seems that Stacey (NY) at Fessenden Farm has found local flour and made some scrumptious looking Blueberry muffins with it. She also did a post prior to her muffins about using fat to make lard. Her final photo of the cracklins made my mouth water! You’ll have to head over to her blog to see what I mean…

Monica (NJ) over at Monica Tries to Cook whipped up a batch of beans and cabbage this week using cabbage and potatoes from her farmers market, CSA shallots and some of the beans she used in the soup she posted about prior to this. The beans were more suited to this meal than the soup, and it looks like she got a very delicious meal from them!

Gaelen (NY) from Kitchen Jam has admitted to not being able to necessarily eat SOLE every dark days meal, but this one counts in my book! Feast your eyes on Pork Ribs with Pesto and Tomato, using local hydroponic tomatoes, frozen summer pesto and local pork!

I saved the post by Karen (NJ) from Prospect: The Pantry for last because, well, it’s just about the most unique Dark Days post I’ve seen yet! She has used spruce needles to … ahem … spruce up her cabbage stew, and she sourced her spruce needles from her locally grown Christmas tree! Of course, in order to do this you’d have to make sure your tree wasn’t chemically treated at all, but she provides substitution info for juniper berries too… Super inspiring!

Have you found any new and exciting local resources in your area?

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Dark Days Challenge: Week 6 EAST recapper SOLE meals

This week the “WEST” is doing a detailed recap for their Dark Days Challenge participants. Be sure to head over to the companion post today and travel around the “WEST” and see what they are all cooking this week

Here you will be able to get a glimpse into the meals that the “EAST” recappers have prepared.

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I know I (Emily from Sincerely, Emily) am being repetitive with a few of the ingredients I am using for my Dark Days Challenge meals. Chard seems to be a front runner in the line of repetition and so do turnips lately. Those are two of the things still growing strong in the garden. Lettuce is maturing now and we have started eating that. I will be adding lettuce to that list of repetitive ingredients as it moves into every meal. I am not complaining one bit, I LOVE to be able to walk out back and bring in fresh food, and I feel very fortunate to be able to do that so I am not bothered by the repetition in our meals one bit.

Most of our meals are made up with many SOLE ingredients. Many times there is a catch, not all the ingredients are local. The other night I made dinner with SOLE basil pesto, chard, ground burger and venison served over organic (but not local) bow tie pasta. So, the darn pasta made the meal null and void for the DDC. Even if I could have made the pasta it wouldn’t have fit the bill to fit into the SOLE category (flour – not local). Every other ingredient to that particular meal was sustainable, organic, local and ethical. Still, I feel very good about knowing that the majority of that particular meal fit the SOLE list.

For my meal I used some of the pork from last weeks meal and I made up a crustless quiche. It is such as easy thing to whip up and the ingredient combinations are endless. Kind of like pizza in that regard. When I have little bits of “this” and “that” that I need to use up, they usually wind up in either the crustless quiche, on a pizza or in an omelet.

Sincerely, Emily

P.S. you can see what the South Region has been cooking this past week over at Sincerely, Emily where I have put together a post about their meals.

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This week at Tanglewood my family was in town, wrapping up the holidays at our house. The final night of their stay, I decided to cook a simple dark days meal for everybody as a sort of farewell. We used up the very last of the organic hot house tomatoes from the farmer’s market (we’re very lucky to have some intense winter farmers in our area) and a beautiful head of buttercrunch lettuce. When combined with two pounds of locally farmed bacon, homemade organic mayonnaise and a loaf of sourdough bread, what do you get?

The season’s last SOLE BLTs!

Like I said: simple. I baked the bacon in the oven and saved the drippings for bird suet. If you haven’t tried oven baking your bacon, I strongly suggest it. It makes perfectly crispy, evenly cooked bacon every time! (Use a 375º oven, put the bacon on a baking sheet with walls and bake until desired hue of golden brown is achieved. If you want your bacon to have a little more crinkle to it instead of being plain and flat, roll some aluminum foil into little wormy rolls and lay the bacon across it to give it dimension.)

I paired the sandwiches with some beets roasted with red wine vinegar and olive oil (not local, but organic!) and finished with a side of locally made cottage cheese. It was simple and actually a little summery, which was appropriate with the bizarre weather we’ve had lately. It was interesting to have to whip up a quick and simple SOLE meal for so many more people than I’m used to. I can’t say I’m as much a fan of it this time of year as I would be during the warm season when I’d have more to choose from as far as ingredients…

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The last couple weeks have been as busy at Chiot’s Run as they have for all of you I’m sure. That hasn’t stopped us from stopping to keep up some of the traditions that have been going in my family for quite a while. On New Year’s Day, we traditionally eat sauerkraut & pork to ensure a prosperous year. Usually, my dad is the chef for this meal, but this year we weren’t able to get together so I made the meal for us at home. The pork came from a friend who raises hog, I made the sauerkraut back in October with cabbage from a local farm, and the rest of the ingredients came from our gardens. If you’d like the recipe & a little more info on this meal, click on the photos and they’ll take to the post on my blog.

Our family Christmas meal, which happened late, was also a Dark Days Meal. The ham came from the same hog that the pork for our New Year’s meal came from, the au gratin potatoes were made with local potatoes, milk, butter, cheese, and onions. The brussels sprouts were local as well and my sister brought homegrown corn and green beans. The only part of the meal that wasn’t local was the flour that went into the rolls, and it was from King Arthur, so at least it was purchased from a small company.

What challenges have you had this week?

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Dark Days Challenge recap: Week 5 (EAST Group)

The Dark Days Challenge continues as the days start to get longer, but the end of winter is no where in sight. This challenge is going to start taking on new meaning as some more of the farmer’s markets out there are closing down for the season. Many Farmer’s markets have been closed for month while other markets is some areas remain open and thriving.

The EAST is still cookin’ up a storm as more wintery-like weather starts rolling in to some areas. Be sure to go and check out the companion post today and see what exciting meals the individual recappers for the WEST have been cooking up.

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UPPER NEW ENGLAND with Ryan from Phoenix Hill Farm

Lindsay and Erik from EatLocal365 have created a step by step photo tutorial on how to butcher a whole chicken. I found this extremely helpful as I have a freezer full of organic, pastured Freedom Ranger chickens we raised this winter and I have been getting bored (is that possible?) with roasting whole chickens. I’m ex

Bethany the Luddite participated in a different type of butchery, the experience of cutting open the flesh of a red beet, slicing leeks and roasting pumpkins. Anne-Marie from Green(ish) Monkeys, created a meal from her last CSA pick up and her share through the Free Range Farm Truck. They enjoyed BBQ pork chops, corn, roasted carrots and potatoes and fresh spinach.

Sherry from the Onion Flower had a tasty, Boxing Day SOLE breakfast of 7 grain pancakes with foraged raspberries and local maple syrup. Also celebrating multiple holidays, Rachel from Great Faith in a Seed, enjoyed participating in festivities for Christmas and Chanukah. She brought back a treat from her childhood and celebrated the seasons with her own home caned peaches which they enjoyed for Christmas brunch with bison sausage in a balsamic-rosemary reduction.

Barbara from the Crowing Hen brought it to the table this week. She wrote a powerful post about the use of antibiotics in factory farmed livestock. If you are going to check out just one blog this week, I would recommend Barabara’s informative essay on this topic. It is one that you might also want to share, post it on your facebook or twitter, because she breaks it down and more people need to know what she so eloquently explains. She of course, finished her post with her SOLE meal of organic beef stew that was tasty and easy to cook up.

Stephanie from This Little Monkey went to Market had her most local meal yet, potato pancakes with apple sauce, sour cream and a side of ham. Emily from the Finicky Farmer sure makes dirty carrots look tasty. Her meals are very local, as her partner is a farmer and most of their vegetables come from their farm. Made with their own turkey stock, they enjoyed a meal of 3 bean soup with fresh root vegetables including those beautiful carrots and the not so beautiful but delicious celeriac.

Brynne from You got me cookin’ put her crock pot to good use and threw together a slow cooked chicken with a chutney of peaches, onions, vinegar, garlic, spices, and raisins. Caitlin from Nine Lives n More had some ground lamb sausage for one meal, corn chowder for another and then finished this part of the Dark Days challenge with a shepherds pie.

SOUTH (MD, VA, NC, SC, GA)  with Emily from Sincerely, Emily

The South Region certainly wasn’t slowed down by the holiday hustle and bustle of last week.

All except for a few of her seasoning, AnnieRie (MD) From AnnieRei Unplugged has used all local ingredients – again!  Heirloom tomatoes with goat cheese, basil, olive oil and balsamic. Sweet potato gnocchi with maple syrup and sage brown butter. Maple pork sausage with onions and peppers. Boordy Reserve Chardonnay. She was thrilled to find local spelt and took advantage of it by making homemade sweet potato gnocchi. What a treat. Visit her blog to see her recipes and also her “local resource” page.

Susan (VA) from Backyard Grocery made two meals to share. Susan treated herself to some local celeriac (very most favorite vegetable) this past week and made herself a special meal. Pepper crusted venison and celery root fries. After cooking the venison backstrap, she made a lovely sauce by deglazing the pan with red wine. Taking advantage of the deglazing sauce she added sliced red onion and let it saute in the flavorful mixture.

For Susan’s second meal she cooked up a Christmas Kale and Sweet Potato Stew with venison. Hitting a couple of her local markets she found everything she needed for her Christmas stew. I imagine her house smelled wonderful as this stew cooked in her slow cooker. Her combination of ingredients and the spices she chose was sure to be a hit (cumin and coriander). Drop by her blog and check out both of her meals, detailed recipes and her local resources.

Victoria (MD) from The Soffritto was in dire need of some whole grains and vegetable after a past weekend of feasting so she made up a life saving Pumpkin Farro Risotto. Using many local things from her backyard and coming from the depths of the freezer, the only not-so local ingredient was the farro. Pumpkin puree, chicken stock, honey, thyme and garlic – I can just smell her sauce bubbling away on the stove. Stop by her blog to see details on her meal and more photos.

Rebecca (VA) from Eating Floyd prepared some beautiful kale pasta and used homegrown tomato sauce from the freezer. Using kale from a local farm, she has preserved some of it by making kale chips. Crushing those chips into millions of small pieces she added them to her homemade pasta along with local flour. What a great way to get more nutrients and vitamins into your meal!  For her sauce she used a frozen packet of their herbed and slow roasted tomatoes mixed with homemade homegrown basil pesto. What would we all do without our freezers? Visit her blog for her wonderful tutorial & photos on her pasta making

Jessica (SC) at Eat.Drink.Nourish. Using lots of local foods again, Jessica has made Pecan Crusted Fried Quail served with Simple Sides (Buttery Rice and Sautéed Chard.) The quail looks crunchy and fabulous. She used crushed local pecans and panko to get the nice coating. Local rice! How nice. And some fresh chard from her parent’s garden made for a wonderful meal. Where did she get her local rice – go visit her blog and find out!

Kim (NC) from Flight of the Seabirds focused on a local Christmas meal. Beer baked ham, Mashed and roasted sweet potatoes with garlic and onions (all local). For another local side dish she diced carrots, added broccoli and garlic and roasted them together. She used local stone ground whole wheat flour and made biscuits and then finished off the meal with a nice plum cake. Visit Kim’s blog to see photos or her dishes and also check out where she found her local foods.

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LOWER NEW ENGLAND/MID-ADLANTIC (NY, CT, DC, NJ and England)
with The Other Emily, from Tanglewood Farms

Wow! I’m so impressed with this crew. Some of the other recappers have talked about waning participants but this group is certainly going strong!

Samantha (NY) over at Listen, Foodie has been keeping it simple with roasted sweet potatoes, camembert and cabbage tossed into scrambled eggs. She seems to be having the same problem I am. It’s not the dark days cooking that we are finding challenging; it’s writing about the dark days cooking!

Sophie (CT) from Late Bloomers Farm went all out by making her own soup stock from the Thanksgiving turkey bones. What a cool dish! She also listed all of the local sources for her ingredients, with links to web sites. Very helpful!

Angela (DC) at Bumble Lush had praise for the fresh taste of the local eggs that she used in her SOLE omelet. She also grew her peppers and tomatillo herself and found some ingredients at the local farmer’s market to finish off her breakfast omelet. There’s nothing wrong with quick and simple, especially if it contains SOLE ingredients!

I have to preface this by stating that I LOVE this photograph. There is something so wintery about pears, carrots and parsnips. YUM! Stacey (DC) over at Fessenden Farm whipped up a delicious sounding soup using these gems and some ginger from a local farmer. I honestly can’t wait to try this myself!

Herbed Bean and Sausage Stew? Sounds delicious! It seems like people are settling into their wintery hibernations by making soups and stew aplenty. Monica (NJ) at Monica Tries To Cook tried her hand at this stew from the New York Times, using local and organic ingredients. Unfortunately she wasn’t happy with the results after over cooking the beans a bit so that the soup thickened. Her sister actually loved the soup, so that’s a happy note to end on! Her meal the following week, Pinto Bean and Veggie chili, was much more to her liking.

Karen (NJ) over at Prospect the Pantry is supplying some incredibly inspiring recipes over at her blog. She has posted about some fantastic looking Tuna with fennel, as well as Tomato, fennel and carrot soup. She used her fennel in several recipes and had some great ways to use it. She also made a vegetarian shepherd’s pie, substituting cabbage for the meat base in her recipe and topping it with some adorable brussels sprouts from her garden.

Tamika (NY) at subRural Alchemy is thinking soups as well, and whipped up a parsnip and butternut squash soup, with warm kale salad (I may have to try this one tonight – we still have salvable kale in our garden!) She also posted some great thoughts on why she has joined the Dark Days Challenge in the first place. What can I say? I’m a sucker for soap boxes. 🙂

Gardening to Preserve‘s Kaytee (NY/NH) did several projects in the kitchen. First she used local carrots, turnips and potatoes and roasted them with bacon. She also made kale chips and parsnip fritters. She also suspects the less-than-flavorful bacon in her recipes may be that way because it wasn’t the good local stuff. (I know how it goes to have stuff sitting around in your freezer that you have to use.) Dark Days is all about learning, though!

Kate (CT) from Snowflake Kitchen posted a brief recap from her past three Dark Days meals which included short ribs and mashed potatoes, breakfast for dinner (one of my favorites), and potato leek soup, which she makes with no butter or cream so it’s a little easier on the stomach. What a fantastic assortment of meals!

As a meat eater, I can’t help but be totally in love with this photograph from Barefoot City Girl‘s Reamika (England). What a beautiful example of oxtail soup, she has posted! She even included a written recipe in the post, and I look forward to trying it, since I’ve never made oxtail before.

Jessica (NY) over at Cross Creek Family Farm Made a garlic, rosemary chicken with maple butternut squash that sounds just drool-worthy. Most of her ingredients were home-grown, including her very own cornish cross chicken.

I hope I got everybody this week! I’m super inspired by these posts to get into my own kitchen. Great job, guys!

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Ohio Valley
with Susy Morris from Chiot’s Run
(click on the photos to be taken to post with recipe)

It’s so great that these groups are broken down into regions because I often recognize some of the farms participants are sourcing from. Like Allison, I too purchase butter from Hartzler’s Dairy and we occasionally have Great Lakes Beer in the house like Gabe. I must say, my group is making this SOLE eating thing looks easy and tasty, especially since this last few weeks included the holidays. I’m very impressed with the range of meals, nothing boring here. They cooked everything from lambchops to gingerbread!

Gabe from life, from the ground up. kicked off the second recaps with sirloin and roasted delicata squash from his own garden. For his next DD meals he cooked up some shepherd’s pie with beef and local beer, you really can’t go wrong in these cold climates with meat braised with beer, it’s the perfect warming meal on a cold winter night! For the last meal there was a quick but delicious looking red and sweet potato hash. Personally hash is one of my go-to meals when we need something quick.

Dave from Our Happy Acres kicked off the second series of DD meals with baked chicken from a local farm with sides of roasted sweet potatoes and komatsuna from his own garden. For his second meal pork scallopini with turnips and shredded kale (I have to admit, I haven’t had many turnips show up on my plate, I should look into them for one of my DD meals).

Michelle from SOLE for the Soul had the most wonderful looking balsamic pork loin and beans/cashews on the side.

Allison from The Life of a Novice started off with a frittata, though she had to forgo the bacon because her husband was fasting for a procedure. For her second meal she purchased chicken patties from a local farm and sided them with broccoli from her garden and peaches she canned in the summer – which sounds like a perfect combination to me.

Christina from C & J Homemade had the most wonderful looking ingredients: I purchased local, organic fingerling potatoes, brussels tops and raw milk cheddar from Clarion River Organics, along with my usual creamline milk and pastured eggs and she whipped them up into a delicious meal. The purple potatoes in particular were quite stunning!

Margo from Thrift at Home came in with three delicious meals. Roasted sweet potatoes with lots of salt & pepper (just the way I like them), collard greens cooked long and slow with sweet onion, salt, hot sauce, and finished with a splash of vinegar and to round it off a strong dill pickle. She finished it off with some gingerbread topped with homemade ice cream and peaches. Now that looks like a meal we’d be eating here at Chiot’s Run! For her second meal she made the most wonderful looking latkes, with a side salad and some pie for dessert. Seeing her latkes frying in the cast iron skillet inspired me to make some of these with some of the homegrown potatoes in my pantry. When I saw her third meal I knew we’re somehow related, every meal she sounds exactly like something I’d cook up as well! She transformed some long skinny beets by roasting them and pickling them. Those were enjoyed on the side with roasted brussels sprouts and cottage potatoes – which are two of my favorite DD dishes.

Last but not least, Jenelle from Delicious Potager came in with lambchops with roasted potatoes. They looked so good, I’ll definitely be looking for some lamb next time I’m at the market to give this recipe a try! For her second DD meal, she had turkey and dumplings, which tops the list of my favorite winter meals. I’d gladly head on over to Jenelle’s house for dinner any time!

Other participants in the Ohio Valley Group that I didn’t get meals from (if you blogged them add the links in the comment section below).
Put Em’ Up: A Chronicle of Making Stuff
Bits of my Life
Our Rural Home
Martha who’ll be adding her meals in the comments

We hope you enjoy traveling around and reading about the EAST participants and what they prepared for the challenge. Be sure to click on the links to their blogs to read more about where they are finding their local ingredients for their meals. Not only will your read about their individual challenges, but also find some local resources that maybe you didn’t know about.

It is exciting to see that a few of the individual blogs have started their own pages listing local resources. What a great source of information.

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Dark Days Challenge: Week 3 – EAST recappers SOLE Meals

This week the “WEST” is doing a detailed recap for their Dark Days Challenge participants. Be sure to go and check out the companion post today and see what exciting meals they have all cooked up.

Here you will be able to get a glimpse into the meals that the “EAST” recappers have prepared.

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So far, I (Emily from Sincerely, Emily) have been doing fairly well during the Dark Days Challenge. From my week 1 pork roast I saved the bones and the drippings and froze them so they could be stretched into another meal by making broth and turning it into a nice healthy soup. I have been trying to grow as much of our food as I can, so you will see me using a lot of the same things over and over again. We had a very hard spring and fall for growing. No rain at all for months and months left me with very few things growing. We ate a lot of what grew fresh out of the garden, but there were a few things that produced well. The few things that did well I decided to water. I was able to freeze southern-type peas and a variety of peppers, so those will be the “stars” of many of my meals. Right now I have a great winter garden growing. Only a few things are mature out there right now (chard, bunching onions and kale) so you will be seeing a lot of those things in my meals until more things start to mature and are ready to eat. I could go to a farmer’s market and get other things, but I prefer to live with what we have and make the most of it. At least for right now.

Over the past 2 years I was really struggled to find local meat and milk. I would ask everyone… people in line at the grocery store. Guys at the gas station filling their big truck with gas. The lady at the post office. Anyone sitting in the lobby at the shop where I have my oil changed. Nothing. Couldn’t find any leads or contacts. I hit upon the right person (eventually) while at one of the herbs groups I was with. RealFood SA was the answer. It is a co-op organized through a yahoo group. People share information, they have set up links and organize group purchase for a better price mainly buying in bulk for a better price. I happened to join up when there was a post from a local rancher about meat. Not only is the ranch within 100 miles (65 miles from me) but she does a delivery about 15 miles from my house.

In preparing our soup, I searched through the freezer and decided to add Anaheim peppers and green and red bell pepper that I had frozen from the garden. I also used some of the frozen southern-type peas from the garden. I cubed some beef. This is from the local rancher I mentioned above. At the last minute, before we ate, I tossed in some chopped chard fresh from the garden. Sole, Organic, Local and Ethical – it was a great meal.

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Here at Chiot’s Run we’ve been eating Dark Days Meals for almost every meal, breakfast and dinner (we only eat 2 meals a day here). We follow the Nourishing Traditions way of eating so I’m very thankful to have great local sources for raw milk, cheese, and meat. Earlier this fall I ordered a half a hog and we picked it up last week. As a result, I have pork as a meat choice now instead of just venison as usual. I made some of my own bacon from the pork belly and we’ve been enjoying that with some eggs from the local farm for delicious breakfasts.

This past week for dinner a few nights we had pastured beef liver. I don’t know why liver gets such a bad rap, it’s quite tasty and it’s super healthy. We enjoyed ours smothered with caramelized homegrown onions over mashed potatoes. The mashed potatoes were made with homegrown potatoes, local butter, homegrown garlic, local raw milk cheese and a little raw milk. I find a salad goes well with liver, it helps balance it out. We had some delicious mini butter head lettuces grown by a local farmer. The lettuce was topped with a homemade yogurt herb salad dressing to add some probiotics to the meal.

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Emily from Tanglewood here. We’ve been pretty lame as far as the Dark Days meals go so far. We’ve managed some simple meals like nachos and omelettes, but beyond that… well… I’ve been slacking. Between my funky teaching schedule and my husbands increasingly compounding deadlines (both professional and personal) we’ve been eating out a lot this past week or so.

Still, there is an underlying Dark Days theme, behind our slacking. We’ve been trying out a number of local mom-and-pop restaurants that focus on whole, real foods, many of which are seasonal! We live in a great place for it, too. We’re just 15 minutes from Ann Arbor, Michigan, and 40 minutes from Detroit, Michigan. Both cities have tremendous slow food movements, so it’s not hard to find seasonal food.

Our latest discovery?

Frita Batidos in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Mmm.

Their menu is small and influenced heavily by Cuban and Honduran cuisine, though it’s not really specifically one or the other. Their Fritos are sandwiches with a patty of meat or other protein (mmm, chorizo), with sweet chili sauce and any number of other toppings (gosh I love the cilantro lime salsa) and then topped with fresh fritos – french fries! The whole thing is served on a brioche roll. They also offer sandwiches on an authentic cuban bread made with local, pasture raised lard. You may not think this sounds amazing, but it is truly fantastic. They get all of their meat from small, local farms and much of their produce as well. I strongly suggest that, if you feel like a local, ethically sound place to eat in Ann Arbor, you check them out!

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Have you been cooking along with the Dark Days challenge? How challenging have you found it?

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Dark Days Challenge: Week 2 – East Recap

Now that we have all of our members on board and people are starting to get their Dark Days Meals up on their blogs it’s time to recap all these fabulous meals. For the EAST group this is our ON week, so the member’s meals are listed below. If you’re in the WEST group, check back later today for the DD meals of your leaders and to see if they’ve posted a recap of your meals on their individual blogs. We apologize if we missed your meal, we’re doing the best we can while still trying to iron out all the wrinkles in this challenge. If you are in this group and don’t see your meal listed below add the links in the comment section. Make sure you e-mail links to your group leader by Wed of each week to make sure it’s included in these recaps.

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OHIO VALLEY with Susy from Chiot’s Run
(photos link to respective blog posts – some have recipes,
to read about each meal click on the photo)

These past two weeks were tasty ones here in the Ohio Valley. My group members were cooking up delicious goodness for sure.

Margo from Thrift at Home made two tasty meals: Macaroni and Romanesco and Crock Pot Stroganoff. Shayla from Life On Fire After 40 struggled a bit and is searching LocalHarvest.org and a few other places to find more local ingredients. She managed to get a nice batch of Butternut Squash Soup going for her first meal.

Allison from The Life of a Novice made oven baked grass fed beef patties, roasted beets and roasted purple potatoes. Gabe from life, from the ground up. made delicious maple pork chops with collar greens (now that sounds like a perfectly southern meal to me even though Gabe is in Ohio).

Jenelle from Delicious Potager cooked up some wonderful looking Roasted Butternut Chowder with Apples and Bacon her first week and Butternut Squash Carbonara her second week. Learning to love squash is a great way for us northerners to make it through the Dark Days Challenge with ease!

Other Participants, didn’t get meal e-mails from them, I know a few of them are behind & haven’t officially started yet.
Put Em’ Up: A Chronicle of Making Stuff
Our Rural Home
SOLE for the Soul
C & J Homemade
Martha who’ll be adding her meals in the comments

UPPER NEW ENGLAND with Ryan from Phoenix Hill Farm

It is only the second week and I am already inspired by all the SOLE and TASTY meals my group has been cooking up. I am also excited to see how our 100 mile circles overlap in ingredients.

Barbara  from the crowing hen  is looking forward to embarking on this challenge and hopes that she is opened to a new world that will result in great positive changes as when she participated in the 25 Things for Charity. Her first meal was a simple, potato and carrot with a bit of bacon soup topped with green onions and cider vinegar.

Emily  from finicky farmer had my mouth   watering as soon as I opened her blog to see a big picture of a kale, potato frittata. She combined all the seasonal items I love the most and put them into one meal.

Anne-Marie from green(ish) monkey, feeding a family with an assortment of tastes, cooked up Acadian Quesadillas with homemade buckwheat flatbread/ployes, homegrown butternut squash and a great assortment of fixings, all from local farms and her CSA share.

Fred from grown away started his meal off with a too sweet butternut squash soup that he served with a crostini topped in melted cheddar. The main course was a delicious garlic and horseradish marinated sirloin steak with roasted carrot and turnips.

Sherry from the onion flower made bison stew with dumplings with root vegetables and fresh frozen vegetables from her garden.

Lindsay from  eat local 365 had my mouth watering with her step by step guide to making potato gnocchi with tomato sauce served with arugula, beet, and peach salad and some hard cider.

Lella from 31 and holding found the first week easy as she was able to use her CSA ingredients to make a Pan fried cube steak with roasted root beets, carrots, sweet potatoes and potatoes.

Bryne from You Got Me Cooking made homemade tortillas and burritos. Her burritos started with sour cream, then local beef,  Cabot cheese, and home canned peach salsa.

Stephanie from This Little Monkey cooked up some chicken stew and dumplings all from local ingredients that she found when cleaning out her fridge.

Lindsay from 100 Mile Locavores made what she called a truckstop meal, potato and carrot latkes,  with fried egg and maple breakfast sausage, but I’m not sure I have ever been to a truckstop that has made a meal of such quality.

Bethany from prosperous pantry focused on using up her leftovers from her locally sourced Thanksgiving and made a tasty turkey soup. Amy from My Vegetarian Paradise also made a meal from an assortment of leftovers from Thanksgiving.  Kimble from A Localvore Lost in Urbanity used her new meat CSA to make an herb roasted chicken with a turnip au gratin.

Caitlin from Nine Lives n More made chili, served over rice, with corn bread on the side. Rachel from Great Faith in a Seed prepared bacon, slivered cabbage and sweet potato, sliced apples and caramelized onions fried in a cast-iron pan and sauced up with her homemade maple syrup.

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SOUTH with Emily from Sincerely, Emily

Jes (VA) at Eating Appalachia is creating, sourcing and cooking vegan. She rolled up her sleeves and dug into the fridge and freezer to create a mostly local (and beautiful) meal. Pumpkin Cream Pasta with Kale and Chickpeas.

AnnieRei (MD) at AnnieRei Unplugged cooked up a spectacular local salad, sweet potato galette service with local turkey utilizing her local CSA and a local winery too. Visit her blog for links to her local sources.

Monika (NC) at Windy City Vegan has prepared a sprouted tofu with red bell peppers, shitake mushrooms, caramelized onion and shredded roasted brussel sprouts. How about adding some local while miso to toast? Check out her blog and see what she is up to.

Susan (VA) at Backyard Grocery made marinated smoked venison, compliments of her bow-hunting hubbie and made radish chips on the side. Go see her recipes for the radish chips, I don’t know about you, but I am inspired!

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Rebecca (VA) at Eating Floyd has made a beautiful pan fried trout (local!) complete with homemade tartar sauce. She added homegrown roast butternut squash and homegrown canned green beans to her meal. If that wasn’t enough, so look at her beautiful and artistic apple dumplings for dessert.

Liz (VA) at Family Foodie Survival Guide prepared a salad, not just any salad, but a steak salad a la Nicoise! Utilizing foods from their garden and local farmers market and farms. Visit her blog to directly link to her local gems.

Jessica (SC) at Eat. Drink. Nourish.  presented a roasted pork loi with cauliflower, carrots and pearl onions. Using one pot from stove top to oven she has more time to enjoy eating her meal (and her husband only has to wash up on pot!)

Jackie (NC) at Southern Fried Goodness cooked up a huge, I mean HUGE Sunday Brunch/ Blueberry buckwheat pancakes, spinach & cheese frittata  and rounded it off with sausage patties.  Stop by her blog to see where she sources her local ingredients, including organic wheat berries and flour!!!

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Victoria (MD) from The Soffritto has a great organic local grocery near by. She prepared bison patty melts with roasted vegetables with homemade marinara sauce where she used her homemade chili powder. Visit her blog to read about her experience.

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LOWER NE/MID-ATLANTIC with Emily from Tanglewood Farm

Sophie from Late Bloomers Farm has been working with spaghetti squash to start out the season, first in alfredo sauce and then as spaghetti squash latkes – how unique!

Angela from Bumble Lush Kitchen Garden told me that she was making “simple” meals as if it wasn’t enough effort, but honestly her meals seemed just fine and dandy to me! She started with some ground beef stuffed peppers. Her next post was about a delicious looking potato, pepper, tomatillo and spinach omelet, with rosemary. Yum!

Stacey from Fessenden Farmstead has enjoyed pork chops with fig jam from her community garden, and has been using lots of greens from her garden. She also made a beautiful roast chicken with roast potatoes.

Monica from Monica Tries to Cook made a breakfast-for-dinner omelette from local eggs, sausage and cheese. The omelette in the picture was stuffed with sausage.. looked good to me!

It would appear that Karen from Prospect the Pantry is no stranger to cooking with local, seasonal foods. Her entries were amazingly detailed, including turkey hash (I didn’t even know you can make a hash from turkey. Cool!), parsnip pear soup and ginger-scallion fish on a bed of chard and squash. Her posts include beautiful photos and detailed recipes.

Lea and Derek from A Lighter Footprint made a meal of pumpkin pappardelle with sausage bechamel, crimini mushrooms, arugula and roast squash. This meal sounds as intricate as it was beautiful!

Samantha from Listen, Foodie! has diligently eaten local foods, multiple meals a day, including poblano pepper porridge for breakfast and roasted cabbage for dinner.

Shirra from Knit and Be Happy managed to make it to the farmers’ market for her meal which consisted of venison sausage with peppers and butternut squash with rosemary. She also picked up some seckel pears at the market, as well as local honey. She’s a lucky lady to have access to such a nice market.

Jenny from The Suburban Road Less Travelled used brussels sprouts from her local co-op as well as carrots from her own garden to make soup (along with a few other veggies), though she did have an adventure finding her frozen broth, mistaking tomato sauce for it at one point. While she did mention that this wasn’t the best soup she’s ever made, it was a great example of using seasonal foods! The second week she made a meal of locally pastured pork, pulled and mixed with barbeque sauce, and honeyed beets using honey and beets from her own yard!

Kaytee from Gardening to Preserve used her own barbeque sauce to whip up some sloppy joes, but when she discovered she didn’t have bread that fit the SOLE profile she decided to use up some sprouting potatoes to make sloppy joe potatoes! Necessity is the mother of all, eh?

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We hope you enjoy traveling around the regions, reading about the East participants and what they prepared for the challenge. Be sure to click on the links to their blogs to read more about their individual challenges in preparing their dishes. Not only will your read about their individual challenges, but also find some local resources that maybe you didn’t know about.

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Dark Days Challenge: Week 1 – West

Welcome Week One of the Dark Days Challenge, and to the recapping team for the “West” Group! (Pretty much everyone from Indiana to the Pacific). Don’t forget to check out the companion post from the Easterners!

Starting next Sunday we will start recapping and sharing what some of the DDC participants are up to. If you just can’t wait that long or you want to read what others are chatting about, then head over to Twitter (#darkdaysfood) or Facebook. You will find the link on the tool bar to the right. We encourage everyone to join in the conversations that are flying around out there. If you are interested in joining the challenge, you still have until the end of the day today, December 4^th,  to sign up. Head over to (not so) Urban Hennery to join. If you don’t have a blog and want to join in, that is fine, be sure to leave a comment and tell us all what you are up to and how you are doing when we start our recap next Sunday.

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Since I, the Other Emily (ooh, that has a Coraline feel to it – spooky!) from Tanglewood, do tons of baking, I figured I’ll focus many of my Dark Days posts on how I’ve been adapting my recipes to use local ingredients. It’s impossible to find local GMO-free sugar here in Michigan, though we are a huge producer of beet sugar. Unfortunately not long ago, farmers received the O-K to introduce genetically modified (Monsanto-bred) sugar beets and I haven’t been able to bring myself to buy local sugar since. There was some push to farm organic sugar beets locally, but it seems to have died out and without the land or equipment needed, it’s pretty impossible to do on my own.

Lucky for me, there is lots of Michigan Honey! We have several hives just down the road on some fruit orchards, and this time of year we buy our honey from the local feed mill (where they have an amazing little selection of locally produced foods and supplies) or our local winter market..

So earlier this week I used local, cold processed honey; sustainable, organic and local flour; local, grass-fed butter; and a smidgen of locally grown culinary lavender to make some spectacular short bread. Unfortunately I was unable to find locally grown substitute for rice flour or potato starch for this batch, so I admit I settled simply for organic rice and ground it myself in the food processor (verrrry noisy!)

Unfortunately I have no photos of the finished batch. They went into the welcome arms (and mouths) of various friends.. very quickly, too!

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After a family and friend filled Thanksgiving last week, I (Miranda from An Austin Homestead) really felt the need to have some down sized dinners for a change. I cooked up a huge vat of purple cabbage soup which is lasting for several weeks as every or every other dinner for me (and sometimes the husband when he submits to soup for dinner). Cabbage soup is surprisingly filling, and all the onions and hot peppers add a lot of vitamin C, metabolism boosters and of course, flavor to this soup.

The cabbage, leeks, carrots and garlic were grown by a local organic farm (where my hubs worked this Summer), and an onion or two came from our Austin garden, along with all the herbs. Not local anymore, but homegrown nonetheless! I will admit, those floaty peas and corns: frozen. Woops. Product of the USA at least……   keep trying, Miranda.

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Since Unearthing this Life has moved from Tennessee to Michigan, my world has been turned upside down. I left behind a 2000 sq ft garden (which did not last the drought anyway), gave away all my chickens, turkeys, and guinea fowl, and lost the opportunity to forage a lot of goodies from our property. Living in a rental with about 20 square feet of lawn is quite the change. Fortunately I was able to jump right into the wonderful local scene here to stock up on items I left behind in Tennessee.

While a majority of our meals contain at least one local ingredient, I went out of my way yesterday to make a completely local brunch. It was embarrassingly simple, actually. Local, eggy fried eggs with luscious yellow yolks cooked in butter. The butter came from our raw milk share – and extra was smothered on our toast with raspberry jam I put up this summer. Brunch was finished off with some of the last of the sausage brought up from Tennessee when we were members of a local meat CSA. I’ll be sad to see the last pound go, but I am excited to sample some of the newly local wares available here in town.

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My challenge with this Challenge is to really zero in on local–how I feel about the terms Seasonal, Local, Organic, Sustainable, Ethical and Whole will be the focus of my next two posts. As you know by now, I tend to wax philosophical here on NDiN; you’ll find my recipes at Mahlzeit and Sconeday.

I think of myself as a late-comer to sustainable living, until people point out to me I’ve been growing food for more than 2 decades, and I recall things like the fact that I didn’t know about frozen French fries until I was in college. My roommates pulled a bag out of the freezer and I was amazed! What is this marvelous convenience! At home, we had always made fries by boiling sliced potatoes in oil. Even at McDonald’s they boiled the fries in oil. My roommates wanted to know, rather disdainfully, how else you were supposed to make French fries. Gee, I dunno. Um, fry them?

Frozen, baked French “fries.” Who knew!?

However, I still prefer to actually fry my French fries.

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Don’t forget to stop by to see what the Eastern “Dabblers” are up to today!

PARTICIPANTS
“WEST CONTRIBUTORS”

Northwest
leader: Miranda from An Austin Homestead
Luscious Domestic
round here at chez hates
Farming Mom
four four ten
Wisegoat Acres
The World In My Eyes
The Improbable Farmer
Nico’s Tiny Kitchen
Save the Rind
Knit & Nosh
Kitsap Farm to Fork
The Reluctant Blogger
Sustainable Eats
(not so) Urban Hennery
bee creative
Christin will be maintaining progress via email and comments

Upper Midwest
leader: Xan from Malzheit
If Not Here…
a girl named gus
OfBaking
Aagaard Farms
Rubus raspberry
Minnesota Locavore
Nordic Walking Queen
Loving Our Guts
Kittycafe
Backyard Farms
Randomly Ruthless
Keeping Local with the Joneses
Woo-hoo Tofu
Squash Blossom Farm
Toteleeding

Midwest
Leader: Jennifer Pack from Unearthing this Life
Small Wonder Farm
20 Something Allergies
Happy Home
The Local Cook
Detroit Cooks
Dog Hill Kitchen
The Frugal Homestead
Mother’s Kitchen
Dee Dee managing via comments and email

West
leader: Sage from The Flowerweaver
Cortina Creek Farm
The Devine Kitchen
Canning with Kids
Not From a Box
Rosemary and Roux
Kitchen Solo
Handcrafted With Altitude
d.i. wine and dine
itsjusttoni’s blog
Eat Drink Better
Throwback Road
Stoney Acres

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Dark Days Challenge: Week 1 – East

Since we have so many participants in the Dark Days Challenge this year we’re breaking it down into two different groups (East and West) for the participant recaps and for the writers here at Not Dabbling.  No doubt you’ve already received an e-mail from your host, but if you haven’t comment on one of these two Sunday Posts please!  If you haven’t signed up today is the deadline.  Head on over the (not so) Urban Hennery and do it! If you’d like to know which group you are in, head on over to the Dark Days Challenge page and find out.

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Here at Chiot’s Run we’re seasoned Dark Days eaters. Over the past couple years I’ve been working hard to shift our diet to more local seasonal food and thus about 90% of our meals during the winter are Dark Days appropriate. As I try to be more mindful I notice the subtle changes in what my body tells me it wants. In the winter it craves bitter greens, starchy potatoes, roasted rood vegetables, long simmered soups and much richer food. For my first Dark Days Meal I used the bones and leftovers from our Thanksgiving smoked turkey and made a rich smokey stock, it smelled much more like ham stock and turkey stock. This stock was divided up into 3 batches, one went in the freezer, one was made into a lentil soup with lots of homegrown carrots and spinach and the last of it was simmered with homegrown potatoes and onions into a wonderfully simple potato soup (recipe over at Chiot’s Run today).  I put the plate outside to grab a few quick shots with decent light as the sun was starting to set in the West.

While I was at Local Roots in Wooster, OH I found these beautiful little mini butter head lettuces. Instead of my usual balsamic dressing I whipped up a buttermilk herb dressing with fresh buttermilk from the farm along with fresh herbs and garlic from the garden. It was simply delightful! As you can see after finishing my dressing it was dark, so this was a true Dark Days meals enjoyed by the warm glow of the dining rooms light after the sun had already gone down.

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On Wednesday I (Sincerely, Emily) made a very simple, yet wonderful local pork roast. I rubbed it down with local olive oil and threw in some onions, sage and thyme. It would be so easy to reach in the cupboard to grab a bag of organic noodles or make some noodles, or even toast up some homemade bread – STOP – those are not local. Instead, I am lucky to live in South Texas where I can have a wonderful winter garden. I walked out back and picked some fresh chard and sauteed that up. Perfect. A great local meal. You can read more of the details and find links to TX olive oil at Sincerely, Emily.

Ready to go into the oven

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While we were in the Smokey Mountains for Fall Break, I (DeeDee) bought a beautiful cheese pumpkin from an orchard we visited.  Being much more inexperienced in real food than the other contributors here, I’ve (gasp) NEVER used a pumpkin for anything other than a jack o lantern!  A few days ago, I baked the pumpkin and ran it through the Victorio Strainer I have “indefinitely borrowed” from my mom.  Thursday evening I made it into soup!  I’ve always wanted to try pumpkin soup… I loved it, but unfortunately the 5 others in my family weren’t fans.

This challenge is truly a new experience for me.  I’m using it to prove to myself and my family that we can eat good, real, local food without spending a lot of money.  I paid $2.50 for the pumpkin… although it wasn’t actually local from where I live, it was local from where I bought it on vacation so I’m going to say that counts!

Last Saturday I took our two younger boys down to the Winter Farmer’s Market at  Trader’s Point Creamery  to buy some vegetables  and some of their creamline milk (ingredients I needed for the soup).  I must admit the one non local ingredient in my soup was store bought maple syrup.  I’m still going to consider this a big success for my first week… it’s progress!

My oldest son loves pumpkin seeds, so we also soaked the seeds in saltwater over night and baked them.  He is responsible for packing his lunch for school, and each day this week he took the pumpkin seeds until they were gone!  They were a much bigger hit than the soup, but we’ll keep trying…  Here’s to better luck next week!  In the mean time, I have a lot of soup to eat!

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If you’re in the EAST group for the Dark Days Challenge please post a link to your meal in the comments below, we’d LOVE to see what you’ve been cooking up!

PARTICIPANTS

“EAST CONTRIBUTORS”

Ohio Valley
leader: Susy Morris from Chiot’s Run
life, from the ground up.
The Life of a Novice
Put Em’ Up: A Chronicle of Making Stuff
Life On Fire After 40
Our Rural Home
SOLE for the Soul
Thrift at Home
Delicious Potager
Martha who’ll be adding her meals in the comments

Mid-Atlantic
leader: Emily Jenkins-Bastian from Tanglewood Farm
Late Bloomers Farm
Bumble Lush Kitchen Garden
Fessenden Farmstead
Monica Tries to Cook
Prospect the Pantry
A Lighter Footprint
Listen, Foodie!
NOFA-NY Locavore Challenge
NY Locavore Challenge
Knit and Be Happy
the suburban road less traveled
Belle Jar Canning
Gardening to Preserve
Kitchen Jam
Barefoot City Girl
Sunny Hill Farm Blog
Cross Creek Farm Family
From Scratch Club
Snowflake Kitchen
Living my Dreamlife on the Farm

New England
leader: Ryan from Phoenix Hill Farm
EatLocal365
The Finicky Farmer
31 and holding
You Got Me Cookin’
Vegetarian Paradise
Grown Away – Adventures in Food
Nine Lines n More
Whittled Down
The Luddite’s Apiary
Green(ish) Monkeys
100 Mile Locavores
Great Faith in a Seed
The Onion Flower
This Little Monkey Went to Market
Adventures of the Kitchen Ninja
Nicole Carey’s Blog
the crowing hen
Prosperous Pantry

South
leader: Emily Sauls from Sincerely, Emily
Post-Industrial Eating
The Soffritto
AnnieRie Unplugged
Southern Fried Goodness
Flight of the Seabirds
Windy City Vegan
Lizard’s Hollow
Eat. Drink. Nourish.
Keeping Up With K
40 shades of green
Eating Appalachia
Backyard Grocery
Family Foodie Survival Guide
Eating Floyd
Nancy – maintaining progress via emails and comments

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The Ethics of Honey

Here in the Southwest, winter mostly comes at night due to our diurnal climate. It isn’t unusual to be wearing a t-shirt during the day and a coat and thermals when the sun goes down. We’ve had a couple of light freezes but the trees (well, the ones that didn’t expire from lack of rain) are still clasping their leaves. Some years it takes the new leaves of spring to push them off, thus bypassing the meaning of ‘fall’. We’re still having an Indian Summer.

 

One of my few winterizing tasks is to put an entrance reducer on my beehives. This effectively cuts the bees’ front door down to a couple of bee-widths, helping to keep out the draughts and ensuring mice will not be able to make themselves a cozy home when the bees are less active.

With the recent rains we are suddenly seeing the flowers of spring, summer, and fall blooming at once. This has confounded our honeybees, some of which recently decided to swarm. Farmer Rick, my husband, was on hand outside to hear the loud drone of ten thousand bees flying overhead. Having searched for several hours, sadly I could not locate them.

 

You see, bees typically swarm in the spring when foodstuff is plentiful. Swarming is a natural process by which a large hive divides itself. Swarming at the wrong time is another example of how climate change is affecting the bee populations–and ultimately our food supply, since bees provide much of pollination.

In ‘packing their bags’ for the journey, bees are only able to take a little honey in their stomachs, so to swarm this late they set themselves up to fatal exposure to the cold nights and starvation because they have left their pantry behind. Their best hope is for a beekeeper to capture them. There is a saying:

A swarm of bees in May is worth a load of hay;
A swarm of bees in June is worth a silver spoon;
A swarm of bees in July isn’t worth a fly.

A swarm in November is, well, just crazy!—not only from the standpoint of the bees survival, but also in terms of cost to the beekeeper that captures them. Last November I captured my first swarm, mainly for the challenge but also because it was terrifying students by its proximity to the local school. Once I had them re-homed in a hive I had the expense of feeding them sugar syrup for five months to keep them alive. I’ve also had the expense (and extra work) of feeding all my hives sugar syrup through the year-long drought.

 

We’ve all been reading the news about the tainted honey from China being foisted on American markets from lack of oversight–and when you come right down to it–a lack of ethics, putting profit before people. But there are other unethical beekeeping practices of which you might not be aware.

There are beekeepers–those that put profit before bees—that would not have picked up a November swarm, and will even let their bees starve to death because it is cheaper to buy a new package of bees come spring than to outlay the expense of feeding through a drought. In areas not experiencing drought, there are those beekeepers who will rob all the honey rather than leave the obligatory 60 lbs per hive to see their bees safely through the winter. Instead they will feed them sugar syrup because ultimately sugar is 25 cents a pound and honey sells for $5 a pound, maybe more if you can tout it as local.

People have been calling wanting to buy my honey. The problem, of course, is there isn’t any–my bees have put up sugar syrup. Yet there are certainly beekeepers that will gladly extract the honey-flavored sugar syrup and sell it as honey or cut what they have with something from who knows where.

In 1900 more honey was exported from my area than any place on Earth. In fact, it was our local honey that won first place at the 1900 World Fair in Paris which gave the world the first talking picture, escalator, diesel engine, and the iconic Eiffel Tower. Today, there is little evidence of my area being the Honey Capitol of the World. I’ve noticed the one remaining commercial apiary has recently taken ‘locally produced’ off their label. I can only surmise what this means.

So when I do have honey to sell, it won’t be cheap (and I’ll still be selling it at a loss), but it will be SOLE (Sustainable, Organic, Local and ETHICAL)

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Sunday Photos: Dark Days

Have you ever tried to source local ingredients during the long, dark days of winter? If so, you know it can be tricky and wonderfully rewarding. Well this year we have a challenge for you!

We are all so very excited to announce that we’ll be joining Laura, at (not so) Urban Hennery, for her Dark Days Challenge! This is the 5th year of the challenge and the rules are simple. From Sunday, November 27th, 2011 to Saturday, March 31st, 2012, cook one meal each week featuring SOLE (sustainable, organic, local, ethical) ingredients, write about it on your blog and email a link to your post.

If you’ve ever joined us for the REAL Food Challenge, you know that it can be difficult to find whole foods locally during the coldest season. But fear not! We’ll be grouping all those playing along regionally, so that you can share resources. We’ll be sharing recipes, successes and the trials of searching for local ingredients. Sign up and view all the rules at her blog, Urban Hennery, then follow the weekly recaps here at Not Dabbling in Normal.

To get us started, here’s a little photographic motivation for you!

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For me, Jennifer, eating locally has been something I’ve worked on since the first REAL Food Challenge. Living on a decent-sized property in Tennessee made it easy for me to grow most of our vegetables and raise poultry. Now that I’m renting property in Michigan, things aren’t as easy as walking to my backyard for a meal. I’ve had to make an effort to find more sources for those vegetables, but western Michigan is great for supporting a local lifestyle. We’ve already sourced local raw dairy, eggs, and meat, and the farmer’s market is still going strong.

As Emily of Tanglewood Farm has mentioned, it’s even a great place to find locally grown and ground wheats and other grains. I’ve even thought ahead for winter and stashed some long-keeping items like ground cherries, apples, carrots, potatoes, and onions. We’ve got a lot of canned goods in storage, and I’ve even been freezing extra milk for lean times in the dead of winter.

While I don’t prepare all meals with local ingredients, I try to make most of our staple foods from local items. I still buy coffees and teas, chocolates, sugar, and several spices that just can’t grow here. I know that I’m personally looking forward to see what everyone comes up with for their own local menus and hope to be able to share some local and regional resources with all of you that live nearby!

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Emily here from Sincerely, Emily. I am looking forward to finding more local foods in my area during the The Dark Days challenge. Last year I joined the READ Food Challenge here at NDIN and I was able to find good sources for local meat, dairy and olive oil and relied a lot on our vegetable garden for a lot of things. I will still continue to try to increase the amount of food we grow ourselves, but I realize that there is a need to have other options. Living in South Texas, we are fortunate to be able to have a long growing season. Most of my fall/winter garden is planted and I will also be able to access fresh vegetables at some of the local farmers markets. I know there are other things I need to concentrate on finding, like grains and flours. I am up for the challenge.

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We’re slow getting into “Dark Days” in Chicago this year with spring-like weather that just won’t stop (it’s 60º/15º at 8 a.m.). I’m (Xan) experimenting with some root cellaring including straw bales over my beets to keep the ground from freezing for, I hope, an extra month, and storing leeks in damp sand in my garage. I’ll try this with parsnips and carrots as well. My larder is a little thin this year, with ingredients for about 40 meals put by in the freezer or canned.  Need to score some more squash! I also belong to a year-round, home delivery CSA, so I’ll be able to get staples like flour, potatoes, and meat from local humane sources.

Three years ago I decided to keep the garden going into October. That turned out to be easy, so the following year I decided to try to do Thanksgiving dinner from only home-grown vegetables. Another snooze, so last year I decided to see if I could make it to January. No problem. At the beginning of May, when the first local vegetables started showing up, I still had about 5 meals left of preserved items.  Ma Ingalls wouldn’t have been impressed, but I thought it was pretty good for a city gurl.

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Since we moved to the Northwest and had to leave our chickens behind, sourcing our protein locally is no longer as easy as walking to the backyard. Instead, we’ve put several pounds of local, grass fed beef in our freezer. My mother bought half a cow that was raised by an old high school friend of mine and graciously offered us some parcels. Along with the beef, we’ll be eating a few canned and frozen ingredients that I was able to put by in the short time we’ve been here, and I hope my husband will catch us at least one more big fish…. he has some learning to do though. These savvy northwest salmon don’t seem to behave the same way as the Texas fish he’s used to. I will definitely be missing my garden this year, and need to find a new source for organic veggies since my husband ‘s farm job ended…. this challenge is going to be a real challenge for me!

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National Dessert Day: Sourcing Sweet (and Smart!) Ingredients

I figured since today is October 14th, National Dessert Day in the States (okay, this is probably made up, but come on… it’s a great excuse, right?), I would post about baking responsibly in Unprocessed October.

Sometimes a girl’s just gotta make a batch of buttercream frosting. Seriously.

This isn’t to say that I believe that all things sweet should be eaten without moderation. I’m a firm believer in less is more, especially when it comes to baked goods. When I bake, I find myself giving away most of the end results simply because I can’t bring myself to eat more than one or two servings myself. I’ve been taking all sorts of baked goods to the horse farm to hoist off into the arms (and mouths) of unsuspecting students and boarders. Did you know that some horses like yellow cake?

Anyway, today I wanted to share some of the ways I’ve been able to source responsible ingredients for the baked goods I’ve been pursuing. If you don’t follow my regular blog, you might not know that I’ve been working lately to develop a number of baked goods and confections (and skills!) to start a market-based bakery next spring. I’ve been baking several different things a week, from cakes to candies to traditional pastries, and more often than not the results end up tossed out for the chickens because I’m insanely picky about my sweets.

One of the easiest ways to find responsible ingredients in your area is to use a basic internet search engine (I prefer Google). For example, when I plug the words “Michigan Flour Company” into the search box and within the first ten results there are three local milling companies! It’s amazing how well the internet works these days.

Basically when I plan to make something that I don’t already have ingredients for, I spend a good hour or two doing internet research to find out what is available locally, what is organic, what is sustainable and what is all of the above. In Michigan we have this amazing small-scale miller called “Jennings Bros” and they sell primarily at markets. Archibald “Archie” Jennings is a fantastic man who loves to share stories of growing up on a dairy farm, and his flours are locally grown, organic and stone-ground in small batches. They grow their own grains and are just about as sustainable as you can get in our area for grain flours, specialty flours and even pastry flours.

Another great way to find ingredients (and I know I’ve mentioned this before) is to just talk to people. Farmers and Farmers’ Market goers alike often LOVE to talk. It’s amazing how many sources I have gleaned just from talking to people at my local market and co-ops.

If you live far enough out from the cities, it’s even possible to source eggs just by wandering the back country roads until you spot a sign for farm eggs for sale, and in many states it is legal to buy eggs directly from the farmers. Or you can go all out and raise chickens or ducks for eggs yourself! Our laying flock consists of various heritage chicken breeds, and next spring our seven Khaki Campbell ducks will be laying in full swing and should provide us with an egg each, daily! Duck eggs are fantastic for baking and if you’ve never tried it, I strongly suggest it.

If you have do to buy non-local and you don’t have a good mom-and-pop co-op or shop around, I’ve found a decent source for backup ingredients can be (dare I say it?) Whole Foods Market, where I’ve been able to find fairly local flours, non-gmo sugars and free trade natural cocoa, which is another difficult ingredient to source. In fact, in some cases I have actually allowed Whole Foods to do a lot of research for me. They pay their own people to go out and source local foods that they can carry in their stores. You can just walk around the stores with a notebook and write down the businesses and farms that are on the the “Made in ______!” stickers and go home to source them more directly! (This is not cheating, however it might be farm-stalking…)

This is how I found the best local butter and milk near us, Calder Dairy. I was having a hard time finding dairy in the area that was small-farm based. We have a number of dairies in Michigan, but none that I could find could boast that they actually knew their cows. They would all source their milk from a gazillion different farms (that might be an exaggeration) and then all of the milk from those gazillion cows would get smushed into a homogeneous sludge they called milk. Okay, I’m a purest – I get that – but in Michigan we aren’t allowed to purchase raw milk, or even pasteurized milk straight from the farms. We have to take what we can get.

Calder Dairy keeps all of their own cows on non-certified mostly-organic pasture (which they are very honest about), and they grow their own hay, and source local grain to supplement their lady-cows. The dairy is open for public visits so you can actually go see the operation and see that the cows are healthy and just about as happy as they can be in a commercial dairy. My favorite part? This 65 year old dairy also offers old fashioned delivery to our door! We get our milk in glass jars and every week we put the empties on the cooler out front and just after noon we hear the dairy truck come rumblin’ up the drive. They even offer “Cream-top” or “natural” unhomogenized milk. It comes with the thick layer of cream at the top of the bottle which can either be shaken into the bottle or used for baking. I love this – I love everything about it!

The biggest sticking (heh) point in sourcing responsible baking ingredients, at least for me, has been sugar. Michigan has been known for it’s beet sugar for a very long time, but in 2008 (I think?) the courts decided to allow genetically modified beets to be grown for sugar in Michigan. Ick. Blech. Ugh. &%#$. Arg. (Am I allowed to say &%#$ on this blog? Hmm.)

There have been a number of movements in Michigan to get gardeners to grow their own sugar, but holy cow that seems like a lot of work to me. Hmm. Then again, I do need another project in my life… maybe I’ll start researching that some more. (Please, somebody talk me out of this!)

Anyway, I have started buying organic cane sugar since it is nearly impossible to find local sugar that is guaranteed GMO free. The fact that it is local at least somewhat makes up for the fact that it is shipped in from far off exotic places and possibly harvested by people with some pretty poor living conditions. Like I said, it’s sticky.

An alternative that I have started exploring is using honey in place of sugar, but in things like buttercream and meringue it’s just not realistic to expect the two types of sugars to behave exactly the same. The honey doesn’t hold it’s stiff form when mixed into eggs and begins to break down quickly in meringues so it has to be served ASAP after finishing – in other words this is not something I can use in baking for market sales. Ah well. I still use it in cookies and cakes to substitute at least part of the sweetener, and because I live in a state with lots of honey farmers (for now) it is easy to get local honey.

So as I continue to experiment with my baked goods I will also continue to develop recipes that include responsible ingredients. It never even crossed my mind to buy conventional or lower quality ingredients. Despite the sometimes added cost of the “good” stuff, it seems logical to me that in order to produce the highest quality and most ecologically responsible baked goods, I often have to sacrifice economy. People who taste my finished goods can taste the difference, and so can I. I prefer to eat my baked goods with a glass of (Calder’s) milk, a smile on my face and a clear conscience.

Have you ever tried to source local ingredients? What has been most difficult for you to source?

Want to read more from Tanglewood Farm? Check out Emily’s blog over at A Pinch of Something Nice where she writes about her experiences with her gardens, her livestock and her leased historical home in SE Michigan.

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