There’s been quite a bit of local cooking going on around here since we moved in, there just hasn’t been time to write about it. Meals have included Kahula Pork Roast (courtesy of Sugar Creek Farm), roast chicken, pork chops, tenderloin steaks and pasta with pesto. Most of those were accompanied by veggies from the freezer or marked “Northwest” at the grocer. We’ve officially dove into the stash of frozen fruits, canned peaches and applesauce as the local fruit has finally reached the point of being sad.
Right now on the stove is the mother of all pots of chicken stock – I think it was 4 carcasses that I pulled out of the freezer tonight. I tossed in carrot, onion, celery, garlic and herbs, some local some not, but all organic. It smells fabulous and I can’t wait to put it in mason jars and tuck it away in the freezer tomorrow morning. I’m guessing it will make about 2.5 gallons all told. Enough to keep us going for another month or two.
Tomorrow night I’m cooking a couple of the scrawny heritage hens using a chicken thigh recipe from Alice Waters. I figure there’s not that much white meat on the birds anyway, they should benefit from the braising in the recipe. Then Sunday night dinner will be pot roast – yum, it makes me hungry just thinking about it.
We’re beginning to make real progress on the freezer stash. Enough so that we’re making plans to order another 1/4 steer and 1/2 pig for delivery later this year. I think we’re going to go with the same farm again for the pork, it’s been amazingly succulent and the roasts have been out of this world. For beef, we’re thinking of calling the farm about a mile up the road that has a sign for pastured beef. I assume that they’re using the local butcher that’s another mile up – it would be quite the local eating coup to have beef not only raised but butchered, cut and wrapped all within 5 miles of home!
I’ve plenty of other news to share, but I think I’ll save it for this weekend. Hope you’re all well, thank you for your patience in waiting for this recap. If I’ve somehow missed you, please leave a comment or drop me an email and I’ll get you added in.
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The East:
Kim, who so nicely wrote the last East recap, definitely made Dark Days proud this time around. That’s a pretty amazing assortment of local meals and foods considering it’s early March in New England. The pasta sounds delicious, any chance we can get a recipe? And Kim? I’m pretty sure none of us are holding your non-local onions against you. I definitely couldn’t survive without onions and the local ones I picked up the other day are definitely a little worse for wear now that we’re in March rather than December.
Wrapping up her February tofu challenge, Nicole made a Chinese Five Spice tofu and veggie stir fry that looks good enough to convince a tofu doubter like me to try. Maybe when I find a local source? Once she was feeling better (sorry to hear the plague found you too Nicole) she tried her hand at pork chops, mushrooms, carrots and sauteed spinach. Another Dark Days star.
Wendy missed the last round-up, but caught up with a post about the meals she had made. She also handed out some thank you’s to the people that inspire her – I’m very flattered to have been included! This time around she made an unintentional local meal featuring ham, baked beans, homemade bread and pickled beets. Welcome back Wendy!
Drowning in eggs, Danielle has been making them into any variety of dishes including egg salad sandwiches and sausage and cheese polenta with poached eggs. Other meals included taco salads and the first of their recently butchered pork that they raised themselves. And if you need a cuteness fix, check out the piglets born last week!
Ed has given me yet another must try recipe, Sweet Potato Galette. The combination of sweet potatoes, cooked greens and blue goat’s milk cheese sounds so good that my mouth is watering right now. As usually, he’s posted step-by-step recipe and photos so you too can indulge in what looks to be creamy potatoey goodness.
After finding irresistably cute lamb chops at the market, Julia turned them into a picture perfect dark days meal. They were marinated and then grilled and served with blue potato fries and a vinegar dipping sauce. The slow roasting beets made their appearance as dessert. And Julia, I couldn’t agree more that cooking seasonally has forced me to learn to cook and enjoy foods I never considered in the past.
Jasmine rejoins us with a hearty beef stew with root vegetables. Making use of the root veggies coming in from her multiple CSA subscriptions, she combined potatoes, turnips, rutabagas, carrots, onions and garlic with local beef. Welcome back Jasmine!
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The West:
Melinda posted her long awaited Meyer Lemon Marmalade recipe for those (Katrina) that were waiting for it. Their local meals have recently included such menus as lentil soup with rice and kale, homemade pizzas, sauteed kale and scallions, orzo with parsley and watermelon radish crudités. As always, be sure to visit Melinda’s blog for all the details including recipe links, photos and more.
Like many of us, Anita doesn’t always have enough freezer space. And perhaps she’s also been hoarding the fruits of summer, afraid to dip into them for fear she’ll run out before spring arrives 
The past couple of weeks have been mandatory freezer fare around her place. Now that they’ve feasted on short-rib ragu, Cornish pasties, rigatoni bolognese, turkey meatballs and chicken pot pie, there’s plenty of space. Obviously Anita’s freezer is magical, right? The meals coming out of ours don’t sound nearly so scrumptious.
It’s been crazy busy around Ellen’s house and they too have been living out of the freezer. Again, her freezer needs to give mine some lessons! We certainly aren’t finding slow cooker vindaloo or honey baked lentils in ours…
Donna made a new discovery a couple of weeks ago, a small corner store 0.7 miles from her house that not only stocks local foods but also labels them by farm. And the prices were better than she expected. I can so relate to the feeling that things are right under your nose but you’ve missed them – it completely describes my frustration so far with moving 15 miles further from the city and looking for local, seasonal produce in March. It’s got to be here, but I sure as hell haven’t found it yet. Anyway, Donna’s meals were pork roast from their pig served with potatoes and salad and the second half of her Valentine’s Day lasagne. She even made her own noodles.
Reflecting on what eating seasonally means to her, Katrina continues to inspire me with her prose and self-examination. Starting with a head of cauliflower that needed a purpose, she transformed it into ginger cauliflower soup. Then she found lentils in the potato drawer and turned them into dahl by combining them with peppers from the freezer and local ginger and garlic. Then to top it off she made Nan to go with the dahl. Wow! Next she visited the Berkeley farmers’ market and found not only delectable local treats, but a thriving festival of enthusiastic participants.
Creating a new tradition of pizza night at her house, Michelle has the kids cooking, decorating and stealthily enjoying family time ever week. Her beautifully written reflection on the “trials” of eating locally during the winter had me alternately nodding, giggling and wishing I lived in Northern California where they already have local tomatoes, strawberries and asparagus. Adding revolution to inspiration, Michelle capped it all off by cooking an entire Mexican feast from scratch (and backyard).
Joan followed-up by making Michelle’s squash tart to start the week off. Then, when having guests!, she tried a new recipe for bean soup making use of local dried beans, baby carrots, onions and arugula. I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to try that one. Last week, after a couple of great experiences with locally owned retailers, she created a simple meal of roasted chicken, onions, potatoes and carrots.
If you’re not familiar with Skagit River Ranch and why they’re such local stars, check out the Shibaguyz review – they pretty much say it all! They’ve been busy making such delectable sounding meals as bean soup with local beans and alder smoked ham and meatloaf and mashed potatoes. And as if they weren’t busy enough, they’ve also been working on giving their garden a “biointensive makeover” to get it ready for planting the summer bounty. For Washington grown and milled flour, check out Blue Bird Farms up in the Methow.
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The Middle:
Anne has been cooking up a local storm, with meals covering almost every food group. Highlights include: pork chops with apples and onions, peach pancakes with bacon, Blizzard breakfast for dinner, oatmeal with grannysmiths and maple sugar, pasta and meatballs, pumpkin soup and ham with colcannon. If nothing else, 20.4 inches of snow certainly forces you to cook what you’ve got, not what you crave.
Farm Mom has been dealing with sick chicks, but still managed to turn in a couple of pretty impressive meals. First up is Chicken Pappardelle with Sun Dried Tomatoes, modified to fit the ingredients at hand of course. And pictured at left is her delicious sounding cheddar topped meatloaf with baked potatoes and herbed green beans. Hope those peepers turn the corner soon – and hopefully healthy ducks will be headed your way soon.
If you’re looking for a healthy, and affordable, dark days meal, check out Katie’s recipe for Lentil, Onion and Collard Mush. She’s also posted a great list of currently available local foods for Minnesota if you’re in the area.
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Possibly Related posts (newest to oldest):
Oh, you *totally* know I am hoarding. I am a Depression-era housewife trapped in the modern era of surplus.
On a tactical note, are we wrapping up the challenge with the next roundup, or are we cooking/writing until the end of March with a final wrap-up/roundup in early April? (I’m micromanaging because I have a theme idea for my last post, and I don’t want to write myself into a corner…) Feel free to tell me to get a life.
Nah! I was just pondering the same thing. I’d like to keep cooking through the end of March and recapping through then as well. So that means we’d have a recap on March 23 that covers posts dated March 10 and later. Then another on April 6 that covers posts from March 24 through the end of the month.
After that it’s going to be nuts around here as, fingers-crossed, we’ll be putting in the garden and so I won’t have time to do the recap marathon. If anyone has a better idea, please do suggest away!
Laura – Thanks for mentioning our friends at Skagit River Ranch. They really have been wonderful and they have that little bit of crazy/genius tucked away in there that makes us love ‘em even more!
Also, thanks for the reminder about Blue Bird Grain Farms. We bought a lot of their product this past summer and fall until they stopped coming to the Ballard Farmers Market for the winter. We’ve missed making emmer dishes with local cheese and homemade chicken stock… YUM! We’ve also missed their emmer pancake and waffle mix. Your reminder prompted an online order at 1am when we read your recap post.
Time line on the final posts sounds good to us. We’re gonna be busy putting in the garden from here on out too… we’ll keep you posted if you keep us posted!
talk to you soon…
The Shibaguyz
&
The Shibaboyz
Laura,
Here in the upper middle our “dark days” last until April 26.
(That’s the first farmer’s market, and they almost always beat all the stores to every kind of produce growable.)
I’d sure love to have some community to keep me blogging until then!
[...] included that chicken recipe I mentioned last recap which turned out okay, but not great. I don’t think it was the recipe’s fault, I think [...]