Thanksgiving inspired many Dark Days participants to create local feasts this week. There is no time more appropriate for acknowledging our deep gratitude for the farmers that grow our food and land that sustains our bodies–and the community that brings us together in celebration. This season reminds us how important local food can be.
The East ::
While it isn’t an official Dark Days challenge meal entry, I love Mangochild‘s post about local farmers in Connecticut participating in Foodshare (an agency which fights hunger in her area). Together with other food suppliers, they contributed about 500,000 lbs of food in the month of November. Thanksgiving is such a wonderful time to connect the issues of justice, need, community, and joy. At the end of her post, she asks if others know about ways the farmers in their area participate in the community. Do you have some good stories to share with her?
On to the meals:
Thanksgiving with Sophie was a delicious event. Her guests feasted on appetizers including pickled hot carrots and peppers, sliced roasted beets and fennel bulb slices, and homemade fire-roasted red peppers, as well as assorted local cheeses and bread. Appetizers were followed by chicken soup with local veggies, the main course of local turkey with cornbread stuffing, homemade applesauce and fresh cranberry sauce, smashed red potatoes and baked sweet potatoes, a mix of sweet roasted squash and root vegetables, and local broccoli. For dessert the family served a choice of homemade pies including apple crumb and pumpkin–with freshly whipped cream. But why stop there? There were also two kinds of local ice cream, caramels, dried and fresh fruit, chestnuts and roasted pumpkin seeds. Don’t forget the local soda, apple cider, egg nog, wine and beer! (And just in case you’re still wondering if she is really committed to sustainable eating, Sophie ended the evening by watching the documentary Food, Inc.)
Jenny created a beautiful Thanksgiving meal with local ingredients. Her husband roasted a local turkey with apples and herbs in the cavity. Jenny made her mother’s sausage stuffing–and shares the recipe with her readers. Their family also had bourboned butternut squash, purple mashed potatoes, non-local but sentimental green bean casserole, apple cranberry relish, and local wine bought on their honeymoon. I am so jealous that she found local cranberries!
Over here at our house, we celebrated an almost 100% local Thanksgiving, split into two meals. For lunch, we had a butternut-apple curry soup and American Indian wild-rice fritters. For dinner, we had turkey, cornbread dressing made from homegrown Indian corn and other goodies, mashed turnips-and-potatoes, roasted Brussels sprouts, assorted pickles–and a fabulous non-pumpkin pie cooked up by my partner David. The only thing we missed were the cranberries.
Colleen made an almost-entirely local Thanksgiving with a heritage turkey. She then proceeded to follow it up with lots of leftovers with mostly local ingredients: turkey nachos, turkey fried rice, and turkey sandwiches on homemade bread.
Since she was devoting most of her efforts to a mostly-local Thanksgiving, Diane put together a simple meal of home-raised golden yellow eggs, sprouted-wheat toast, and homemade butter from local raw milk. Making things like butter by hand makes all the difference.
Stacey presents a Dark Days entry of cream of cauliflower soup served with garden salad and homemade popovers. Riffing on a recipe from the original Moosewood cookbook, she uses carrots, potatoes and garlic from her garden as well as cauliflower and leeks from the farmer’s market. Stacey includes her recipe for popovers on her blog. Check out the photos of how high they rise!
Peg warms us up with a hearty potato leek soup with her own homegrown potatoes, as well as leeks and onion from a nearby farm. The simple recipe–which sounds delicious–is posted on her blog. Next to the soup, she served my favorite autumn side dish, Brussels sprouts.
My mouth is watering as I read about Kaela’s goat cheese, chive, and cranberry scones–complete with pretty pictures and a recipe. This is a must-make! Almost everything is local–even the flour and the sea salt. And check out her drunken cherry-apple pie while you are over there.
A week of meals with friends and lots of delicious leftovers kept Marisa from doing much cooking for the last few days. But she put together a local meal of meatballs made with local grass-fed beef, onion from her CSA, a local egg, and crumbled feta. Next to the meatballs were boiled red potatoes dressed with homemade butter and salt and that amazingly beautiful vegetable, Romenesco broccoli. Marisa writes what while she “might have tried to make it fancier or somehow more elegant,” there was no way to make it tastier or more enjoyed: “I’m so appreciative for the simple, wonderful meal that it was.”
Amy cooked up a turnip-parsnip bread pudding, shared homemade cranberry sauce and maple ice cream, and found local dried peas and beans! I’m envious. Being able to source non-animal protein sources locally is quite exciting.
Jeanell has been making a variety of kinds of kimchee–including an all-local “bland” kimchee. She has even found local ginger. It certainly does not sound bland to me!
The South ::
Michelle introduces Dark Days by saying that while she has been eating local for a long time, she recognizes that “for others it may be a new path yet to be discovered.” Reading about all the folks attempting the Dark Days challenge might inspire others to make local eating part of their lives as well. What a wonderful sentiment. And her homegrown lemons, newly-processed pesto with homegrown ingredients, her first homemade sharp cheddar, andher soup made from her home-raised birds and homegrown veggies will inspire even the most seasoned locavore!
Jasmine confesses that although she normally prepares for eat local challenges by stocking up on local staples, she jumped in with only what she already had on hand for this one. Echoing Michelle (above), Jasmine found that after much practice at SOLE eating, she had quite enough basics to make local meals: “I guess eating local and looking at where things originate has become more a part of my everyday grocery shopping whether I am participating in a challenge or not.” Her gorgeous entry this week includes spicy cauliflower-potato cheese soup made with the local ingredients that she had on hand from her CSA and other places; a salad of greens, cheese and pears; and some sourdough bread from the farmer’s market. Be sure to check out her soup recipe!
Jennelle presents a post-Thanksgiving meal of turkey and sweet potato dumplings using leftover local turkey from her Thanksgiving meal, onions, carrots and peppers from her garden, sweet potatoes from her father-in-law’s garden, and onions from the farmer’s market. Check out the recipe on her blog. This sounds like a great use for holiday leftovers!
Joyce had two local meals last weekend. The first was a breakfast of local scrambled eggs, potatoes, and sausage. I can completely understand why she says that Sunday breakfast is one of her favorite meals of the week. Dinner that evening was local as well: apple bratwurst from the farmer’s market, biscuits made with local flour, milk, and butter, and spring mix “from Tony-our-lettuce-guy.” (Sounds like a friend to keep.)
Lynn describes a gorgeous breakfast of garlic cheese grits, sauteed apples, scrambled eggs and country ham, cooked almost entirely by her husband while she got some work done. Eating a breakfast as decadent as this sounds like a wonderful way to enjoy a morning together!
After a long trip visiting family and friends, Monika returned home late at night and snipped a few salad greens illuminated by the still-running headlights. While she dressed her homegrown salad, she threw pasta in boiling water and thawed some pesto prepared from her summer garden. As she states, the meal was not completely local–but after 9 days of visiting and “14 hours in the car with a cranky toddler,” it seems like an amazing feat.
The Middle ::
El made a local–and mostly homegrown–Thanksgiving feast. But for her official entry for Dark Days was a meal of pork loin roast, steamed potatoes in a buttery parsley-chive sauce, and beans. Accompanying the meal was a greenhouse salad of cold-hardy lettuces, onions, fennel, and a gigantic carrot. Go check out El’s descriptions which include specific varieties and details that will make your mouth water! She also made a dressing for the salad with her own cultures of buttermilk and yogurt. Pumpkin custard and local wine rounded out the meal.
Esp realized that even without planning a local meal, the dinner already on the table qualified. As she wisely says, “If you buy local, you’ll eat local.” Her deliciously simple supper: potatoes and kielbasa accompanied by a green salad with roasted beets, goat cheese, and vinaigrette. Perfect.
Norah at Aagaard Farms in Manitoba roasted a local chicken and flavored it with sage. She served the chicken with spaghetti squash and steamed potatoes from her family’s garden. They were even dedicated enough to forgo salt and pepper since these seasonings are not local. Good for you!
Wendy‘s family ate roasted chicken accompanied by a salad of hydroponically grown greens. Her husband made incredible bread from local organic wheat. We’re all envious–both for local grains and for baking husbands! Check out the recipe on her blog. To finish off the meal, they enjoyed pumpkin ice cream from the farmer’s market.
On Thanksgiving morning, a friend brought Angela a 50 pound bag of local freshly-milled organic spelt flour. She soon set about to make homemade pasties–meat and vegetable pies. Check out her blog for the recipe for the crust. After making the dough, she wrapped it around a filling of buffalo meat, carrots, rutabaga, homemade cheddar cheese, and other goodies. She then set the pasties on to bake. When they were done, she served them with mixed green salad tossed with a yogurt-feta dressing.
Linda made a beautiful and tasty lamb stew cooked with lamb from her own farm, assorted root veggies from the farmer’s market, and rosemary from a pot in a sunny window. She made the stew gluten free by using rice flour instead of wheat flour to thicken it. A hydroponically-grown salad accompanied the meal, as did the last of the beets from the summer garden. Even the guests got in on the local theme, bringing a loaf of bread from a local bakery.
Sara made a BLT the autumn way: local bacon, tomato pesto, and lettuce from a patch in the garden with a sheet of remay protecting it from the cold of November. Sounds wonderful!
Melissa and her son steal the Thanksgiving show with an hysterical post about stuffing their turkey with something very unexpected–and the idea of serving it with both tator tots and mashed potatoes piled in the shape of a drumstick. They even include their recipe for French Fry Stuffing. No wonder Grandma and Grandpa went for the martinis…
I can’t wait to see what everybody cooks up for next week!
*****
Possibly Related posts (newest to oldest):
My post (I’m in the Midwest) was a little late today, so here’s the link:
http://greenleanings.blogspot.com/2009/11/dark-days-challenge-week-2-for-love-of.html
Great recap!
Great recap – excellent job!
Looking forward to joining you all next week! All of you are an inspiration.