2007 Dark Days Challenge
Oct 12th, 2007 by Laura
What is it?
It’s a challenge to continue cooking at least one local meal through the leaner days of winter. Your ingredients can come from your freezer, pantry, cold storage or local sources like farmers and other producers.
The rules are simple.
- Each participant can set their own rules, but generally they are:
- We have to cook one meal a week with at least 90% local ingredients
- We have to write about it - the triumphs and the challenges
- Local means a 200 mile radius for raw ingredients. For processed foods the company must be within 200 miles and committed to local sources.
- Keep it up through the end of the year, and then re-evaluate on New Year’s Day
- The challenge starts now, or whenever you sign up.
I’m going to make a personal commitment to one meal a week, more if we can. I’m also going to try to include others in our meals whenever possible so that our friends and family can experience the pleasures of local foods, even in the dark days of winter.
See all of my posts about the challenge here.
*****
Participants:
I’m going to have to say that 32 is it - that’s about as many blogs as I can manage to review each Friday/Saturday. If you’d like to play along on your own, you’re welcome to - just please add your recap into the comments section each week.
The West
- Anita at Married with Dinner (San Francisco)
- Donna at Chocolate Crayons & More (Oregon)
- thisKat at Dirt to Dish (Oregon)
- Laura at Hello, Sunshine (Washington)
- Marcia in Wyoming
- Ellen at The Daily Grind (Colorado)
- Melinda at Elements in Time (California)
- LeeAnn at Apostle to Suburbia (Washington)
- Katrina at Kale for Sale (California)
- Saara at Skagit Foodshed (Washington)
- Jennye at Wool Fairy (California)
- KMBerrien at Feeding the Boogie (California)
The Middle
- Anne at Green Leanings (central Ohio)
- Chessa at Maybe Local (Michigan)
- FarmMom at Children in the Corn (Michigan)
- My Mom at Come Play Outdoors, blog in development (Minnesota)
- Penny at Penelopedia (Minnesota)
- Connie (Wisconsin)
- Daniela at the Culinary Student (Chicago)
- Valereee at Cincinnati Locavore (Cincinnati)
The East
- Kim at Yankee Food (New England)
- Caroline at A Rowhouse Kitchen (East Coast)
- Peg at Orchards Forever (New York)
- Christy O at Farm Dreams (Delaware)
- S at The Student Stomach (Pennsylvania)
- Ed at The Slow Cook (Washington DC)
- Sarah at Cucina Bella (Connecticut)
- Wendy at Happily Home (Maine)
- Danielle at Touch the Earth Farm (Maryland)
- Beth at Sustainable Food Blog
- Nicole at Farm to Philly (Philly)
- Jasmine at Knitting 40 Shades of Green (Northern Virginia)
- The Purloined Letter (Maryland)
- Leda at Leda’s Urban Homestead
- Sophie at Locavores (Connecticut)
Updated 10/15
*****
Hi! I’m in. I still need to come up with my rules, but I’ll definitely participate. Is there an official start date, or is that NOW?
I plan to start tomorrow, as that is my day at the market
I’m located in Washington as well.
This is very exciting!!
Laura
p.s.
I’m in! I enjoyed the Eat Local Challenge for September and can’t wait to move into our CSA’s Keeper Share. This will help me focus on creating one “good” meal a week, rather than mashed potatoes 5 nights a week! Thanks for the great idea.
I’m in! I actually made my first meal yesterday….
Careful what you start, Laura - word’s out!
http://www.eatlocalchallenge.com/2007/10/dark-days-of-wi.html
I’m in!
I commute to Boston for work each week (from Albany, NY) and the farmers’ markets there are open through Thanksgiving week…so I ought to be able to figure out how to do this. I see lots of root veggies, hearty pottao leek soups and Brussells sprouts in my future!
I’ve been in since I read your idea a week ago but this makes it official. Excellent idea. Thank you.
I’d like to take a whack at that:
http://theslowcook.blogspot.com/
Ed Bruske
aka The Slow Cook
Washington, DC
Great idea! I’ll join. I’m at http://sustainablefoodblog.com .
I did a winter CSA last year and it was a ton of fun. Here is a little bit of info on winter CSAs: http://sustainablefoodblog.com/posts/1190267211.shtml
[…] So when I read on the Eat Local Challenge blog that an autumn-into-winter locavore event was afoot, I had to check it out. Laura — who writes a charming blog called Urban Hennery out of Everett, Washington — is blogging her latest experiment: Feeding herself, her husband, and her friends on local foods throughout the remainder of the year. She’s challenged anyone interested to join her, christening the event the Dark Days Challenge. […]
Great idea! Sign me up!
oh, I want in. I need the extra commitment of talking about my meals to keep me sourcing food locally and not getting lazy about sourcing and cooking. I am in Northern VA.
If it is not too late, I’d love to join too. We live in Takoma Park, MD. Thanks!
[…] are eating, and what everyone’s doing with their own giant stores of squash! Thanks, Laura for the […]
I would love to join this, if am not not late
[…] Dark Days Challenge […]
[…] I think about the bloggers participating in the Dark Days Challenge in places like Maine or Minnesota or Michigan — places where winter actually involves snow, […]
You can check out the week #2 recap at yankeefood.wordpress.com or at the permalink: http://urbanhennery.wordpress.com/2007/10/27/dark-days-challenge-week-2-recap/.
Sorry for the technical difficulties!
Absolutely love this idea. Can you make it 33 & fit a West Virginia girl in? =)
Tonia
Hi Laura,
Awesome idea! I first saw it on Farm to Philly. We’re actually going to make our wedding a Dark Days Challenge, it’s in November. I’ll have to write about it on my Myspace page, as I don’t blog anywhere else.
Good luck to everyone, and think big!
[…] you’re still here? Ok, ok… here’s our Dark Days Challenge wrapup. Despite last week’s unintended focus on dining out, we did still manage to make a […]
[…] my dark days challenge I made an delicious Roasted Tomato and Eggplant Soup with Chickpeas. I used the last tomatoes of […]
[…] our weekly menus into the Dark Days Challenge hasn’t been much of an effort, truth be told. But then, it’s hard to feel too smug when […]
I’m in! Well, actually, I’d have been doing this in any case since I am in the midst of a year-long local eating challenge that began back in August. My pantry is well-stocked with food that I’ve dried, canned, fermented and frozen. Here goes…
Albeit a latecomer, I would like to join the Challenge. I will add recap comments for the writing requirement as I do not yet have a blog. Meanwhile, I have a question in case anyone is of a mind to help me out. I brought home tat soi from the farmer’s market today. Have never even heard of it, but it looks so terrific that I thought it would be a good challenge to try it out. So, of course, I don’t really know how to cook it. I would appreciate suggestions.
Another latecomer joining here… I get a bushel of winter vegetables on Sunday, so there will be lots of local dinners in my future pretty much whether I plan it or not. I almost always cook dinner myself on Friday, and its usually a special dinner, so that will be my local dinner. If there’s a potluck or something instead, then a different night will be local. I’ll leave updates in the comments and link back here in my blog when I post about dinners.
Joan — tatsoi is delicious stir-fried, or in soup, or just sauteed with a little garlic and ginger. Use it where you’d use bok choi or spinach.
[…] am joining Urban Hennery’s Dark Days Eat Local Challenge. It’s only slightly more rigorous than the Riot is anyway, but I think it will be a good […]
[…] I buy vast quantities of honey and support a local organic apiary. I am joining Urban Hennery’s Dark Days Eat Local Challenge. It’s only slightly more rigorous than the Riot is anyway, but I think it will be a good […]
I’m not sure if I already spoke up about this, but I’m interested in taking part in the Dark Days Eat Local Challenge. It’ll be interesting to see what kinds of meals I come up with in the next six weeks or so!
[…] Last week was a little nuts. We both logged ridiculous hours at the office, cramming a week’s worth of work into four days as we prepped for a long weekend in Los Angeles. (More on that soon.) There was not a smidge of high-falutin’ cooking going on, but we still managed to rack up four meals for the Dark Days Challenge: […]
[…] lieu of my usual meal recap, this week’s Dark Days post touches on the retail side of the equation. Despite our weekend in Los Angeles — which […]
Updates for my first two weeks are up at limesarah.wordpress.com, featuring a rough start followed by tasty cornbread and spinach.
I just heard about this and would like to join in as well. The last farmer’s market here (Philadelphia, PA) is the Sunday before christmas and I didn’t plan this year (no canninig), so it will be a fun experience.
[…] the season. But my attempts to keep the dish 90% local highlighted one of the realities of the Dark Days challenge: It’s getting harder to eat as we like as the year […]
[…] all we have to eat from October to May is bitter greens and root veggies. And it’s called Dark Days Challenge for a reason — if it were simple, what fun would that be? So, in the spirit of pushing our […]
[…] we ate pretty well. Our first Dark Days Challenge meal of the week revolved around a fabulous batch of carnitas tacos — Range Brothers pork […]
[…] to make reasonably coherent meals, but sometimes this happens at the expense of our 90%-local Dark Days Challenge […]
I’m in, too! Thanks for the incentive! Our local meal today was potato lunch burritos. A few slices of local bacon, fried till crisp, a couple of potatoes diced and sauteed in the drippings, and a medium onion diced, thrown in the last few minutes and cooked till golden brown. Crumble the bacon up into the potatoes, lay out some home-made local wheat tortillas, and dig in! You can also add cheese or sour cream as a garnish, if you have them. Hot sauce is also good.
I’d love to join in! I just finished the leftovers of what I’m calling “urban farmer pie” (’cause it’s not shepherd’s pie) — strawberry hills beef, red onions and garlic and an heirloom carrot and swiss chard left from the last day of the farmer’s market, sage and thyme from my garden, local potatoes mashed with organic valley cream (which I’m pretty sure is a local dairy). it was beyond delicious and 99% (but for salt and pepper) local. the dark days are the most fun…
i’m in portland, oregon, for the record.
Heck, over here 200 miles is a LONG way. This should be EASY! We’re starting to receive a local veg box next week, so once that comes I can really get started.
[…] for New Year’s resolutions this year, but we are making a few small changes. As part of our Dark Days Challenge (and as a side effect of finally finishing reading Omnivore’s Dilemma, two years behind the […]
Here in Paris and out of my small cooking studio, my blog, my website, my kitchen, I try to vehicle one thing: Eat Locally!
I try to tell friends and clients how exciting it can be to look forward to the month of May, to eat strawberries and asparragus, to look forward to a treat, a sensation, a feeling that you can store away when the season is over!
I’ve been doing this for so many years - though I can indulge myself with a ripe mango because they do not grow in France and I love them since my African years, or with home made Asian noodles with ginger, lemon grass .. which I love since my Asian years … which is to say, I do not want to be a “fanatic”!
One other important point in “eat locally the way I see it is : avoid take out food ! Cooking simple yet tasty food can be quick, healthy, and rewarding!
Bravo! Laura
www.aworldinapan.com
I am a lapsed locavore. Last summer I bought local produce and froze some. I found a source for dried beans, rice, eggs, cheese and meat. But, that old excuse - “busyness” - got in the way.
Finding the Dark Days Challenge was what I needed. The “rules” were easy - especially defining local as 200 miles from home. Two hundred miles (+ or - a few) from home in south Texas includes the Hill Country, San Antonio, the Gulf plain, and the Gulf of Mexico itself. That’s a lot of local.
The other rule - 90% of a meal from local sources - I could do. Or, so I thought. I found out that lapsed not only means I hadn’t kept up, but I had forgotten what local ingredients from the summer I had.
So my challenge was the search, the quest for anything local in the freezer or on the shelf. (I imposed another rule: I wouldn’t intentionally rush out and buy local just to meet the challenge.) I found the dried beans on the shelf. In the freezer I were chopped bell peppers, home-made “quail broth” (like chicken but from the carcasses of Texas quail), and figs from my tree. The beans cooked in the “quail broth” seasoned with the bell peppers and non-local ham, onions, celery and dessert of fig cake was dinner. Salad - not local - but necessary and good in January rounded out the meal.
The meal probably didn’t meet the 90% requirement. However, it was a 100% wake-up awareness call. I’m using the local I have along with the non-local. That I will replace with local as I can.
Thanks Dark Days Challenge.
[…] Dark Days like these, it’s hard to feel […]
This local eating thing is new to me, but I am interested and on board with the Dark Days Challenge. It is simple and doable.
Jessica
www.practicalnourishment.com
[…] I want to thank everyone that participated in both the first half of the challenge and those that saw it all the way through. You made it possible, you made it […]
farmer’s market…
I Googled for something completely different, but found your page…and have to say thanks. nice read….