Dark Days Challenge Week Seven

Week Seven brought a Pumpkin Soup and Acorn Squash Meatballs to my table, but also led me to the realization that I'm leaving the Dark Days Challenge behind in 2009. I've learned a lot over these past seven weeks, but also figured out that the challenge wasn't completely working in my family.

In retrospect, I really needed to have my whole family on board with the idea before I committed to the challenge of one all-local meal each week. My kids are not huge veggie lovers so throwing them something like leeks and kale in the same meal was a bit much. My husband, who cooks a lot, was also starting to resent all the weird looking vegetables popping up in his fridge and on his plate. He has gotten into the spirit of eating locally, but wants it a little more on his terms and I can go along with that. For my part, cooking has never really been my thing and the added stress of trying to make every single ingredient local was definitely more work (particularly in the winter) than I had anticipated.


On the other hand, it has brought about a number of great changes that I plan to continue. I'm shopping weekly at a co-op with great local food and I've found substitutes to some of the non-local fruits that I once deemed essential. My local pears are working just fine in my smoothies instead of bananas shipped from thousands of miles away. I'm keeping my Community Supported Agrigculture (CSA) membership with Klesick Farms and looking forward to my next delivery tomorrow. To find a CSA near you, click here.

I'm still eyeing the one sunny, flat spot in my yard and trying to figure out if I can convert it to a garden next year. It currently holds the jungle gym, and we're trying, as a family, to decide if the kids are ready to give that up. I'm thinking maybe we could compromise and do a garden with a little skateboarding track around it. Hmmm...

One last note... I was very inspired to write this last Dark Days post after watching Iron Chef America last night. You know eating locally is gaining some traction when one of the hot reality shows pairs up with First Lady Michelle Obama to support the message. The show featured Iron Chef Flay/White House Super Chef Comerford vs. Iron Chef Batali/Super Chef Legasse and the secret ingredient was anything from the White House garden. The First Lady showed them around the garden where the chefs had their choice of the winter vegetables - sweet potatoes, kale, leeks - all the same things showing up in my local farm box this month. If you're interested, the 2 hour special airs again at 8pm on Thursday, January 7th.