photo courtesy of iStockphoto
I’ve been thinking and pondering on the fact that eating local is easy during the spring and summer. The farmer’s markets are in full swing. There are greens and berries, veggies and fruit, potatoes and fish. And I still feel really good about our participation in the One Local Summer Challenge and Eat Local September Challenge.
But what about winter? It’s harder to make it work when you have to really look for local sources. You have to search for local produce, cook what’s in season and read labels, lots of labels. So I’m starting my own “Dark Days of Winter Eat Local Challenge”. It’s just for me, to keep me motivated. But if you’d like to participate, just leave your name, state and blog in the comments and you can play too.
My rules are simple.
- They only apply to us – you can set your own if you decide to participate
- We have to cook one meal a week with at least 90% local ingredients
- I 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.
- I’m going to keep it up through the end of the year, and then re-evaluate on New Year’s Day
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.
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Updated: If you’re signing up and you want the “cute squash button”, here’s the code for it. (this has been corrected to make it work)
<a href=”https://urbanhennery.wordpress.com/?page_id=307″ mce_href=”https://urbanhennery.wordpress.com/?page_id=307″><img border=”0″ src=https://urbanhennery.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/darkdaysbutton.png /></a>
when you copy and paste it, you want to delete out this string in the first set of brackets (WordPress won’t let me take it out…)
mce_href=”https://urbanhennery.wordpress.com/?page_id=307″
I’m game. Do I get to put yor neat little squash button on my sidebar?! LOL!! :) Seriously though, I think it would be good for Midwesterners to see it is possible to eat local year round with a little fore thought. I’m leaving for NY on thurs and will be gone until tues. I’ll start posting my meals next week then. What a great idea! :)
I am SO with you! I actually did a similar post yesterday about challenging myself to continue to eat locally as far into the winter as possible. Count me in!
Sure you can have a squash button – I put a black line around it so it will work better. Ha!
If we get enough people participating I’ll set up a permanent page listing the participants and their locations. And if I’m feeling really motivated I may even do a recap each week ala One Local Summer.
Hmmm… I’m thinking about joining you, but I’ll have to come up with my own “rules” first. Thanks for the idea!
I’m in! And I’ll use the button, too. We did this a lot last year so I’m not scared! For us it means a lot of meat and potatoes and squash–so who’s complaining? Not me! So excited to see more people doing this!
(And! And! And! I can’t keep it in anymore, but I’ll just say it here…We’re getting CHICKENS! But not until my husband gets our new fence and coop built so it’s going to be a while. But I can’t blog about it because he’ll get grumpy about “the pressure.”)
I’m glad to discover your blog. I look forward to seeing what you come up with for local foods this winter. Me and the kiddos stopped by Stocker Farms the other day and they did have some of their own produce. (A lot of the bigger farmstands I notice are mostly trucked in from E. WA. or even imported–bananas!–from outside the US.) We bought two small jars of honey–I’m guessing they produced it since otherwise it would have to say it had been packaged somewhere else–and a nice looking bunch of rainbow carrots. I knew chard and beets came in other colors, but not carrots. Fun! Not much else there was “home grown” but it’s fun to look.
OK, I’m in! I posted my “rules” and first meal on my blog: http://chocolate-crayon-family.blogspot.com/
The button was fair game, right?
The button is totally fair game. Yay – that makes 5 of us. Now I’ve got peer pressure to make sure that I’ll keep it going.
I’d love to try it! My CSA share runs out in two weeks, and I’m terrified! But this will be a good, positive step to try to keep our local efforts going.
I am certainly game! I’m in central Ohio and have a fair bit of food put up for winter. Now I just have to experiment with root cellaring (without a root cellar!) and hopefully I can make it through the winter.
We’re definitely in! We’re doing 90% local about 5 meals a week now, and hope to keep that up through the winter as best we can.
We’re in! I’ve been putting up apples and potatoes and chicken stock, I’ve got 8 local broilers plus ten pounds each of local ground beef and local ground pork, a weekly source of local milk and eggs and honey, and I was planning to buy enough butternut and other winter squash this weekend to have one a week for the next three months. In a pinch, I can do a meal a week from just those ingredients. Hm…I wonder how much kale I’d need to buy and process to have ten meals worth?
Count us in! We live in remote western WY, are “off-grid” with solar and wind power. We have corn, beans, broccoli and much other garden produce, 130 lbs. of home grown chicken, 1/2 home grown steer we traded for a home grown pig in 3 freezers with 1 lamb and 1 pig to go in Dec. Potatoes, onions, carrots, turnips, cabbage and winter squash and pumpkins in the root cellar. 30 laying hens for eggs and a stocked fish pond. Now if I could only grow coffee…..
count me in too. I just sent my application in today for our winter local buying club. I’m new to blogging and somewhat new to eating locally. I’m shooting to get our kitchen to 50 to 75 percent local this year. I just posted my own rules this morning for a personal challenge before I happened upon the dark days of winter challenge. So my family and I are in.
Caroline
http://rowhousekitchen.blogspot.com/
Just discovered your blog. I’m definitely in! I’m with you on the coffee, Marcia. I’m thinking there’s got to be a way to grow it…. wheat is the other issue for us. Otherwise, we’ve found just about everything in a 50-100 mile radius! Since we started our garden late (we moved in May), we actually have a lot of winter crops coming up or already up. I can’t wait for our first winter full of fresh veggies….
Add us to the list! I snagged the button and am going out to dig some more spuds before it rains.
I’m going to do it too. We just joined a fall CSA that goes until Thansgiving which will help. I found local sources of pretty much everything during OLS.
Ok, so the pressure is on, count us in. I have the a great local coop that should help me get thru this as I didn’t do any canning or freezing this summer. Seems like I did that in a past life.
I do have squash and potatoes and local eggs so I’ll do my best. Better get to the Mpls Farmers Market next weekend to stock up tho.
I’m in as well. I think that being in Philadelphia helps. There are great places to get local produce (although sometimes they lie…you have to check the labels). Also, I’ve done my share of stocking up and freezing- I’ve never canned- becuase of the beautiful bounty of my next door nieghbors farm. I’ve got lots of goodies to get me through. I can do once a week…if not more. And I would like to try to get a week in where I eat locally every day!
We’re in this one as well. And I think one meal a week at 90% is waaaaay more than doable around here since we have farmer’s markets year round. I am very excited about continuing with this. Thanks for the idea!
I am so with you! The one meal a week is a great idea. And who knows, maybe with time it will get even easier to do so it can be expanded to more.
I’m in! Here in Maine, believe it or not, the local thing is actually a breeze. I’ve even found a local winter CSA and a whole pig we’re going to purchase :).
Sounds like a blast!
I was bummed I missed out on the local summer, and I even have more time to blog in the winter, so sign me up. This will be our first year shooting for a four season garden, so it should be interesting. Looking forward to participating!
I’m in! I live in southern Wisconsin, fortunatly near one of the largest farmers’ markets in the country (Madison). I’ve signed up for my CSA’s T-giving box and also the winter storage box. We’ve got lots of frozen food that I’ve preserved and I even did some canning this fall (first time!). So this will be fun. I wonder how long my bounty will last….
[…] 1:12 am Filed under: Dark Days Challenge A little slow on the starting line as usual, I thought Laura’s idea was great and signed on, but then didn’t manage to blog meal specifically about it. Better […]
I think it great that so many are finding out how enjoyable it is to preserve the bounty. I have done so for years, sometimes out of necessity, and was often asked by friends why bother when it is so available in the groceries. They cannot match the taste and satisifaction of having prepared it yourself, and least to say what is in it and what is it’s origin. A few years ago M. Strewart had something like canning 101 on her show, then I had friends ask for me to show them how to do it. Ha! Finally I’m cool. Count Me In! Looking foward to a cosy winter snuggled up by the fire with my dog at my feet and a warm cup of soup in my mug.
I’m in for sure! Thanks!
Count me in too! I just found your blog and I think it’s terrific.
I live in Newtown, CT. I have only been “putting by” some ingredients for Thanksgiving, so I don’t have what I’d call reserve stock. Most of the farm stands and all of the Farmer’s Markets are closing soon, so it’s going to get interesting–but I’m up for the challenge.
My public committment is posted here:
locavores.blogspot.com
hefner holly madison
Man i love reading your blog, interesting posts !
Hey, Laura! Did you make the Cute Squash Button using some online button generator? I need a button for my local foods group, but all the generators I can find are offering 80×15 or 88×31 buttons.
Val
[…] so before I decided to announce a personal eat local challenge and hold myself accountable, we had our first all local meal of the fall season. The search for […]