Monday, March 16, 2009

Dark Days of Winter Challenge - week 17


I guess this is the last week of the challenge, which officially ended yesterday. Wow! I've had a great winter of really good, interesting local meals, and the rest of the challengers have been endless sources of inspiration. Thanks everybody!

My final meal has fallen back into the meat-vegetable-vegetable-starch pattern, but at least it features a new and interesting local product! The protein was a pork chop (Blue's Creek), topped with a mixture of diced apple and paw-paw chutney from Integration Acres of Albany, Ohio. The chutney was seriously hot, so the apples helped cool down those habaneros! Side dishes were a roasted sweet potato (Carousel Watergardens Farm) with butter (Hartzler's Dairy) and maple sugar (Pleiades's Maple Farm); corn (I bought from several local farm and froze it, so exact origins are unknown) with more of that butter from Hartzler's; and Brussels sprouts with butter and onions.

It's been a great winter. I didn't succeed in all of my goals (thanks to surgery with debilitating complications) but we have managed to enjoy fresh and frozen local food in new and interesting ways, and we've really enjoyed the journey. Thanks so much to Laura for all her hard work, and for her brilliance in starting this challenge. Winter local eating has been way more fun these last two years, thanks to the Dark Days Challenge!

SO now that it's over, that means spring is automatically here. Right?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It really is hard to believe that the Dark Days Challenge has come to an end.... but whoa on that chutney! Sounds delicious, especially with the apple. You find the best local products.