Dark Days Eat Local Challenge

Posted on October 27, 2007

You might have noticed the little button in my sidebar for the Dark Days Eat Local Challenge. The challenge, which I joined earlier last week, is to cook one meal a week using 90 percent local ingredients. Local is defined by a 200 mile radius.

Sound easy? Well, there is a reason it’s called the Dark Days Challenge. The challenge is to do this during the cold winter months here in the northeast.

I intended to cook my first local winter meal last weekend but was sidelined by lack of time. Then this week was busier than I could ever imagine it would be. But it’s the weekend, so this weekend, I will cook two local meals (as soon as I get to the community grocer to stock up on local foods). I am really excited to get started.

My personal rules for this challenge:

- The majority (aiming for 90 percent) of ingredients must be from local sources. I generally don’t use a whole lot of processed foods, so with the exception of bread and pasta, they are out. Bread and pasta ideally should be made locally, but they do not have to be from local ingredients since wheat isn’t generally grown in this part of the country (but if I can find some ultra local bread and pasta, I will certainly use it). Rice is also acceptable with the same allowance.
- Local is defined as within a 200 mile radius, which for me means most of New York, all of Massachusetts and Rhode Island and parts of New Hampshire, New Jersey and Vermont.
- A meal is breakfast, lunch or dinner — and must be a full meal.