Two years ago I participated in the Dark days Challenge, it made me more aware that our food was outsourced more than I knew. Like Mountain Dairy Milk sold in Snohomish was from Indiana!? So, I am a week or so late but I am going to try it again this year, eating within a 150 mile radius is more challenging than you would think. We have changed how we eat since then and are not using hardly any carbs, except for occasional indulgences. I have some food canned from the garden and gleaned from other sources as well.
Tonight's dinner is started on the wood stove, a shepherd's pie. The beef is from Winter Creek Ranch in Monroe where the Angus steers are happily raised antibiotic and hormone free on 25 acres. The potatoes and turnips came from the garden there as well (I have connections - my parents own the place) Our mixed vegetables to go in are frozen and canned from our garden. The onions were dried in August and the garlic is from our front yard. I have frozen herbs from our yard as well, I'm thinking some sage, oregano and chives my find their way into the pot. I am heading out to find some local milk, butter and cheese today. I think I kind of cheated for todays post since all of dinner except for the dairy is grown by us or our family, but Im easing into this and using what we have. Now if I can convince my landlords to let us put a dairy cow or two on the 3 acres in the back...then the milk products could be from us too!
Here is
the link explaining the dark days challenge and why some of us choose to do these crazy things.
This is how tonight's dinner is starting, I have to have it ready by 3 since James has Taekwando tonight and we won't be home until 7. Since the stove is going today and James and Madilyn already did their chores of bringing in firewood, I figured we would cook on the wood stove as well.
Speaking of my little ones, I had to add these pictures. We unpacked some Christmas things today and found The Nutcracker. Madilyn naturally found her fairy wings, tutu and wand and put on a show.
James sat and watched the entire thing with a smile, leaving me time to sweep the kitchen, make muffins for the kids (sadly, not all local ingredients but at least 1/2 of them were), start dinner and play on my blog (two posts in one day!).
I didn't see a LIKE button, so how about a LIKE post? I'm new to dark days this year and also have a to-do list a mile long. Looking forward to your posts, and local references, since I'm in Seattle.
ReplyDeleteGrace, I am a novice at blogging, I will look into a like button, that is a great idea. Most of my local references are small farmers/ranchers since I grew up in the community here (I live 10 miles from where I grew up). I do not source all things locally - yet - but try to do as much local as I can. It is a challenge with little ones, a budget and what feels like a lack of time. We are taking baby steps and are doing much more than we did two years ago when I first did the dark days challenge and found out that alot of our food was from far off places. You may like the WSU Country living expo in Stanwood, I help put it together and it has alot of local sources there as vendors and teachers http://www.skagit.wsu.edu/CountryLivingExpo/
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the challenge this year!
Beth