It would seem that one of the hardest challeges of the Dark Days Challenge, for me, is actually getting my post up on time.  It’s not that we are not eating locally; we are. In fact, it’s pretty hard not to eat locally when local food constitutes >90% of what you buy.  It’s just that, as the days grow longer, paradoxically there seems to be more stuff to cram into them, and the week flies by until, ooops! it’s Tuesday again and I never posted last week’s Dark Days meal.  So, in the grand tradition of “the dog ate my homework”  here is my better-late-than-never post for Week 18: Dark Days Challenge.

There was plenty of local eating going on: I made us 100% local omelets (Kaela, not French, style) with eggs from Holbrook Farm, local farmer’s market cheese, and fresh parsley from Madura Farms in Goshen, NY.  We celebrated the fine weather by firing up the grill and grilling Empire Kosher chicken breasts with homemade strawberry balsamic jam that I put up last summer, served with grilled sliced Fishkill Farms apples.  I re-heated this fabulous white bean bruschetta, made with the last of the summer’s frozen kale and Rancho Gordo flageolet beans hand-carried to me by my San Francisco-living friend Christina, and served on top of Wave Hill crostini. Finally I made a strawberry, rhubarb and caramelized onion jam with frozen Jones Family Farms strawberries, frozen rhubarb from Tai’s aunt’s garden in Maine, and Cippolini onions from Madura Farms.

Phew! No wonder I don’t have time to blog.