This week’s Dark Days Eat Local Challenge meal was pork chops with apples and acorn squash. The sweet and the heat together in this dish are really awesome.
- Pork chops from Ox Hollow Farm
- Cortland apple and apple cider from Silverman’s Farm
- acorn squash from Waldingfield Farm
- shallots and red pepper from Cherry Grove in Newtown
- garlic and maple syrup from Bluestone Farm
- rosemary from the window sill
- dried sage from our garden last summer
- olive oil from Italy
- dark rum from Jamaica
The hot pepper from Cherry Grove was this cayenne pepper I dried:
I crushed it with my own fingers.
If you do that too, do not rub your eyes, even if you rinsed your hands. I speak from experience.
Another dish I made this week was tandoori chicken with chickpea curry and basmati rice. Most of the ingredients were from away out there (almost sounded like a kiddie pool with all the shouts of Marco Polo) but I really wanted something different. Nonetheless, the chicken did come from Ox Hollow Farm, the yogurt from Trinity in Enfield, the garlic from Bluestone Farm, and the onion from Cherry Grove. Additionally, the paprika came from Amy LeBlanc’s Whitehill Farm in East Wilton, Maine. (I came upon Amy and her paprika by attending a workshop of hers at the NOFA conference over the summer.)
Community query
I’m about out of usable onions. I will soon need more garlic. Anyone know anyone local who’s still selling these?
I haven’t seen garlic, but there were some onions when I stopped at Fiddleheads market… and my local grocery here actually had some onions from a farm in NY that’s in our zone… I wrote the name of the farm and I’ll post back with it – its worth a shot to see if they are selling in your area….
Apples and acorn squash are such a natural pairing – I had them for one of my dinners this week, and I wished I could have kept eating it forever, lol.