The Dark Days Challenge is Back!

Hurray! It's back again!



Image credit: (Not) So Urban Hennery


That's right, kids! The Dark Days Challenge is back for a 5th year.

What is the Dark Days Challenge, you ask? It's a pledge to cook one 100% local meal a week, or at the very least, "SOLE". During the dark days of winter... hence the name. Eating local is easy in the summer, but in the winter, when you're left with what food you've put up or what plants can tolerate the weather, it's a true challenge.

Here's a link that explains the challenge better than I can. This is also where you sign up to join in.

After you cook your local meal, write about it on your blog and send the link to these lovely folks: Not Dabbling in Normal. They'll do a recap of all the posts on their blog so you can see what other people are cooking and get some wonderful ideas. Plus, who doesn't love to see their own name and blog referenced out there on the world wide web?

The rules are sorta similar to the Eat Local Challenge, if you're familiar. "Local" is a 100 mile radius. Or a 150 mile radius. Or, a 250 mile radius in my case, since there is a family-owned dairy that produced the milk I buy 248 miles away. Just define what you consider local at the beginning of the challenge, and stick to it. Also, there are exceptions for certain items we take for granted in our daily lives that we just couldn't do with out, i.e. oil, sugar or spices. Just define what will be your exceptions at the beginning when you start and stick to those, too. Remember, it's supposed to be a challenge. And it's fun to come up with dishes based on what you have available. Trust me!

If you don't have a blog, no worries. Just cook right along with us and enjoy reading about what we're cooking. The challenge runs from November 27th to March 31st. The weekly deadlines for submitting your meal for the round-ups will be posted soon. There is also a Google group for the Challenge and someone is working on a hashtag for twitter.

I hope you all will join me. I can't wait to see what you will be making!