dark days challenge, weeks five and six

between the holidays, various sicknesses, and some technical difficulties, i didn't manage to post my week five wrap up last week. i promise that i ate it last week though!

for week five, last week, i made a hash of leftovers with a fried egg on top. one of my all-time favorite meals. the ham is leftover from our christmas ham from kookoolan farms, the potatoes are also from christmas and from washington (possibly more than 100 miles away), the cauliflower was leftover from the previous night's dinner and came from happy harvest farm, the eggs came from our backyard hens, and i fried it all in lard that i rendered from the pig we got from kookoolan farms. 

my cup of tea is not local, but the bread is made with stone-buhr flour. the secret aardvark sauce is a local company, but i have no idea where their ingredients come from. it is really good hot sauce though... my little one wasn't interested in the hash, but was happy with her toast and scrambled eggs from our chickens.

week six is a really simple meal. butterflied roast chicken, just like in my previous post, with roasted acorn squash and track town 200 meter ale made by rogue brewing.

the beer is brewed in eugene, which breaks the 100 mile rule.  the chicken is from kookoolan farms, of course, and the squash is from the last csa bin we got from groundwork organics in november.

as i sliced into that squash last night it got me thinking about planning my garden. i recently received the new territorial seed catalog and have been thoroughly enjoying it, when i'm not wiping my nose or chasing a small child around. i also just finished reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. so inspiring! anyway, i had planned on only growing delicatas in the winter squash category because they're our favorite. so sweet and delicious. however, i know they aren't the best storage variety. i was thinking about all of this as i sliced into that acorn squash, thinking maybe i should plant some acorn too but then thinking that i wouldn't plant enough to necessitate buying a whole packet of seeds (my frugality is really strange sometimes). as i stood there scraping the seeds into a bowl for the chickens i realized that maybe i could just plant these seeds. they're from an organic farm so i'm guessing they're not monsanto seeds that would get me arrested for saving and planting them. so they're drying on a rack in the kitchen. next fall i'll let you know if it works!