Doubling up this week on the Dark Days Challenge, since I missed posting for the last round. Its strange, I’m eating pretty much all locally, but its often just stuff that’s the “norm” – nothing that is really post-worthy with veg, beans, and a grain. Almost as if I’m meandering through the winter, and I don’t get excited to really put up the effort for anything else. Mid-winter strikes perhaps? I’ve been working on my imaginary garden (and seeds for my real one!) so maybe that will lift my spirits. At any rate, here’s what I’ve got for the past 2 weeks:
Week Nine:
I finally figured out how to make buckwheat pancakes! Happily, buckwheat flour is available in my LocalZone, so its been something I’ve been trying to get a handle on for a while. Whole-wheat, rye, sourdough, all of those are now off-limits for me, so it was a lot of trial and error to get to these pancakes. (Yes, a recipe would normally be the way to go, but I don’t get along too well with recipes!) I started with my old familiar pancake recipe, just subbing out the flours. No go. The buckwheat tends to be a lot, well, clumpier and runnier all at the same time. Pairing it with cornmeal helped some, but the ratio was a struggle for the past few weeks. I finally adjusted the xanthan gum and liquid properly, and it came out great! Not a light fluffy pancake, but since I prefer a slightly more solid one, it works out fine. I topped the pancakes with raspberry “sauce” made from raspberry jam I canned in the summer that was heated up in a small pan on the stovetop. Well, well, worth the tweaking. Breakfast for dinner, yum.

Successful buckwheat pancakes!
Sources: buckwheat from Kenyon Corn Meal Company and cornmeal from Grays Grist Mill; raspberry jam made by me from berries from Rose’s Berry Farm; honey from Andrew’s Local Honey. Baking powder, baking soda, egg replacer, and xanthan gum from “away”.
********************
Week Ten:
I’ve been trying to be better about managing and checking my storage, especially the ones that can turn from fine to not-a-food in a flash. While I was checking this week I saw a couple of red onions that needed to be made into, well, something. Some apples also needed attention, so “apples and onions” it was for my Spotlight choice. I had them along with some corn muffins. Not fancy, but very satisfying. The red onions had their own sweetness that really came out. At the end, I added a handful or two of cranberries.

Sources: Onions from George Hall Farm; apples from Easy Pickins Orchard; honey from Andrew’s Local Honey; cornbread made with buckwheat from Kenyon Corn Meal Company and cornmeal from Grays Grist Mill. Cranberries from from the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers Association. Salt and pepper throughout the meal, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum, and egg-replacer for the cornbread from “away”.
***************
I did get to the new Norwalk farmers’ market last weekend, and it was quite small, maybe three or four vendors – one selling produce, one meats, one soap/products, and one jams. The area felt so empty and sad, I don’t know how else to describe it. We have another winter market in Fairfield, and a quite strong one in New Haven, so people are certainly going to them. It’s hard for a new market to get established, I suppose, because of the vicious cycle: farmers hesitate because it is the unknown, and there is some effort to going only to find a small number of customers. That keeps the market sparse, which deters the new customers who *do* come, which in turn further deters farmers. I think that this one has competition as well, since the Fairfield market is fairly close by and considerably stronger. I’ll keep attending the Norwalk one too along with the others – it should have a good chance since the summer markets in the area are all strong, even though there are many in the same area.