Dark Days: Thick Cut Pork Chops with Roasted Vegetables |

For Valentine’s Day dinner, I had planned to use the last of our Flying Pigs pork; two thick pork chops that have been in our chest freezer since our last delivery of Flying Pigs back in the Fall. I realized, after reading Sophie’s post on her Dark Days meal of the week, that 1) I had also had local pork chops, and 2) I had forgotten to post my DDC Meal of the Week. As so often happens, when 90% of the food you buy is local, this meal was mostly-local without even trying. The pork, green beans and sweet corn came out of my chest freezer. The potatoes, onions and garlic I had picked up at last week’s farmer’s market. The oregano was dried last summer from my CSA herbs. I did use non-local vermouth in the pan sauce (although I often use local wine, I just didn’t have any on hand) and threw the tag-end of some cooked chickpeas into the veggies. It was delicious, suitably celebratory, and yet fairly quick & easy (a requirement since we both worked on Valentine’s Day).

If you haven’t had Flying Pigs pork, and you live in the area, I highly encourage you to seek it out. They sell at the Greenmarket in NYC on weekends and you can order it shipped through their website. It is quite simply the best pork I have ever tasted. If you think that you don’t like pork chops; they’re flavorless, dry, tough, a pain to cut, to eat, etc., then you haven’t had heritage pork. This pork is, quite literally, a different animal. Heritage breeds pigs, which are in danger of extinction but for farmers like Mike and Jen at Flying Pigs, are raised with love, allowed to roam and forage, eat grass and enjoy sunshine, and truly, you can taste the love and care that goes into raising these pigs in every bite.

See Thick Cut Pork Chops with Simple Pan Sauce and Roasted Green Beans with Potatoes and Bacon for recipes.

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