We’ve missed it. All the sips, tastes and “yums.” Frankly, we missed “us.” We took for granted that every Colorado summer would be packed full of cool tasty events in Boulder County and across the state.
That was PC: pre-Covid. While everything is not back to whatever “normal” was, the summer of ’22 will mark the return of so many food and beverage gatherings that were put on hiatus, along with the launch of new festivals, tastings, classes and forays.
Welcome back to the feast that continues through the fall, but given the pent-up demand, you better get tickets ASAP. Tickets for many popular events are already selling out.
The season in Boulder County starts with a roar. Our favorite mid-week get together, Wednesday evenings at the Boulder Farmers Market, began May 4. The Saturday farmers markets in Longmont and Boulder are already roaring. Many farm stands are also starting to open.
If you’re growing in your garden or on your patio, stop by the Boulder Valley School District organic plant and seed sale, May 6, 7 and 14 at the BVSD Greenhouse, 6600 Arapahoe Road, Boulder
(food.bvsd.org).
If you’d rather join Boulder’s ’shroom boom, sign up for an Oyster Mushroom Workshop, May 7, at Boulder’s Benevolence Orchard & Gardens
(benevolenceorchard.com).
Find out how well you can eat without wheat at the Gluten-Free Foodie Fest, May 7, at Holidaily Brewing Company in Golden. You can sample tastes of gluten-free beers and fare from Crestone Bakery, Love’s Gluten Free Bakery, Wave the Grain, Denver Poke Company and others.
The free Art of Food Fest, 3-7 p.m. May 14 on Fourth Avenue in Longmont, features art, music and food from local farms and food folks such as Rising Tiger Co., Slow Food Boulder County, Wispy Greens, Green Belly Foods, Pot Heads Coffee, Squeak and Squawk Farm, and KREAM Kimchi.
For a more refined rural repast, sign up for the first ever Ya Ya Sisters High Tea, 11 a.m. May 15 at Longmont’s Ya Ya Farm and Orchard. The event includes little sandwiches, cakes, mimosas and tea in the blooming orchards. Bring a teacup (yayafarmandorchard.com).
If you would enjoy a New Zealand IPA paired with a bacon-wrapped, maple-bacon-bourbon-stuffed jalapeño, then attend the guided Upslope Brewing beer and food tour, May 24 on the rooftop patio at William Oliver’s Publick House in Lafayette
(williamolivers.com).
The beloved Boulder Creek Festival is finally back May 28 to 30 in downtown Boulder with free live music, food trucks throughout the site and the Creekside Beer Fest offering unlimited samples from numerous local breweries.
June brings the rebirth of the Taste of Louisville along Main Street on June 4, with booths offering samples from local eateries, bakeries and breweries (louisvillechamber.com).
On June 18 and 19, Lafayette’s Three Leaf Farm hosts Botanica: A Festival of Plants with speakers and hands-on workshops about wild foods, poisons in the garden, mushrooms, herbal infusions and natural medicine, plus a farm dinner (botanicafestival.com).
What kid (or adult) doesn’t want to be out standing in a field? Boulder’s Growing Gardens encourages fingers-in-the-dirt field trips and family events like Meet the Honeybees on June 18 (growinggardens.org)
Slow Food Boulder County celebrates summer in the crops with tours, burgers and a campfire June 25 at Longmont’s Community Table Farm (slowfoodboulder.org).
Got visitors coming again this season? Entertain them in a culinary way with a restaurant-and-bar-tasting walking tour in downtown Boulder from the 10-year-old Local Table Tours (localtabletours.com).
Summer Cooking Classes
Longmont’s Journey Culinary offers a basic and fundamentals cooking course in Spanish, Mediterranean and Peruvian cuisines that includes culture, language and tasting (journeyculinary.com).
Boulder’s professional Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts is once again offering a schedule of in-person classes for home cooks (escoffier.edu).
You can meet and milk goats and make chevre cheese in classes this summer at Longmont’s The Art of Cheese (theartofcheese.com).
Isn’t it about time your children learned how to do something really useful, like make French pastries for you? Delphine Gauvain of Chez Delphine cottage French bakery offers French pastry classes in her Superior kitchen or your home (chezdelphine.shop).
Photo credit: Team Player Productions
Boulder’s Food Lab schedule features date-night classes for adults as well as camps for kids all summer (foodlabboulder.com).
Boulder County Farm Dinners
Whistling Boar’s summer Farmhouse Supper Club features a dinner series starting June 30 at Longmont’s MetaCarbon Organic Farm (whistlingboar.com).
Summer dinners at Lafayette’s Three Leaf Farm are scheduled for June 12, July 17, Aug. 14 and Sept. 11 (threeleaffarm.com).
Summer dinners to benefit nonprofit organizations at The Farmette (lyonsfarmette.com) in Lyons include: Aug. 10: Forage Sisters (for Slow Food); and Sept. 7: Blackbelly (for Sophie’s Neighborhood).
Summer food fun continues in Cuisine on Page 29 with food and drink events and festivals taking place across the state.
Local Food News
Supermoon has closed at 909 Walnut St., former location of Arcana … Rosenberg’s Bagels has opened Sherry’s Soda Shoppe next door on the Hill. It’s a throwback fountain fitted with marble, brass and mahogany, dishing first-class scoops, sodas, phosphates, floats, shakes and affogatos. … Coming soon: Maine Shack, 1600 Pearl St., former site of the short-lived Emerson Restaurant; Dickens 300 Prime, 1125 Pearl St., former longtime home of West Flanders Brewing Co.
Words to Chew On
“I like the way baking makes me feel. It grounds me and slows me down. It’s the shaping the baguettes and rolls that’s cathartic. It’s the same as working with clay.” —Andy Clark, Moxie Bread Co.
John Lehndorff hosts Radio Nibbles Thursdays on KGNU (88.5 FM, kgnu.org). Comments: [email protected].
