Three Local Foodie Experiences to Celebrate Colorado Proud Month
Celebrate our local farmers with these three tasty and fun foodie events from Mountain Roots Food Project, OAK and Spade & Spoon
Photo courtesy of Nolan Blunck
Every August is a celebration of Colorado Proud Month, a holiday from Colorado Proud under the Colorado Department of Agriculture. Proud Month encourages consumers to support local farmers, ranchers, and businesses, and we wanted to share unique ways to celebrate Colorado’s bounty of local food with three local foodie experiences.
Photo courtesy of Mountain Magic Media
Mountain Roots’ Feast in the Field
A must for a Colorado summer bucket list is a five-star dinner featuring ripe produce grown and wines produced nearby, live bluegrass music, an entertaining auctioneer, and all in a huge tent under a Crested Butte mountain sunset. Mountain Roots Food Project’s signature event of the year, Feast in the Field is a true summer farm- and vineyard-to-table experience happening this year on Saturday, August 12. Locals, visitors, farmers, ranchers, winemakers and other Mountain Roots’ supporters come together for a farm-to-table seated dinner to celebrate the summer harvest, share stories of local food and the land that sustains it, be entertained (and encouraged!) by the auctioneer, and raise funds for Mountain Roots’ local food and hunger relief efforts.
Photo courtesy of Nolan Blunck
Tomatoes 10 Ways with OAK
Alongside Speedwell Farms & Gardens and Red Wagon Farm, OAK at Fourteenth will hold its highly anticipated annual tomato dinner at the end of August (dates TBD). Last year’s five-course Tomato Dinner included a savory Dashi Panna Cotta with Red Wagon Farm roasted tomato vinaigrette and dehydrated tomatoes turned into furikake; Corn Tortellini with heirloom tomato brodo, black cherry tomato concasse and tomato frico; and Chocolate Tomato Pudding with tomato caramel using only the sweetest tomatoes on the vine. Since 2017, the award-winning Boulder restaurant has hosted an incredible Tomato Dinner honoring the beloved heirloom fruit.
Photo courtesy of Spade & Spoon
Chef-Curated Meals with Dozens of Farmers Markets Favorites – At Home
Peak summer produce arrives in Colorado right at the time most of us would rather be enjoying it than spending long hours preparing it in a hot kitchen (especially considering that 30% of Denverites don’t have AC!) Denver-based meal kit service Spade & Spoon brings Colorado farmers markets favorites like Altius Farms, Hoffman Farms, MarsRoom Mushrooms, Rancho Largo, Women’s Bean Project, Sawatch Artisan Foods, Kosmik Desserts and dozens more straight to customers’ doors – now in a new format for the summer.
Photo courtesy of Spade & Spoon
Their Summer Living series, which runs through Colorado Proud Month empowers customers to make quick, Colorado vegetable-forward summer meals in a “choose your own adventure” format. For example, one week’s box comes with three sauces (Creamy Chipotle, Thai Peanut and Nicoise Dressing), three proteins (beef stir fry, salmon and eggs), four grains/nuts/beans (quinoa, black and white beans, peanuts), and more than a dozen veggies. The chef-curated kits contain a few quick instructions for your proteins and grains, and how to use the sauces, and then it’s summertime and the livin’ is easy.
