🌽 Before Boulder was a foodie town, this market changed everything

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Read more Boulder Market Meals: Turn tangy sorrel into a classic French summer soup

This week, we look back at the birth of Boulder’s award-winning farmers market. Plus: root beer milk and a reader-requested recipe using fresh sorrel.

SNAP cutbacks and high fuel costs have increased demand at Boulder’s food banks this summer. Community Food Share will be collecting nonperishable food and donations, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on June 13, at King Soopers stores in Boulder, Louisville and Erie. In addition, Snarf’s Sandwiches and Snarfburger shops are donating 100% of their profits on June 15 to local food banks.

— John Lehndorff

Where are Boulder County’s roadside farm stands? I’m preparing a handy guide to the farm stands dotting rural roads across the area. Let me know all the details at [email protected].

If the current generation of locals could time-travel back to Boulder on a summer Saturday in 1985, they would be surprised by what isn’t available:

For one, locally grown food.

Boulder in the mid-1980s was far from achieving its eventual status as one of America’s foodiest cities.

There was no farmers market on 13th Street, and it would be another 13 years until the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse was built.

“Local produce didn’t really exist back then at grocery stores. We had some farmers selling crops on the Boulder County Courthouse lawn, but nothing very organized,” says Chet Anderson, who has operated The Fresh Herb Co. with his wife, Kristy, growing culinary plants and ornamental flowers since 1983.

Anderson remembers the small, modest birth of the Boulder County Farmers Markets 40 years ago with a handful of farmers and shoppers. From its inception, Boulder’s version was designed to be qualitatively different.

“We always wanted it to be a producers’ market selling local produce, not a flea market where they sold pineapples. That’s why it has become a template for other farmers markets and won all those awards,” Anderson says.

(The Boulder Farmers Market was recently voted the No. 3 best farmers market in the U.S. in the USA TODAY 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards.)

The Boulder County Farmers Markets have expanded over the years with the 1990 debut of the Longmont Farmers Market, the Wednesday Boulder evening market in 1992, and a year-round online store. One of the nation’s top eateries, Frasca Food and Wine, would open in Boulder in 2004 because the city was home to a real farmers market.

How Ulla and Gussie brought wine to the Market

Ulla Merz, one of the original owners of Boulder’s Bookcliff Vineyards, first connected with the Boulder Farmers Market in 2000. According to Merz, there was only one problem:

“At farmers markets you could sell all kinds of products made from what you grew, but not if you grew grapes and made wine. We had to work hard to convince the city to let us in,” she says.

Merz teamed up to share a booth with another pioneering female winemaker, Marianne “Gussie” Walter of Augustina’s Winery.

”We alternated weeks and we were the first in Colorado to sell wine at a market,” Merz says.

As a self-admitted “farmers market junkie,” Merz also became curious about the origins of the Boulder market.

“It was a hobby of mine while I still had a high-tech job to record oral histories of the people who launched the Boulder County Farmers Market.”

Merz points to some of the first farming families who were involved, including Chet and Kristy Anderson, John Ellis, and Robert and Marcy Munson. The latter couple operated Boulder’s best-known farm stand, which still features their sweet corn.

Besides the farmers, the team that got the market opened on 13th Street included a statistician, a deputy city manager, and even University of Colorado students who did some research about what would sell best, according to Merz.

“One other reason the market caught on, they said, is that KBCO and KGNU in Boulder got behind the market and talked about it on the air every week,” Merz says.

Boulder’s booming natural foods industry also dovetailed perfectly with the market as businesses like Justin’s Nut Butter were launched as one-person booths over the years.

Ulla Merz sold at the market until 2023 and still farms 40 acres of grapes on the Western Slope.

According to Chet Anderson of the Fresh Herb Co., the market’s survival for four decades was not a foregone conclusion.

“It’s never been easy for farmers to do the markets. It’s really about the people. The people love you to be there. We’ve made great friends with chefs, too. If you aren’t there for a week they worry about you,” Anderson says.

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“When it came down to it, we just wanted people to taste just-picked produce which was always sweeter than the stuff that had to be shipped.”

Market anniversary picnic will include cakes!

The early market pioneers will be honored as the 40th season is celebrated June 24 with a community Picnic for a Purpose featuring live music, yard games and speakers. Attendees will enjoy a meal from food court vendors ranging from Rang Tang Craft Barbecue to Boujee Biscuits and Savory Saigon, paired with Lefthand Brewery beer, Bookcliff Vineyards wine and cocktails. The finale is a tasting of birthday cakes contributed by Boulder restaurants, including Bramble and Hare, Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse and Corrida.

Picnic proceeds will support the markets’ ongoing efforts to support Boulder County agriculture and fight food insecurity. Tickets here.

(Chet and Kristy Anderson will host a Boulder County Farmers Markets evening tour June 11 of their Fresh Herb Co. farm and greenhouse in Longmont. Get tickets.)

Finding a true taste of Northeastern sauce

As a person with Sicilian genes who came of age in the pizzerias and red sauce joints of New England, my taste buds are a little hard to please when it comes to Italian-American fare.

When I met a friend recently at Antonio’s Real NY Pizza in Longmont, I was treated to a legit taste of home.

We both ordered meaty squares of Sicilian pizza with a chew-worthy crust. The beauty of eating at a pizzeria is that the slices get extra hot and crispy when reheated in that blistering oven.

We added an order of garlic-drenched knots that were ideal for dipping in the herbed, crushed tomato marinara enveloping three large meatballs. Made with ricotta cheese, these beauties were tender, not bouncy, and topped with a generous grind of parmesan.

My friend — a lawyer who grew up in an Italian family in New Jersey — was also impressed.

“Wow! That sauce is amazing,” he said. The man who seldom takes leftovers went home that day with the leftover marinara.

I’ll be going back to try Antonio’s other pizza styles, plus the calzones, bagels, cannoli and pasta dishes.

(On Sept. 25, Antonio’s will team up with many other local pizza shops for the inaugural Colorado Pizza Festival. Details here: 📖 Longmont pizzerias launch ‘Pizza With Purpose’ to fight food insecurity)

Award-winning granola, root beer milk and ‘Survivor’ cooking

Boulder winners of the 2026 Good Food Awards, the Oscars of American artisan food and drink, are Ethiopia Chelbesa Danche coffee from Boxcar Coffee Roasters; Sati Chill Ginger CBD Soda; and Spark + Honey Cranberry Almond Coconut Granola.

Nearby winners include Bread ‘n’ Butter Pickles from Longmont’s Know Your Roots Pickles and Willoughby Honey Spirit from Rollinsville. Check out the complete list.

If you like root beer floats, you’ll love the Root Beer Milk offered by Longmont Dairy.

It’s a sweet, root-y, creamy dream and available only in June for home delivery and at select retailers, including some Sprouts stores. Needless to say, it elevates a bowl of shredded wheat.

Chef Carrie Baird — who operated Rose’s American at Rosetta Hall in Boulder and owns Denver’s Fox and the Hen — is a contestant on “Chopped Castaways,” a new survival-style cooking show currently airing on the Food Network.

Classes for angler cooks and tea lovers

Michelin-starred, Costa Rican-born Colorado chef Byron Gomez leads a hands-on class in Whole Fish Butchery June 27 at Boulder’s Food Lab. Register here.

Day Day Up Tea in Lafayette hosts a traditional Gongfu tea tasting on June 27 focusing on the history, culture and art of Chinese tea. Get tickets.

(List your upcoming food event, festival or class for free at Boulder Reporting Lab using the self-submission form here.)

Market Meals: Chill out with tart sorrel soup

A Boulder Reporting Lab reader recently requested a recipe for using fresh summer sorrel, a green with a vibrant tart flavor. The Boulder County Farmers Markets share a classic French-inspired recipe for creamy sorrel soup here.

“Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?” — From William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” one of three plays presented this summer in Boulder by the Colorado Shakespeare Festival.

Want more Boulder bites?

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New Boulder restaurant Casa Juani brings Spanish seafood and tapas from Frasca alumni chefs

Frasca alumni chefs Eduardo Valle Lobo and Kelly Jeun open their first solo restaurant on Pearl Street in downtown Boulder. Continue reading…

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