MMmmm Recipes from our fellow friend and Boulder Private Executive Chef - Katie Bruzdzinski

Katie is a Private Executive Chef in Boulder, who happens love cooking with MM Local! She prepared a wonderful farm dinner at The Farmette in Lyons, CO this September highlighting local, organic produce including MM Local throughout all of the courses. She has posted the recipes from that dinner on her blog with fabulous photos of the event. Please enjoy her blog as well as the recipes she so generously shares:

http://icookyoueatco.blogspot.com/2011/10/mm-local-recipes.html

Talkin' Tomatoes with Full Circle Farms!

Full Circle Organic Farms is one of our most valued and important farming partners. Earlier this summer, we had an opportunity to hear from Farm Manager Karen McManus about why working with MM Local helps Full Circle get even more delicious local, organic produce into the stomachs of our Front Range Community!

It's Pear time!

Last week, revenue from our Harvest Share was dedicated to helping us buy 4,000 lbs of pears from First Fruits Organic Farm in Paonia, CO to preserve this week. Through the weekend, we sold enough Harvest Shares to buy 3,815 lbs of superb Bartlett Pears! Thanks to all of you who signed up for a Harvest Share this weekend and to those of you who helped refer new Harvest Share members as well. Our new members are making a direct investment in local agriculture, supporting organic, sustainble farmers like Kris and Kevin Kropp. 

 Kevin and Kris - better know as "the Kropp Brothers" - are dedicated organic growers who cultivate peaches, apples and pears and other tree fruit in the beautiful orchards of the Gunnison's North Fork around Paonia, Hotchkiss and Cederedge. The Kropps are truly dedicated sustainable farmers and view the protection of sustainable natural resources as a constant inspiration for their work. Family farming - and a commitment to its survival for future generations - is a way of life for Kris and Kevin. Organic farming, for them, meant having an orchard where their kids could play and eat fruit off the ground without worrying about toxic chemicals or fertilizers. Aside from their incredible energy, joy, and kindness Kris and Kevin bring a passion for local food and agriculture that gets us almost as fired up as tasting their orchard-fresh peaches, apples and pears.

We couldn't be more excited to start canning and preserving First Fruits' Pears on Thursday. Thank you Kevin and Kris for the delicious peaches and pears this season!

Gettin' Peaches

We had a great trip out to visit the Kropp Brothers and Brant and Carol Harrison (of Kokopelli Produce) out on the Western Slope last weekend, and we came back with some REALLY exceptional peaches. Many late peach varieties are our favorites and, as we've mentioned before, they are often on the wane in commercial orchards. Summer Ladies, JH Hales, and Cresthavens are all late season varieties that produce exceptional freestone fruits with a sweetness and depth of flavor that is totally unmatched by earlier season varieties. Unfortunately, as demand for peaches wanes with the end of summer, many growers are tearing out older, tastier peach varieties and replacing them with earlier-producing fruit. The margins are generally better for them, but the flavor just can't compare. We hope that our efforts to buy up late season varieties will help support more of them here in Colorado. 

Here's the photo tour of a Western Slope peach visit: enjoy!

Mt. Sopris on Sunday morning, heading down to McClure PassPast the AspensMoses - MM Local's Chosen truck - sittin pretty on top of McClure Pass... Down to the North Fork Valley to First Fruits!

Arriving at the historic First Fruits Barn right outside of downtown Paonia
All the way to our peaches at First Fruits!MM Local's pears: ripening up in the old barn till they are ready to can. Pears usually spend about 3 weeks off the tree ripening before they are ready to rollAnd even more pears waiting on trees all the way out of townAnd off to Palisade and the Front Range - with Paonia's beautiful mountain backdrop behind us.

Not just Fair

This weekend is the Denver County Fair - and MM Local is fired up to be a part of Denver’s first county fair (can you believe that? Apparently it’s true; it’s the first Denver County Fair, ever). In a spirit of true Fair-ness, we’re bringing all kinds of cool, unusual products including some Jumbo Jalapeno jars, delectable Tomato Juice, and great deals for Harvest Share members and Harvest Share sign ups! We may even have a few samples of our brand new Colorado Hot Dill pickles. Come by and be a part of a great new tradition - you can find us right next to the Freak Show (yup: really).

Here's what we're looking forward to:

• Eating pie
• The Top Hogs trick pig act
• Judging the pickle competition!
• Cheese: in general
• The Pancake Grill