A Bountiful Heritage – A Bountiful Heritage

May 28, 2017June 5, 2017 jodibuchan A Bountiful Heritage, A Bountiful History, Art and Agriculture, Events, Festivals, Food and Wine, Western Slope, Wine, Winefest

WESTERN COLORADO FESTIVALS YOU CAN SINK YOUR TEETH INTO

Hungry for summer? Salivating over plans for road trips and meetups and culinary celebrations? Marking your calendar with repeat favorites and wondering about new adventures inspired by Western Colorado’s crops?

From summer solstice on Tuesday, June 20, 2017 at 10:24 pm MDT to the autumnal equinox on Friday, September 22, 2017 at 2:02 pm MDT, mountain and Western Slope communities are serving up food and drink festivals that honor this season’s bounty. There is a smorgasbord of choices, so here is a little map to get you started on your gastronomic journey.

(FYI: I’m not including the Aspen’s 2017 FOOD & WINE Classic for three reasons. One, it’s before summer officially starts. Two, “Wines for Zillionaires” leaves out a lot of us. Three, they’re sold out.)

JUNE

First up is the TELLURIDE FOOD & WINE FESTIVAL June 22-25. The event’s prestigious gathering is somewhat distilled from Aspen’s celebrity jamboree. The experts, however, are not chopped liver. World-renowned chefs with a sheaf of James Beard Award honors are a common theme. The event has imported California winemakers from Sonoma and Napa Valley AVAs. And sommeliers will be on hand to guide the palate through the tastings. Participation prices range from free, yes free (“Seminar: Introduction to Wine Tasting”), to $1600 for the whole four day shebang, aka “patron pass.”

JUNE/JULY

PAONIA CHERRY DAYS FESTIVAL June 30 through July 4 has put cherry red in red, white, and blue for seventy-one years. This is a true community event that opens its arms to those beyond the North Fork Valley. The Paonia Lion’s Club began the festival in 1947 as a celebration of the cherry harvest in order to raise funds for the football field. Today it continues through the efforts of local service clubs and community members. Cherry Days is a true taste of life in Paonia. This festival expands its humble roots to current day status as a Colorado Creative Community through its unpretentious culture of arts, music, and agriculture. Will there be music? A symphonic yes (literally—Aspen Music Festival talent among the featured musicians). Will there be a three-legged-race, belly dancers, and a flag ceremony? Of course. Will there be cherry pie? Move over apple, there’s nothing more American on the 4^th.

JULY

Do you see it? Can you smell it? Lavender farms are filling Western Colorado with the scent of Provence. The 2017 COLORADO LAVENDER FESTIVAL begins July 7 with two half-day motor coach tours of farms in Grand and North Fork Valleys. Visitors to growers like Lamborn Mountain Farmstead are treated to lavender cultivation expertise and culinary treats. Saturday vendors of all things purple sell their wares and lead workshops on wreath making, food preparation, and more in Palisade’s Memorial Park. Talon Wine Brands crafts a special lavender wine for the occasion under their St. Kathyrn’s Cellars label. Sunday farms are open for self-guided tours for those who want more of this beneficial plant.

CRESTED BUTTE WINE & FOOD FESTIVAL in the Upper East River Valley gets into the spirit of summer, adding, well “spirits” from distillers like Woody Creek (vodka, whiskey, gin) and Montanya (rum) to the venue’s offerings. Since this is Crested Butte after all, bring your canvases, hiking boots, and swimsuit. This schedule features painting, hiking wine picnics, and a stand up paddleboard lunch in addition to the eating, drinking, and educational seminars and suppers. The festival covers five days of summer, July 26-30, so pace yourself and save your pennies.

AUGUST

Map out your own route for the WEST ELKS WINE TRAIL August 4-6. An actual map is available at each of the West Elk wineries where your hosts also offer wine and food pairings. Cheers to the bonus events on the 7^th at Azura Cellars and Black Bridge Winery where you can partake in remote control yacht racing or a barrel tasting (wine, not wood). Reserved wine trail dinners are already sold out, but Delicious Orchards keeps their doors open on August 6^th with a BBQ and music and hard cider tastings. You are in for a treat if you have never explored this trail. So pack your camera and steer toward the North Fork Valley’s section of the West Elk Scenic Byway Loop if food, wine, music, and fun are your thing.

PALISADE PEACH FESTIVAL is the granddaddy of the Grand Valley’s festivals. The star of the show is the world famous fruit that built an industry and founded Colorado’s fruit farming heritage, one nourished by the Colorado River and preserved by the Palisade Historical Society. The fruit-forward activities begin on Thursday, August 17, with an old-fashioned ice cream social. Spend the next day touring orchards then head to historic Riverbend Park after 3:00 pm for music, chef demonstrations, and peach eating contests (no hands!). Saturday’s full day schedule is family fun under the sun with everything peaches.

SEPTEMBER

“Que” up you grills for the PORK AND HOPS CHALLENGE September 8-9. Las Colonias Park and Amphitheater in Grand Junction will be smoking hot with professional, amateur, and kid BBQ competitions. This is a family event, to just beyond the event grounds—for twenty-one and older—an annual Beer Tasting quenches the thirst brought on by the BBQ winner tastings and food vendor fare. Whatever your personal preference in BBQ, sweet and tangy or spicy and savory, the winner from the People’s Choice tasting is the community, with 100% of the proceeds benefiting United Way of Mesa County.

COLORADO MOUNTAIN WINEFEST celebrates right at the source: The Grand Valley, Colorado’s largest grape-growing region. What began in 1987 as a grassroots collaboration with five wineries has blossomed into a destination celebration orchestrated by state supported trade non-profit CAVE (Colorado Association for Viticulture & Enology. Thousands come from across the U.S. to stomp grapes, savor chocolate pairings, tour the wine country, and learn why Colorado wines are winning national awards. Thirty years later, this year’s libation participants number over fifty—with hard cider and mead joining the party. The events begin on Thursday, September 14 with “Wine, Dine, and Paint,” and wine pairings at participating Grand Valley restaurants. Bus tours and a “Chocolate & Wine Tasting” at Palisade’s Wine Country Inn fill up Friday. Tour de Vineyards kicks off Saturday with a twenty-three or fifty-eight mile road ride past orchards and vineyards. Festival in the Park on Saturday is the main course for Colorado Mountain Winefest, with seminars and souvenirs, song and sommeliers.

Paonia’s MOUNTAIN HARVEST FESTIVAL straddles the solstice and equinox, but with one foot (tapping to the music) still in summer they just made the list … and what away to end the journey. The non-profit four-day festival September 21-24 is led by locals: local food, volunteers, winemakers, and Slow Food Western Slope. Saturday’s activities are in Paonia’s town park, with the full schedule of events still in the works. Based on 2016, merrymakers can anticipate a cornucopia of choices, including farm and winery tours, farm to table dinners, as well as music, music, and more music. Mountain Harvest Festival is a small celebration with a big heart. With Teens on Farms and collaborations with the Blue Sage Gallery, they “serve” the North Fork Valley by providing art and agriculture education that fosters the creative juices.

By no means is a complete compilation of Colorado’s gastronomic celebrations. (click here for Colorado Tourism’s list) The Front Range has a long list separate from the Western Slope. And in between, mountain communities know how to highlight the best of the state. Should you have a tendency to detour off the beaten path, here are two more Colorado mountain town food and wine festivals:

Breckenridge: Two is better than one in Breck. Take a “small bite” out of summer and wash it down with “unique” wines at the Breckenridge Wine Festival July 28-30 then go all out September 14-17 at the Breckenridge Wine Classic (details yet to come).

Steamboat: Does life taste better in the ‘Boat? Discover for yourself August 9-13 at the Steamboat Wine Festival. Here’s what they say you can expect: “Enjoy hundreds of food artisans, wineries, breweries, distilleries, epicurean purveyors and local producers at the ultimate food and wine experience.” I say: The town and the mountain are two locations so bring a designated driver – there is still plenty for non-drinkers to enjoy.

April 6, 2016 jodibuchan A Bountiful Heritage, A Bountiful History, Food and Wine, Recipes

Eat Your Wine!

Wine Soaked Grape Cake is from Sharon O’Connor’s Wine Tasting recipe box, “Small Plates for Wine.”

I made a couple of changes that I will note in the recipe. How did it taste? Good. I think the Marsala from California I had on hand was a little strong—a sweeter dessert wine with lower alcohol content might be a better choice next time. Maybe a fruit wine from Palisade’s Carlson Vineyards or a mead (honey wine) from Meadery of the Rockies.

This cake would be a great choice for a wine tasting party, perhaps paired with the same dessert wine used in the recipe. Hot coffee or tea for a brunch is another good option.

Ingredients:

1 ½ cup all-purpose flour (I used 1 ½ cup + 1 tbsp. of sifted high altitude flour and sifted dry ingredients again)
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
6 tbsp. unsalted butter (softened)
¾ cup sugar
3 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
2 eggs
2 tsp. grated orange zest (Not a fan of such a strong orange flavor so I used 1 tsp. each orange and lemon zest)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup dessert wine
1 ½ cup seedless red grapes (I increased to 2 cups)
Turbinado sugar for sprinkling (optional)

Preheat oven to 400˚F. Lightly coat a 10” springform pan with olive oil (line outside with foil).

Combine dry ingredients in one bowl: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt.

Combine wet ingredients in a second bowl: beaten eggs, zest, vanilla, wine.

Add wet to dry to create a smooth batter. Transfer into pan and insert grapes into the top. Bake 20 minutes. Sprinkle with sugar (opp.) and bake additional 10 minutes. 30 minutes total, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool. Remove sides. Serve warm.

November 24, 2015 jodibuchan A Bountiful Heritage, A Bountiful History, Art and Agriculture, Heritage Tourism, Uncategorized

Trail of the Barn Quilt

Z's quilt art on shed — Z’s Orchard in Palisade, CO

The journey over the hill and through the woods to grandmother’s house for turkey and pie is a bit more decorative these days thanks to artists who are hanging squares of local culture on the sides of buildings.

Quilting—an old tradition of art and agriculture—has taken on a modern twist with plywood, paint, and brushes replacing the needle, thread, and fabric. While quilting as an American pastime is still a widespread practice, artists are now taking patterns of heritage preservation and hanging them on the sides of barns.

Designated Barn Quilt Trails weave across the country thanks to Donna Sue Groves, who created the concept in 2001 to honor her Appalachian heritage. With support from the Ohio Arts Council, her idea expanded into a driving trail that featured twenty squares. Today, organized trails include forty-eight states and 7000 quilts. Colorado is one of those states.

Several Front Range counties have united to create the Colorado Barn Quilt Trail, aided in part by the Colorado Quilting Council, Inc. (CQC). Although not a designated trail, barn quilts on the Western Slope are a part of the fruit culture’s landscape along the byways and beyond.

2014-10-09 12.57.19 — Cross Orchards Historical Site

Along the Palisade Fruit & Wine Byway, orchardists such as Carol Zadrozny of Z’s Orchard and lavender store Sprigs & Sprouts display barn quilts that reflect their agricultural pursuits. At the Museum of the West and Cross Orchards Historical Site in Grand Junction, artist and local quilter “Verda,” crafted more barn quilts using traditional quilting patterns.

Barn quilts are usually wooden squares 4×4, 6×6, or 8×8. The Iowa Extension offers a PDF with directions for building a barn quilt by the Le Mars Arts Council. (Click here for directions.) Also, the Monroe County Illinois Barn Quilt Trail Members have a “how to” download that includes additional resources. (Click here for directions.)

Quilt FAQ from Quilting in America:

Mothers made “several quilts for each of her children to have when they left home to start life as adults.”
“The U.S. government urged citizens to ‘Make Quilts – Save the Blankets for our Boys over There’” during WWI.
The Depression prompted thrifty quilters to “saving bits and pieces of material from clothing and other blankets, using material from feedsacks.”
During WWII, “quilting was used to raise money to support the Red Cross.”

May 18, 2015 jodibuchan A Bountiful Heritage, Food and Wine, Lavender, Palisade Fruit & Wine Byway, Western Slope

Harvesting Spring in Palisade, Colorado

May days on East Orchard Mesa above Palisade are lush with post blossom greenery. Verdant grapes on the vines are forming miniature clusters among the broad leaves. Even cherries—the first fruit of the growing season—are green.

Along the Palisade Fruit & Wine Byway, growers are nurturing peach saplings. Z’s Orchard is planting 500 strawberry and 800 raspberry plants to add to their established u-pick patch. Early kale, lettuce, arugula, radish, and rhubarb are ready to harvest for the spring table. Click here to Z’s Orchard on Facebook to see what else is happening. (Click here.)

Gardeners are loading up their cars and trucks with greenhouse bounty at Sage Creations Organic Farm. Lavender-lovers wanting to start their own farm can learn from the owner and propagating pioneer, Paola Legarre, at Sage’s “Plant to Market” class on May 22^nd. Sign-up is limited to ensure personalized instruction. Topics covered:

Preparing beds
Irrigation
Planting
Pruning
Harvesting (for optimum use)
Post-harvest handling
Cultivars and their marketability
Introduction to lavender propagation

(Click here to get to Paola’s blog for more information)

For those who would rather create in the kitchen, Sage Creations Organic Farm has a variety of lavender recipes on their website from various chefs and magazines. One I plan on trying is Bon Appétit Magazine’s Chocolate Lavender Honey Tart.

Chocolate Lavender Honey Tart

Author: (Bon Appetit Magazine, April 2008)

Ingredients

Nonstick vegetable oil spray
9 whole chocolate graham crackers (about 5 oz.)
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temp, divided
1 tablespoon honey
1 cup whipping cream
2 teaspoons dried culinary lavender blossoms
12 oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray 9 inch diameter tart pan with removable bottom with nonstick spray. Grind graham crackers with 3 tablespoons butter and honey in processor until fine crumbs form. Press crumbs evenly onto bottom (not up sides) of prepared tart pan. Bake until set, about 10 minutes. Cool.
Bring cream and lavender just to boil in small saucepan. Reduce heat to low and simmer 5 minutes, remove from heat. Place chocolate in medium saucepan. Strain hot cream mixture into saucepan with chocolate. Stir over medium-low heat just until melted and smooth. Add cocoa powder and remaining 1 tablespoon butter; stir until melted and smooth. Pour chocolate mixture over crust in tart pan. Chill at least 45 minutes (chocolate will be slightly soft after 45 minutes and firm after 2 hours). Cut into wedges and serve. Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour before serving.

Click here to learn more about cooking with lavender from Sage Creations Organic Farm.

Share photos of your culinary creations here at A Bountiful History’s virtual #farmtocommunitytable.

Sage Creations Organic Farm cherry trees.

February 27, 2015February 27, 2015 jodibuchan A Bountiful Heritage, Palisade Fruit & Wine Byway, Western Slope, Wine

Winter in Palisade’s Orchards

Palisade orchards might be six months from dripping with their famous ripe peaches, but that doesn’t mean it’s not busy around there. If you look down the rows, through the barren branches and across the fields you’ll see why. It’s pruning season.

Workers are giving fruit trees their seasonal trim. (A little off the top, please?) The sun is out again after a snow—a gift during a much too warm winter with little moisture. Workers set up the ladders or ride on flatbeds through the orchards, long scissor-like pruning tools in hand. They pile up the downed limbs and twigs, removing them from the rows lest insects find a cozy home for multiplication … and I don’t mean 2 x 2 = 4. Think 2 x 2 = zillions of pests.

Labor needs aren’t just in the summer and harvest season. It’s year round. Child and Migrant Services (CMS) in Palisade is a lifeline. They are a network for farmers to connect with those looking for work. Plus, migrant workers find community at CMS. Director Karalyn Dorn says orchard work takes a lot of knowledge, skill, dedication. As a result, farmers like to hire the same guys (or gals) each year. “It’s a win, win,” says Dorn.

Even with the pruning activity in February, the Palisade Fruit & Wine Byway is pretty quiet. Sure, only a few country stores are open. (If you’re low on lavender and olive oil stop into Sprigs & Sprouts on Hwy 6.) Roadside fruit stands say “Thank you” and “Closed.” The good news for winter agritourists, though, is many of the gates to wine tasting rooms are open. (Thank you, Maison le Belle Vie!)

December 19, 2014 jodibuchan A Bountiful Heritage, Events

The Christmas Stocking Gift

One of our family’s adopted holiday mores that developed into a favorite over the years is the Christmas stocking—it is both occupational therapy and tradition.

The first thing we do after we get up is put together two holiday treat plates: regular and gluten free. After filling our cups with something hot or cold, we settle on the couch and indulge in a nibble. I take down the stockings that have been wondrously filed during the night for each of us. We take turns pulling one item from the stocking, guiding Katie to find hers. Each item is individually wrapped—even lip balm or pens—so that every gift is special. (The un-wrapping process also extends the time in front of the fireplace sipping coffee, savoring a treat, and snuggling.)

Even at twenty-eight years old, for Katie reaching into the stocking and pulling something out is still a skill to practice, it is therapeutic. We reward every effort with applause and praise and I think that that is more her motivation than whatever is inside. The Christmas stocking ritual is one that we treasure not because it is an iconic holiday activity, but because it is something that we can do together. This was not always the case.

When Katie was small the Christmas holiday season was a time I did not look forward to. In fact, I dreaded it. Besides the long school break that afforded little stimulation for Katie and caregiving help for me, illness came like clockwork. More than once we have been in the emergency room on Christmas Eve. Nights were sleepless, not listening for reindeer’s hooves on the rooftop or Santa sliding down the chimney. They were spent trying to quiet the crying and comfort the ailments. Add to that our isolation from social norms of other children’s activities and excitement and you had a recipe without sugar and spice.

Today our child is grown and living in a group home—a gift that did not come out of an over sized red stocking and is one for which we are grateful year round. Living in a group home has changed Katie: she has matured, maybe more so than she might have staying under mother’s microscope. She sleeps through the night, she is healthier, and most importantly, she is happy. I think that part of this is due to the fact that the group home pace is her pace. She is no longer trying—with my prompting—to keep up with “normal” children…young adults.

We have gone from barely “surviving the holidays” to enjoying them together. And while I am spiritual, though not
religious, this is a true Christmas miracle.

Happy Winter Solstice. Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukah.

(I gathered the stocking stuffers featured in the photo while touring around the Grand and North Fork Valley conducting interviews. These culinary and sensory treats have been wrapped and are on their way to loved ones. Below is a list of the businesses when I found them.)

Clarks Orchards, Colorado Cellars, Cross Orchards Historic Site, Fire Mountain Fruit, Lamborn Mountain Farmstead, Meadery of the Rockies, Sage Creations Organic Farm, Springs and Sprouts, Z’s Orchards (Richard—only the label, we ate all the beets.)

November 25, 2014 jodibuchan A Bountiful Heritage, Events

A Cornucopia of Giving Thanks History

Thanksgiving Day is not just an isolated twenty-four hours of gratitude event, with related and unrelated hand-holding, pie-hole stuffing, and wish-bone splitting stints. Nor is it only the over-eating coma calm before the Black Friday retail storm elbows its way into the holiday season. Thanksgiving Day is a porch-light reminder of daily practice.

Why this day out of the 365 day imperfect Gregorian Calendar? Why late autumn when early winter storms create an antithesis of feelings in holiday travelers? We need to turn back the clocks to tick off the accounts…

Celebrations of the harvest go back to ancient days when the end of summer meant winter hardship. Celtic traditions of bountiful merriment began not in November, but at the Autumnal Equinox (September 21^st), or “Harvesthome.” The Celts not only shared the reaping of what they sewed, they prayed to the pagans that it would be enough to get though the dark days until the return of the sun and plantings began anew—until the cycle of life began again.

Historians document the “observation” of early colonists’ first Thanksgiving Day in America back to the summer of 1623. How Thanksgiving Day came to fall on a Thursday follows a corn maize of proclamations by politicians and presidents from George Washington to Abe Lincoln to Colonial Governor Jonathan Belcher. Thanksgiving Day in the states now falls on the last Thursday of November thanks to a congressional declaration in 1941.

Whatever the month, whichever the day, there would be no family and friends’ feast with turkeys, cranberries, potatoes, and favorite fixings (mushroom and chestnut stuffing!) without the American Indians who shared their bountiful skills and gifts from Mother Nature with the Plymouth Rock newcomers. Their traditions of daily gratitude for grains and beasts and bounty is a broken-bread ritual shared by many Christians around the supper table. Yet the American Indian mealtime practice of thanks goes beyond the gift of food, it goes out to all that has lived and died under the sun and the moon.

(For diverse gratitude “inspiration” from the voices of many, visit the Huffington Post.)

On a personal note…I write this for A Bountiful Heritage with gratitude to those from the Grand and North Fork Valleys and beyond who have shared their time and their stories for my book. Thank you.

October 16, 2014October 16, 2014 jodibuchan A Bountiful Heritage, Events, Fruit History, Western Slope

Fall Day on the Farm at Cross Orchards

Cross Orchards Historic Site is a historic fruit ranch brought back from the dead.

From 1896-1923, the Massachusetts-based Red Cross Land and Fruit Company ran one of the largest and most productive fruit ranches in Colorado. With 243 acres and over 22,000 trees—mostly apple—the site was alive with growing and harvesting. Then came the codling moth and other challenges for the offsite owners.

The ranch died a slow death.

In the 1980s, the ranch rose from the grave, up out of the “weeds as big as trees,” and twenty-four acres of the original ranch site were saved from being buried under demolition and sub-divisions. The community united around the project, with the Territorial Daughters leading the way.

Territorial Daughters are still preserving history…and apple butter.

Cross Orchards

Territorial Daughter of Colorado volunteers can be seen in era-appropriate costume making treats on the wood cooking stove for Fall Day on the Farm this October 18, 2015. Other historical demonstrations include blacksmithing, quilting, weaving, and pressing cider.

Cross Orchards Director of Operations says Fall Day on the Farm is “a celebration of the harvest.”

Cross Orchards Historic Site is an opportunity for our 21st Century culture to travel back in time. It is a generational experience: children, parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents come together for the day. Walking into history—whether it’s the packing shed, the bunkhouse, or the summerhouse—is an opportunity for older generations to take youngsters by the hand and share their own walks down memory lane.

At Fall Day on the Farm history is very much alive!

Fall Day on the Farm:
Hours: 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Cost: Free to members, family groups – $15, Kids – $3.50, Seniors – $4, Adults – $5.
Click here for map.