Annual food festival signals start of summer
Taste of Durango is our town’s summer kick-off (OK, a bit early, but who doesn’t love a street festival?) and it will happen from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.
The local chapter of the Colorado Restaurant Association gathers together craft breweries, top-notch restaurants and entertaining bands (the funk-soul-fusion group Jaden Carlson will play this year) along Main Avenue not just for fun but for community. All the proceeds go to Manna Soup Kitchen, which helps feed those in need. The event has raised as much as $22,000 for the nonprofit in previous years.
But be forewarned, the event requires tokens, not cash. If you’re an early bird, you can buy them beforehand at First National Bank. But no worries if you’re not – the festival sells them at all entry points.
A word to the wise – don’t park on Main Avenue overnight. Towing begins at 2:30 a.m. See you there.
New vendors arrive for second market opening
The Durango Farmers Market is almost open – organizers had to cancel the first Saturday because of the snowstorm – and shoppers can expect to see some new faces when everybody arrives this weekend.
Mountain Stir Fry will offer hot and fresh meals with produce sourced from local growers, sort of a farm-to-farmers-market enterprise for hungry shoppers. New farm vendors are coming too, with Green Table Farm from Mancos and All Seasons Farm out of Bayfield joining longtimers like the Gardens at James Ranch, Rohwer Farm and Banga’s.
Durango Farmers Market manager Cody Reinheimer is crossing his fingers that he’s found a new vendor for local honey, which he touts as being able to diminish plant-based allergies. And Kokopelli Bakery, specializing in gluten-free baking mixes, will return under the name New Hat Bakery.
Missing this year will be some of our favorite ranches, with El Dorado and Cole leaving and Hayes not coming until later in the season. And sadly for anyone who loves a good homemade bagel (to say nothing of a fabulous éclair), the Pie Maker has left to concentrate on its newly opened shop in Cortez.
“That’s a success story for the Farmers Market,” Reinhemier said.
Seasonal local produce is in the house
You wouldn’t think you could find homegrown spinach or delicate lettuce this time of year when it still freezes at night, but with the help of houses – hot, green and hoop – you can.
The vendors at the Durango Farmers Marker who toughed out the snow, hail and rain Saturday came loaded with fresh-picked produce from their farms, from cilantro to tomato plants. They sold it to customers who scurried in for their favorites, chatted with the farmers and scampered out.
But even in early May, you can treat yourself to summertime bounty like zucchini because hoop houses provide enough protection from the elements to allow them to grow.
“Everything we bring now is from the hoop house except for asparagus and potatoes,” said Heidi Rohwer of Rowher Farms. “I depend on the greenhouses until July.”
Those houses will help farms bring produce like chard, kale and summer squashes to the market long before the Four Corners’ prime harvest season in August. But another cold-hardy crop is coming soon – rhubarb. Get out your pie recipes.
Pamela Hasterok
