Transition Colorado is hosting Boulder County’s EAT LOCAL! Week, Aug. 28 – Sept. 4, as an opportunity for citizens to explore and celebrate the abundance of local food, highlighting local family farms and farmers’ markets, along with the restaurants, grocers, and organizations which support them.
On July 27, Boulder County Commissioners adopted Resolution 2010-95 proclaiming EAT LOCAL! Week in Boulder County. Boulder’s City Council adopted a similar resolution, to be followed by other municipalities throughout the county.
Not only is EAT LOCAL! Week a chance to celebrate and explore, but it is also a chance to discover local food sources, to meet local food growers, to become more active in the local food and farming movement, to experience the joys of fresh delicious food, and to feel what it’s like to be connected to the local food and farming system, rediscovering a deep sense of community. A detailed schedule of all EAT LOCAL! Week events will be published as an insert in the Boulder Daily Camera, Boulder Weekly, and Colorado Daily.
EAT LOCAL! Week begins with publication of the Fall Edition of Boulder County’s EAT LOCAL! Resource Guide and Directory (30,000 copies to be distributed; online edition at www.EatLocalGuide.com), featuring the 10% Local Food Shift Challenge and Pledge, and continues for a full eight days of fun activities aimed at raising awareness about the benefits of eating locally: including food film screenings, restaurant specials, outstanding speakers, chef demonstrations, cooking classes, farm and garden tours, and potlucks.
Throughout EAT LOCAL! Week, all members of the community are invited to dine out, shop, attend our featured events, throw a dinner party, or simply make a home-cooked meal using local foods and beverages—and of course to sign up for the 10% Local Food Shift Pledge!
For more information, visit
www.TransitionColorado.orgRoundup of EAT LOCAL! Week Special Events~ EAT LOCAL! Week Kickoff (Saturday, Aug. 28, 5:30 p.m.) at Blues & Greens Restaurant (Boulder Outlook Hotel, 800 28th St.), featuring local food and music, featuring Louisville’s own Lionel Young, along with brief presentations by a host of sponsors, officials and community partners.
~ Old Fashioned Ice Cream Social (Sunday, Aug. 29, 1:30 – 3:30 p.m.), featuring Boulder Ice Cream and musical presentations from Mojo Music Academy, at Boulder County Courthouse south lawn, on Pearl between 13th and 14th Streets. Free!
~ The Local Food and Farming Revolution! (Sunday, Aug. 29, 7:00 – 9:30 p.m.) at Chautauqua; EAT LOCAL! Week keynote presentations celebrating the rising potential for the local food system with Woody Tasch (author of Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms and Fertility Mattered) and Transition Colorado co-founder Michael Brownlee, plus a special video appearance by Anna Lappé, author of Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do About It. Admission $5. Beforehand, enjoy the mobile culinary delights of StrEat Chefs, and beverages at Chautauqua’s Dining Hall.
~ 5% Local Community Giving Day (Wednesday, Sept. 1) at Whole Foods Ideal Market (1275 Alpine Ave.) in support of EAT LOCAL! Week.
~ “Symphony of the Soil,” An Evening with Deborah Koons Garcia (Wednesday evening, Sept. 1, 7:00 – 9:30 p.m.) at Nomad Theater (1410 Quince), featuring excerpts from a work-in-progress film documentary from the producer of ―The Future of Food, a groundbreaking film exposing the dangers and abuses of genetically-modified foods. Admission $10 at the door.
~ “Flat Iron Chef” Local Food Cook-Off (Thursday, Sept. 2, 5:30 – 8:00 p.m.). ―Iron Chef‖ style, local chefs— Eric Skoken (Black Cat), Matthew Jansen (Radda/Mateo), Ayan Rivera (Chef at Large)—are paired with local farmers to produce a feast to benefit the Boulder County Farmer Cultivation Center, held at Highland City Club, 885 Arapahoe Ave. (sponsored by Slow Food Boulder, Highland City Club, Transition Colorado, and Everybody Eats!). Advance tickets $20 (
www.TransitionColorado.org/events.php), $25 at the door.
~ Local Foodshed Commons & Conference (Friday, Sept. 3, 9:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.), at University of Colorado’s Union Memorial Center, Glenn Miller Ballroom. Free!
~ EAT LOCAL! Celebration (Friday, Sept. 3, 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.) at the Millennium’s Outdoor Pavilion and Gardens and Thyme on the Creek, featuring local food prepared by local chefs, local music with Mojomama, DU4, and Jeff Brinkman, along with original local art. Admission $20 at the door.
~ “Tour de Coops” (Saturday, Sept. 4, 2:00 – 5:00 p.m.). Become familiar with chickens and the variety of their dwellings in Boulder, plus visit beekeepers and cultivators of special culinary gardens. Free!
As the centerpiece event of Boulder County’s EAT LOCAL! Week, on Sept. 3, Transition Colorado and CU’s Museum of Natural History are hosting a wellspring of community-supported agriculture, gardens and gardeners, urban farming, new farmer development, reskillings, Permaculture, food products, retailers, and farmers markets. The day begins at the spacious Glenn Miller Ballroom (9:00 – 5:30 p.m.) with the Local Foodshed Commons, featuring a variety of exhibits and demonstrations from local restaurants and chefs, local farmers and growers and their markets, local food retailers and distributors, non-profit organizations and community groups, local independently-owned businesses, Boulder-born-and-bred companies, renewable energy solution providers, sustainability services, green builders and developers, and many more! An open-mike farmyard stage will provide opportunities for brief presentations from exhibitors and enthusiasts, with sprinklings of local (acoustic) music.
In the accompanying Conference, several leading experts will share their knowledge and wisdom in special presentations and workshops. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn from and talk with Fred Kirschenmann, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture (author, Cultivating an Ecological Conscience); Vicki Pozzebon, Santa Fe Alliance; Bruce Milne, New Mexico Foodshed Alliance; and Bob McFarland, California State Grange. These will be held 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Sept. 3, at CU’s University Memorial Center.
The day will conclude at Millennium Harvest House’s famous Outdoor Pavilion and Gardens, with an extraordinary harvest-gathering celebration of those who support local organic food, offering culinary pleasure with awareness and sustainability. Here you can enjoy samples from Boulder County’s finest chefs, as local musicians offer their creative talents to bring EAT LOCAL! Week to a stunning conclusion. 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.
“Locally Delicious” Restaurant SpecialsTransition Colorado is encouraging local chefs to feature all-local lunch and dinner specials on a particular day or throughout the entire week, highlighting locally-sourced entrees and locally-made products. Participating restaurants will be featured in the EAT LOCAL! Resource Guide and Directory and accompanying website and related promotions. Restaurants can devote a portion of the proceeds to the Boulder County Farmer Cultivation Center.
Remote Keynote SpeakersTransition Colorado is utilizing remote video technology to bring some of the most sought-after speakers in the country to Boulder County throughout EAT LOCAL! Week, tentatively including Wes Jackson, Land Institute; Richard Heinberg, Post Carbon Institute; Rob Hopkins, Transition Network; Kurt Friese, Slow Food; Tom Stearns, Center for an Agricultural Economy; Michael Bomford, Post Carbon Institute; Michael Shuman and Michelle Long, Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE). These pre-recorded video presentations (15 – 30 minutes each) will be shown at several locations (to be announced). DVDs of all the speakers will also be made available for home use, organization or church meetings, neighborhood gatherings, etc. (Details to follow.)
Documentary FilmsThroughout the week, Transition Colorado will partner with local organizations to screen inspiring and informative documentary films at multiple locations throughout Boulder County. These are the films that are helping to drive the local food and farming revolution, including "What’s Organic About Organic?," "Ingredients," "Dirt!," "Fresh," "Food Fight," "The Garden," "The Real Dirt on Farmer John," "Food, Inc.," "Numen," "King Corn," "Locavore," "The Power of Community," "The Future of Food," and "The World According to Monsanto. " Other possibilities: "Our Daily Bread," "As We Sow," "Food Matters," "Flow: For Love of Water."
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About
Transition Colorado: Mobilizing Colorado communities to make the transition from dependence on fossil fuels and globalized economic systems to local resilience and self-reliance, Boulder-based Transition Colorado (formerly Transition Boulder County) is at the forefront of the rapidly-growing international Transition Movement. Inspired by the visionary community-engagement process pioneered by Rob Hopkins in Totnes, England, thousands of communities around the world are mobilizing around this process. In May 2008, Transition Colorado became the first officially-recognized Transition Initiative in North America. Other official Colorado Transition Initiatives include Transition Lyons, Transition Louisville, Transition Denver, and Transition Westminster/Arvada/Broomfield. More Initiatives are already underway in Colorado Springs, Estes Park, Evergreen, Ft. Collins, Gunnison, Longmong, Loveland, Manitous Springs, Niwot/Gunbarrel, Salide, and at the University of Colorao and Naropa University, with regional and neighborhood Initiatives emerging in the West Front Range, South Boulder, and Capitol Hill areas.
I Nyoman Wenter performing the masked dance of Bali
