File photo: Mark Guttridge, of Ollin Farms, at right, passes on a bag of fresh spinach to Steve Toon on the first Wednesday night of the Boulder Farmers' Market in 2010. Toon from Golden, works in Boulder and considers going to the market his hobby. | Paul Aiken / Camera

This via Top 10 farmers markets in U.S. | Gadling.com:

4. Boulder Farmers Market, Colorado

Regional farmers prove that a short growing season can still be spectacular in the form of red sunchokes, fingerling potatoes, maroon heirloom carrots, and peaches to die for from Morton's Orchards. A kaleidoscope of cut flowers and an adjoining prepared food section make this bustling market a colorful-and delicious- community hot spot.

What do you think — is #4 good enough?

Bill Campbell, of the Billy Goat Dairy of Longmont, prepares to milk his goats on Thursday | Daily Camera

Raw Milk — you know the kind that’s fresh from the cow (or goat), not pasteurized, and according to proponents super rich and nutritious — may have made 24 people sick in Boulder County.

Officials think the sickness is related to goat milk from Billy Goat Dairy in Longmont. In all, there are a couple of raw milk dairies in Longmont, a couple in Boulder and one in Erie.

Some food safety experts say that raw milk is dangerous (and that pasteurization was one of the great health breakthroughs). But raw milk lovers say it’s no more dangerous (if the dairy is clean) than other foods. (After all, didn’t hamburgers and spinach give people e-coli?)

Read more about the problem at DailyCamera.com, and tell us what you think below.

The tomato soup and an accompanying lemonade.

There’s really no better way to save money on food than a slow cooker, and I’m a firm believer that crock pots can result in food with a lot of flavor and heft. Combine that with a desire to cut way, way back on meat consumption for environmental reasons (boy, I’ve come a long way) and you’ve got yourself an easy urban challenge: What’s the tastiest thing I can make in the magic money-saving machine?

In the winter, I make a vegetarian taco chili (maybe not as fancy as the Breadworks vegetarian chili with chocolate, but it does the trick). This is a thick, beany, Super-Bowl-watchin’ number. Very tasty and filling (and works great on baked potatoes and Smart Dogs, too!), but not too appetizing when it’s 95 degrees outside.

So in addition to shopping for ingredients for one of the very summery, very healthy and tasty-looking potato salads in this month’s ReadyMade mag, I set out to pick up stuff for a modified tomato taco soup, adding soy chorizo to the mix.

I’ve used SoyRizo before and found it to be pretty excellent — most of the value of real chorizo is in the spices that make it what it is. SoyRizo pretty well nails those flavors in the same way that Morning Star’s veggie sausages do the trick for breakfast sausage (FYI, you can get that veggie sausage with any meal at Dot’s Diner!).

The soup ended up being plenty spicy (we like our food hot — the base recipe would be quite mild, so we chose a hotter taco seasoning and could have put in some chilies), and tempered with the recommended sour cream (actually, Tofutti sour supreme) and avocado, it was delicious. If we’d had tortilla chips around to crumble into it, I think that would have been worth it, too.

So, go ahead, take this recipe and make it yours. Easy on the pocketbook and the stomach.

Solar cooker baking zucchini bread | flickr user davidsilver

A solar cooker is a  simple way to use and understand a resource Boulder has in abundance: sunlight.  Simple cookers require such basic household items as Elmer’s glue, cardboard, aluminum foil and a glass jar, and can be assembled in as little as two to three hours.

The Boulder company Willow Way, run by Zia Parker, offers a solar oven construction class taught by Jeff Graef.

“One thing that’s good about it is it’s a slow cooker,” Graef said. “You basically don’t have to watch it. You can throw in the food, go out and do some errands, come back and it will be cooked.”

“You can cook a pretty good variety of things, but things that take a long time to cook are more challenging,” he said. “The easiest things to cook are fruits and vegetables.

While a solar cooker might not be able to produce enough heat to cook everything on the dinner table, it could be a fun and energy efficient way to gain more understanding of the power of the sun.

Read more about how to make a solar cooker at the Camera.

-Mikaila Altenbern

Bert Nett (front), John Spencer (back left) and Jane Spencer (right) plant squash seeds at an Earth's Table garden in Boulder | CAMERA/Mark Leffingwell

If there’s one thing the United States isn’t known for, it’s eating well. We’ve got a heck of a reputation for junk food out there.

For some people, it’s because there are six-packs of tiny powdered donuts in the vending machine down the hall (damn you) and they have a problem/are weak-willed*. For others, it’s simply because they can’t afford to eat fresh vegetables day in and day out.

Community Food Share, Sister Carmen Center and others in our community want to help with that second reason so, for one, they’ve set up a plot they call Earth’s Table, where veggies are grown for those in need.

Earth’s Table’s effort is one of several across the county among farmers, service agencies and individual citizens to make it easier to make fresh produce available to those with lower incomes.

It’s a tall order. A state-by-state study last year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that no state had met its goal for individual fruit and vegetable consumption. And that didnt even take into account income barriers.

“The nutritional value of fresh fruits and vegetables is so much higher,” says Lonna Lindsay, vice president of policy for LiveWell Colorado. “There are the antioxidants, minerals, nutrients, and the preventative aspect for cancer and obesity.”

via Earth’s Table and others grow food for those who can’t afford it – Boulder Daily Camera.

*Is it just me, or are vending machines satisfying like slot machines you can’t lose?

The Smith Renaissance School of the Arts, located in northeast Denver, got plant-burgled recently, but is rising above it.

Two weeks ago, on a Friday, the students planted the seedlings and others that were donated. The following Monday, the plants were gone.

“One student wondered if it was a clever rabbit,” said Lindsay McNicholas, the school’s resource advocate. “It was deflating. We had just planted them. We didnt even make it 72 hours.”

Read the rest of the story at The Denver Post. Or check out photos of the students replanting the Smith Renaissance School of the Arts vegetable garden.

Carol O’Meara, gardening columnist and host of stellar gardening in Colorado tips videos, pulled together a list of Denver/Boulder-area plant sales, and here are the Boulder ones:

Boulder Garden Club plant sale, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the Eisenhower School, 1220 Eisenhower Dr., Boulder. Homegrown perennials, annuals, vegetables, herbs, shrubs, and trees from the oldest garden club in Colorado. Supersizing the sale with the addition of the Boulder Orchid Society table of orchids, you’ll find unique plants and good advice from the staff at the event. Proceeds go toward supporting the club’s civic projects in Boulder and their international projects.

Growing Gardens community plant sale, Saturday, May 8 and 15, hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. Held at the Growing Gardens greenhouse, 1630 Hawthorn Ave. in Boulder, the event offers thousands of vegetable seedlings, plus annuals and perennials. Benefits Growing Gardens programming, such as Cultiva! Youth Project, Able Gardening, and community gardens.

Boulder Culinary Gardeners plant sale, May 15, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Bickell Sheep Farm, 988 North 75th St., Boulder. Edible plants, vegetable seedlings and perennials are offered. Meet other gardeners interested in growing food, and bring used pots for recycling.

National Wildlife Federation native plant sale, May 15, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., at 2260 Baseline Road, Boulder (Southwest corner of Broadway and Baseline). A great place to find native plants to provide food for birds and wildlife. All purchases will help NWF employees participate in RTD’s Eco Pass program, to reduce their carbon footprint. For information, contact rmnrc@nwf.org.

“Backyard compost bin sale and workshop May 1

“The City of Boulder and the Boulder County Resource Conservation Division are hosting the annual spring backyard compost bin sale on Saturday, May 1 from 9 a.m. to noon at the new ReSource Yard location, 6400 Arapahoe Road.  SoilSaver bins will be available for $50 each including tax.  Only checks and cash will be accepted.  Bins will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis.  No early sales.

“After purchasing compost bins, residents are invited to join a free backyard composting workshop from 10 a.m.to noon; space is limited to 30 people. Community members interested in attending this free workshop should RSVP with name, phone number and/or e-mail and number of attendees to jbohn@bouldercounty.org or call 720-564-2226.”

via City of Boulder

7. What are good crops to grow for Colorado’s climate? Colorado has cool, wet springs and hot, dry summers which is pretty annoying to the vegetable gardener.  Cool weather crops like lettuce and radish will do great if you get them going early enough but by the time late June’s heat and lack of humidity come along they will require intensive watering and may even stop producing edible leaves.  I found that Collards and Kale are cool weather crops that also do very well during the summer months.  Other excellent crops are raspberries, onions, garlic, chives, shallots, tomatoes, tomatillos, potatoes, and squash.

8.What was the most difficult thing for you to grow? I have had particular problems growing peppers, eggplant, and okra.  These plants require steady warm temperatures or they will drop their flowers and/or fruit or not grow.  Depending on your Colorado micro-climate these plants may work great for you or may never get enough heat to be productive.

Found via Tall Tara!

Some of it, anyway. R.J. Ruppenthal is somebody who graciously sent content to me when I worked at HuffPost Green (like this great post on how to grow strawberries) and his book is just great. I own a copy of it, and I recommend folks buy it if they’re into the idea of growing food in their small spaces, but hey — want to try a little under half of the book for free? Here are 76 pages of it (link here for larger version):

And of course no post about a Chelsea Green book would be complete without thanking my friend Jesse for introducing me to a lot of their materials when he was a Web and publishing genius there. Now he’s a Web and publishing genius on his own. (Hire him.)