Podcast TRT 8:13

Pauline Rawson, Reporter- It’s the first Saturday in April in Downtown Boulder and the air smells like fresh bread and coffee. Musicians tune their instruments on the corner, and tents stretch down 13th Street as the first farmers’ market of the season comes to life.  

Reporter- Welcome to the podcast, I’m Pauline Rawson. Today’s story, how the Boulder County Farmers’ market changes how we buy and think about food. 

Reporter– But what makes this market feel different isn’t just about what you see… its what you taste and the amount of care that goes into it long before reaching your hands.   

Regan Choi, Ela Family Farms- And they’ll put one in their mouth and have this explosion of flavor and juice and their eyes get big like a cartoon and oh my god and have this revelation. Oh, that’s what a peach tastes like, that’s why people are excited?

Reporter- That was Regan Choi, who runs a fourth-generation orchard in the Rocky Mountain West with her Husband, Stephen, at Ela Family Farms.  

Reporter- Those small moments capture the difference in the craft and keep customers coming back. 

Reporter- In 2024, more than 200,000 people visited the Boulder County Farmers’ market over the course of the season. Each week, bringing in thousands of families, students and children–all moving from stand to stand sampling food, talking to vendors and taking it all in. 

Reporter- Between the coffee lines and pastry stands, I stopped a group of CU Boulder seniors, Lauren Bitti and Megan Thompson, who said they’ve been coming here since their first year.  

Lauren Bitti, Senior- Just, like, the locality of it, and there’s so many different options, you can discover something new every time.

Megan Thompson, Senior- It’s such like a nice, easy thing to do outside on a weekend.

Reporter- The Boulder County Farmers’ market has been a staple since 1987. Today, it supports more than 206 farmers, ranchers and local businesses each one growing or producing what they sell. 

Choi- So, Friday the day itself we are outside with all of these pallets ya know the little wooden pallets lined up along the row of our semi-truck so that we can pre-pack palettes to go to different markets. But the goal is to get out of here by the early afternoon. It doesn’t always happen.

Reporter- And just a few short hours later it starts again.  

Choi- Early Saturday morning, like 4:30 in the morning Saturday morning, we have crew meet us there and we distribute those pallets. Everybody disperses early, early towards the farmers’ markets that happen on Saturday. There are five of them.

Reporter- By the time customers arrive, everything is in place but getting there takes long hours, hard work and very little sleep. Still for Choi its the interaction that matters most.  

Choi- You want to put all your energy out there because it’s fun and that’s really great to actually get to interact with people and see face-to-face the connection, like ‘Yeah I’m growing your food and you’re eating my food.’

Reporter- Those conversations don’t just stay at the stand to rot. Oh no, they follow the fruit back to the farm. 

Choi- A lot of what’s planted on the farm is actually the result of those conversations, of people talking about what they love and what they don’t love as much. You know, what they wish we would have.

Reporter- For many people, the experience becomes routine. Kinsey Green, a senior at CU Boulder, has her routine down.  

Kinsey Green, Senior- Coffee is the first stop, and then we were thinking about getting a pastry, then a plant.

Reporter- The farmers’ market allows you to try new things in many aspects, and with local businesses being the provider, you can come back to familiar faces, making it a more memorable experience.  

Reporter- At Hearth Bakery, Theo Saboten helps run their stand each week as the farmers’ markets manager. I asked him what keeps people coming back week after week. 

Theo Saboten, Farmers market manager- We focus and strive to be a community brand, so ones that folks want to come back to. What’s been so great is that they’ll let us know if something drops in its quality. So, like, if we have a pastry that just isn’t hitting the mark, or it’s not super strong on its flavor, our regulars are usually the ones that’ll let us know about that, and that’s incredibly helpful.

Reporter- Hearth bakery has been established at markets since 2020, but it is their first year participating in the Boulder County Farmers Market. And Theo knows what makes a market successful. 

Saboten- I think that when you’re buying at a grocery store, it feels different than when you’re buying at a farmer’s market. At a farmer’s market, you’re speaking to folks that either work on the farm or know that product really well. They can talk about their practices, where they source their ingredients, how it’s made or how it’s grown.

Reporter- That kind of back and forth shows up all over the market and you feel it as you move from stand to stand. 

Reporter- Samples get passed out to customers and small tastes turn into conversation starters. I tried a garlic dill pickle from Mountain Girl Pickles. It was crisp, it was juicy, with a sharp bite that lingered after.  

Reporter- At 5 Star Matcha, a long line formed, but it moved swiftly. One person whisking matcha after matcha without stopping, the other filling each cup with flavor and ice, working in rhythm. When I got my strawberry rhubarb matcha the flavor was bright, the matcha strong, balanced with just enough sweetness.  

Reporter- A few steps away, I tried a sample from the Cocktail Caravan, offering a fresh-pressed mixer with citrus herbs layered in ways I didn’t know I needed to taste. There was no lack of savory bites either. I tried meat samples and roasted Brussels sprouts, each one offering something different to my palate.  

Reporter- And as you browse through the different vendors, you start to notice something–those flavors feel brighter, more alive.  

Reporter- And that’s not by accident. For farmers like Regan Choi, that taste comes from decisions made long before the market even begins.  

Choi- Well, so like if you take it to a packing shed, the peaches still have to be hard, because they dump them onto the packing line to sort, to sort them, whereas here we can let them stay on the tree for a few days longer, so they get ripe. And then we hand-pack every single one without dumping them.

Reporter- And even the fruit that doesn’t look perfect it still has a purpose. 

Choi- All the fruit that’s a little bit blemished, we still pack that. And we sell it as a half-price second or imperfect fruit, so now you can get the people who might not have the money, you know, you’re creating this whole world of food access, and completely getting rid of all the food waste.

Reporter- Nothing goes unused. 

Choi-  Then even the scraps from the kitchen go into these big bins that go to the pig farmer down the road, so we have a completely zero food waste.

Reporter- That idea of access doesn’t stop at the farm. It also carries into the market itself.  

Saboten- You know, SNAP dollars have been one of the most crucial elements, I think, of farmers’ markets. Your dollar goes a lot farther at a farmer’s market, specifically in SNAP.

Saboten- And it’s been… I think a really beautiful way to see how your community connects, and your community eats. Um, and those are kind of universal elements of life.

Reporter- From early mornings on the farm to conversations at the stand, the Boulder County Farmers Market runs on more than just produce; it runs on relationships.  

Reporter- For some, its a weekly ritual. For others, its something new.  

Reporter- Ella David, a sophomore at CU Boulder, visited for the first time this past weekend. 

David- I loved it. I love all the local and natural foods, and all the whole foods, and it makes me feel much better about eating a scone, and it’s natural.

Reporter- Its easy to miss moments like that, but here, you start to notice them. 

Reporter- The Boulder County Farmers Market runs Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., April 4th through November 21, and Wednesdays from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m., May 6th through October 7, at 13th Street and Canyon Boulevard in Boulder.  

Reporter- It will be worth it to stop by and take a look around, you might just find yourself enjoying a beautiful Saturday.  

Reporter- Thank you for listening. I’m Pauline Rawson.