We have considered it for years, and finally it is a lively reality at the Farmers’ Market: Just as we craft and serve food in our restaurants, now we are doing the same at the Market. Pork burgers from our heritage Mulefoot pigs. Lamb ragout, from our big flock of sheep. A salad bar drawing mostly from our own fields. The salad bar ingredients, as well as the meat dishes, will evolve across the span of the season — can you say roast suckling pig?
The stand was an immediate hit, and we are thrilled to be cooking for you al fresco at the Market, the heart of our community. Our Black Cat Farm stand is unique: No other food vendors at the Market in Boulder grow, harvest, prepare and serve their own food. We doubt many stalls or food trucks around the country, in fact, go as full farm-to-table as ours.
Please swing by on Saturday for a chat, for fresh vegetables and frozen meats, and for a spectacular from-the-farm meal.
Here is what will be for sale at the market; many of these vegetables, too, are part of the new salad bar.
- Red Russian kale
- Siberian kale
- Spinach
- Turnip greens
- Swiss chard
- Escarole
- Frisée
- Baby mustard mix
- Arugula
- Parsley
- Carrot bunches
- Bulk beets
- Arugula flower bunches
- Mustard flower bunches
- Chives
- Thyme
- All pork cuts
Every year on the farm has its big projects. Last year we dramatically expanded the grains program. In other years, we have performed especially immense work with irrigation, pursued (and received) organic and biodynamic certification, and much more.
This year much of our excitement revolves around the expansion of the farm.
What was a 250-acre operation just last year now is in excess of 499 acres. Quite a leap! The additional land gives us much more room to pasture our growing flock of sheep and opens up more vegetable- and grain-growing possibilities. One thing the land provides, too, is space — in the literal sense (of course), but also in a more abstract sense. Crop rotation and grazing are essential for soil health, which is extremely important to us; we take advantage of both ancient farming practices to nurture, strengthen and protect our soil. When the farm was at 250 acres, making all of this work was complicated; Eric often described the puzzle as something akin to a Rubik’s Cube. With the additional acreage the puzzle remains, but maybe it’s now more like a jigsaw rather than an intense intellectual challenge.
The land also helps us grow the grains side of the farm. We already grow a diversity of grains, everything from emmer and farro to polenta corn and barley. Now, the scope of the grain program will spread, including much more buckwheat, which we hope to turn into buckwheat flour. Stay tuned for more about our buckwheat milling efforts in future newsletters.
