About the Farmers & Vendors
:: How to know what you are buying
Growers & FarmersAbbodanza Organic Seeds & Produce Backyard Bees Bookcliff Winery Ela Family Farms The
Cameron Place McConnell's Greenhouse Medovina Honey Wine Oxford Gardens Pastures of Plenty Purple Hippo Botanicals Tanaka Farm |
Packaged FoodsAltan Alma Seeds Infinitea Kombucha Prepared Food VendorsAmaziing Corn Tamales Pasta Bozza
CommunityCulinary School of
the Rockies Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks |
are buying at our markets
We are local grower's only farmers' markets. The farmers at our market own the Boulder County Farmers' Markets. With our farmers at our markets we have value added food producers, they also must produce what they sell at our market. We do everything we can to have all products grown or produced in Boulder County. In rare occasions if some vendors produce outside of Boulder County then it must be produced in Colorado. No product is sold at our markets that are produced outside of Colorado. All our growers have signs at their booth to let you know where their farm is and their growing practices. The very best way to understand what the farmers are doing to grow your food is to ask them. One of the great things about our markets is that a very knowledgeable person is behind the counter and they are happy to answer any questions about what they sell.
A Lot of people prefer organic growing methods, and many of our products are organic, but some of them are not, at least in the sense that they are not certified organic by the government. (And if you are not certified organic, you are not permitted to use the term organic.) Nevertheless, even our "conventional" farmers are using much less pesticides than the standard large-scale industrial farms. It's expensive and troublesome to spray, and they don't want to be in the fields with poisons so they don't do it unless they have to. We are working on improving our signage and have stricter rules for labeling at our markets than the USDA requires. A farm cannot label anything organic if the entire farm is not organic at our markets. We urge you to ask each farmer about their products, there are many different growing practices some that go beyond what is required to be called organic; in any case it is a great way to have a conversation with a farmer.
Some of you have expressed concern when you see farmers with produce boxes from other farmers or even with the boxes from growers outside of Colorado. Waxed boxes are expensive and hard to come by, and the ones preprinted with somebody else's name or distant provinces are cheaper and easier to get, and can be reused many times. The vegetables that you see coming out of them are grown on their farm. We do farm inspections to validate what each of our farmers grows. Boulder County Farmers' Market recognizes we exist because of the agreement between the producer and the consumer to meet in public space.
We are lucky to have such a beautiful public space to meet together.We thank you for supporting locally grown and produced food!