Farm-to-table dining is hardly a fad. The movement has gained momentum for decades, and for good reason. Who wouldn’t want to enjoy the freshest ingredients possible while supporting nearby farmers using sustainable practices? With over 1,000 farms and sweeping views of the Front Range, Boulder County is an idyllic place to experience agritourism.
Our suggestion? Tour a farm, then head downtown to taste their harvest at a local restaurant. Explore the farms: A bucolic cruise through Boulder County’s northernmost farmland lands you at Black Cat, and the setting gets even prettier once you’ve wandered onto chef-farmer Erik Skokan’s 500-acre certified organic farm. Skokan started as a backyard gardener in 2006, the year he opened his first restaurant.
Since then, he and his wife, Jill Skokan, have grown their operation to include 250 varieties of vegetables, grains, legumes, herbs, and flowers, as well as heritage sheep and pigs — not to mention a patch of mouthwatering strawberries dripping down a hillside between private cabanas that will reopen for farm dinners sometime this summer (most likely July). If you’re serious about learning the ins and outs of farming, Black Cat’s custom, hands-on, chef-led tours are definitely the way to go. Call 303-444-9110 to book a morning or afternoon outing; $250 for groups of all sizes.
The Skokans gear tours toward the interests of their guests, so you could find yourself walking — and sampling — the fields while learning .
