All Local, All The Time
All Local, All The Time
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In Boulder County, a program called Farm to Early Care & Education (Farm to ECE) is helping change how some of our littlest citizens view new and strange fresh fruits and vegetables. The program, begun in 2015, serves the highest need and lowest income children across Boulder County by providing nutrition education and local produce to care centers for children from two-and-a-half to six years old. To qualify for the Farm to ECE program, child care centers must have some element of subsidized...
For several months, artist Rachael Scala visited Jack's Solar Garden weekly to gain inspiration for a series of large scale multimedia sculptural pieces of art. Her process was time and resource intensive. Throughout the spring and summer, Scala, who lives in Nederland, worked to build a series of six pieces of art, the first show created through the farm's new artist-in-residence program. Her path to this point involved her passion for permaculture, and part time work for a biodynamic...
R.L. Maizes is a Niwot local whose debut novel "Other People's Pets" is set in a fictional small town on the front range of Colorado. For Maizes, setting the book in Colorado was a natural choice. "It's so inspiring to look out your window and see a red tailed hawk, to see a fox when you're on your evening walk," said Maizes. "I recently saw a bobcat going behind a neighbor's house. There's incredible wildlife both in Niwot and in Colorado, so it was really a perfect place to set a book about...
Harness Energy is a small business that provides meteorological measurement services to renewable energy developers and operators across North America. They will be moving their headquarters to Niwot next month, in the former Excel Electric Building on 2nd Avenue. LHVC had a chance to catch up with co-founder Taj Capozolla for a brief interview, which has been edited for length. LHVC: Tell us about yourself. Taj: I originally came out here to Colorado for the skiing and the outdoors. I'm from...
When high school students take the preliminary scholastic assessment test (PSAT) in their junior year, some know that they are starting down a long path that could open college doors wide for them. Some just take the test to practice for the SAT. There is some controversy in the U.S around college assessment tests. Some schools have made SAT and ACT score reporting on college applications optional, notably Colorado College, Caltech, and the entire California State University system. While the...
Before the coronavirus pandemic, the commercial real estate market in Niwot and surrounding communities in Boulder County was robust. While some properties such as the former Colterra restaurant have remained visibly vacant, generally the commercial market here sees low vacancy rates and high demand. The Courier checked in this week with Jim Ditzel, co-owner and founder of Summit Commercial Brokers in Niwot, for an update on the local commercial market. Summit Commercial is a full service commer...
The First Friday Art Walk returned to Niwot on Friday, Sept. 4, after a five-month hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic. The town was bustling with perhaps the largest crowd out and about since the pandemic shut down much of the social life in Niwot and everywhere else in March. Moods were high, masks were worn, people were friendly, but socially distanced, and Niwot seemed to be returning to its usual community-oriented nature. Anne Postle, vice president of the Niwot Cultural Arts Associatio...
The Rotary Club was founded over a century ago in Chicago, and since then, the organization has advanced to nearly every corner of the globe, including several local clubs in the Left Hand Valley and St. Vrain Valley areas. Rotary International is best known as a service organization, and their work on polio eradication is well documented, a hallmark of local Rotary clubs around the world, including those in the Left Hand Valley. A recent merger between two local clubs, the St. Vrain and the...
Jack's Solar Garden met several milestones over the past few months. The experimental agrivoltaic farm and solar power plant in South Longmont on 95th Street is on track to start delivering power from Colorado sunshine to local households and organizations through Xcel Energy's grid. Almost all of the solar panels have been installed on land that had been used to grow grass and alfalfa for the past 30 or 40 years, according to Jack's Solar Garden founder and owner Byron Kominek. The timing is...
The Sunrise Stampede is one of the many local events to be impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Despite everything, the 35th annual race will still be held this weekend on Aug 6-8, albeit virtually. While the participants will not be able to gather all together, one thing hasn't changed for the 2020 Sunrise Stampede: the awards. Local Niwot artist and craftsperson Mark Rossier is once again creating hand-thrown pottery mugs to give out to race winners and participants. The race managers, Alison...
The littlest children in the Left Hand Valley will get to have a relatively normal school experience this fall. Childcare was deemed as an essential service in March and some preschool facilities, especially those providing care to children of essential workers, never closed in the coronavirus pandemic. Others have started reopening under smaller classroom restrictions during the "safer-at-home" period. For schools that provide both K-12 education and also preschool, it has taken some time to...
The local food scene in the Left Hand Valley is normally thriving in the summer. Things are more complicated this year. In the past, farmers could depend on connecting directly with their customers face-to-face at Boulder County farmers markets, in addition to their own community supported agriculture (CSA) programs. Kids in the 4-H program would spend months or even years raising livestock that they knew they would sell at the Boulder County Fair in early August. Other local food producers...
Gunbarrel has seen what some might consider more than its fair share of triumphs and trials in the restaurant scene over the past few years, coronavirus aside. That is especially true for the spot most recently known as Dannik's Gunbarrel Corner Bar in the Gunbarrel Shopping Center on Gunpark Drive. In a Gunbarrel restaurant review blog in February 2018, Marc Rochkind wrote positively about Dannik's, saying, "There were a couple of previous restaurants in the Dannik's space, something like a...
Pam Turner opened Airborne Gymnastics and Dance in 1991 in Longmont. On March 12 of this year, the business had over 1000 students between two locations in Longmont and Frederick, and around 75 employees. That Thursday evening in March, the leadership of the gym met to discuss the recent disturbing news about the novel coronavirus. Turner said, "We were really struggling with the decision" of whether or not to close. They ultimately decided to remain open, but woke up on March 13 to find that...
Live theater arts in the Left Hand Valley were effectively shuttered by the coronavirus pandemic in March, along with most everything else we gather together to do. While restaurants and shops are starting to reopen under new guidelines, community arts organizations are only just beginning to understand the gravity of the challenges they are facing. On June 11, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts announced it was cancelling or postponing the entire 20/21 season through June, 2021. Local th...
This year has been strange and challenging for educators everywhere, including in Niwot. In a time of unprecedented change and uncertainty, three Niwot teachers and one administrator are retiring and being honored for their service to the students and to the development of the greater community. Two teachers are retiring from Niwot High School (NHS) this year, as are a kindergarten teacher and an administrator from Niwot Elementary School. Kathy Benning served as registrar and attendance clerk...
Marcus McCauley has an ambitious personal mission "to heal people and the planet with delicious food." The farm manager and founder of McCauley Family Farm is working toward that goal in a practical and strategic manner, by building a farm in rural southwest Longmont. "We're doing that on this farm by building a regenerative farm that is sustainable, ecological, and economical for generations," said McCauley. McCauley is one of the seven recipients of the recent Boulder County Sustainable Food...
According to Eric Skokan, owner of Black Cat Farm, one of the best resources Boulder County has to offer "is the total quantity of agriculture geeks we have here." This summer, Black Cat Farm is beginning an experiment with the regenerative agricultural technique called pasture cropping, Skokan's own geeky agricultural project. This project is one of several to have recently been awarded a 2020 Sustainable Food and Agricultural Funds grant by Boulder County. Black Cat Farm was awarded $43,500...
Mark Guttridge speaks and walks quickly while casually throwing out phrases like "ultraviolet spectroscopy," "collaborative incubator," and "regenerative agriculture" during the course of a quick tour of Project 95 in South Longmont. Guttridge, an environmental engineer turned organic vegetable farmer, is clearly obsessed with science and data, said, "The best thing we can do as scientists for this earth is to teach the next generation how to collect data and most importantly, how to make...
Here is a ray of sunshine in these dark times; a ray of sunshine, shining on a solar panel, producing energy locally in Longmont for residents of the Left Hand Valley. Jack's Solar Garden, the community solar project created by Byron Kominek on his farm in south Longmont, is on track to be built, connected, and producing power by fall. In early April, Kominek signed a contract with Namasté Solar to build the panels. Namasté is a local solar developer, and as Kominek pointed out, also a c...
When Lorne Jenkins was eight years old and his sister was five, they were constantly asking their mom, Ellen Ross, if they could eat out for dinner. "She just got fed up with it, so she posted on the refrigerator a job opening for son and for daughter," said Jenkins. They had to interview for the jobs, and Ross even called their references. Fortunately, Jenkins said, "We got the jobs and then we got a salary every week." They had to pay for rent, transportation, and for bills. Eating out on any...
Can you imagine how we would all be feeling if this had happened in the '80s? The question came up in a friendly Zoom conference happy hour recently. How would we have coped in the pre-internet era? How would we have spent our time? How would we have connected with each other? One thing is certain: we would have had many fewer options for entertainment. As media giants such as Netflix, HBO, Amazon Prime Video, and others are offering new or exclusive options, some for free, what if what we are...
It turns out having a big birthday during a global pandemic is a bit of a bummer. March 20, 2020, was a milestone birthday for me: 40. I had been planning to celebrate at a nice restaurant perched on a mountain overlooking town, with most of my immediate family: my mom, daughter, sister, and brother-in-law. My dad was going to drive out to Niwot from his home in Omaha, Nebraska, to join us. Best laid plans did not go well. At least we hadn't booked a cruise! The coronavirus hit Colorado in...
According to Cathy Olkin, a planetary scientist at Boulder's Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), "Probably you've never heard of Trojan asteroids. They don't really teach that in elementary school when you're learning about the planets." Olkin, a Niwot local for the past 16 years, is dedicating much of her work to changing the knowledge base with respect to the Trojans. She is the deputy principal investigator of the NASA Lucy mission that is sending a space probe to the Trojans, which orbit th...
In an era of instantaneous digital communication and screens everywhere, the art of traditional storytelling is still alive and thriving in the Left Hand Valley. In March, eight new volunteers will join the Longmont chapter of Spellbinder Storytellers to bring this art to local children. Spellbinders was founded in Denver in the late 1980s by Germaine Dietsch and is now a thriving nonprofit, connecting elders directly with children through storytelling. "Children need older adults in their...
When South Longmont resident Peter Bronski was diagnosed with celiac disease in 2007, the Italian-American author, who came from a New York family with a strong food background, didn't skip a beat. Peter Bronski and his wife Kelli Bronski, a graduate of Cornell University's prestigious School of Hotel Administration, with more than ten years of experience in the hospitality and restaurant business, started a gluten-free cooking blog, and shortly thereafter, published their first cookbook,...
Youth leaders came together last weekend in Boulder for a summit on climate change, with a broad call to action on climate, social justice, and inclusivity. The Youth Summit on Climate Change at the Boulder Public Library, held on Saturday, Feb. 1, was organized by Sumanje Chigwenembe, a student at Boulder High School who serves on the City of Boulder's Youth Opportunities Advisory Board (YOAB). Dozens of students attended the event, which included foundation setting speeches as well as...
Even if you're not sure who Robert Burns is, you've almost certainly heard one of his most famous poems. Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and auld lang syne? For auld lang syne, my jo, for auld lang syne, we'll tak' a cup o' kindness yet, for auld lang syne. The famous Scottish poet wrote Auld lang syne in 1788 based on "an old man's singing" and set it to a traditional Scottish song, creating what is now a classic and standard...
FEMA will soon be implementing new floodplain maps for Boulder County. A move by the county last week to begin community review and appeals for the newly designated preliminary Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) from FEMA is just one step in an ongoing process to reevaluate and replace the old, outdated floodplain maps in Boulder County. In September 2019, the county came one step closer to approving new floodplain maps by adopting the preliminary FIRMS provided by FEMA. Those rate maps will be s...
When Kate Johnson, author of "Tiny Goat, Big Cheese," started learning about goats and cheesemaking, she didn't realize she was ahead of the curve of a new hip trend sweeping the nation. When Gene Hayworth, owner of Niwot's Inkberry Books, started his own small-town bookstore and printing press, it was a big risk. "But if you don't try it, you'll never know what could happen," he said. Both Left Hand Valley locals are simply following their passions, and their work will be on display at an...
