Transition Colorado is hosting Boulder County’s EAT LOCAL! Week, Aug. 28 – Sept. 4, as an opportunity for citizens to explore and celebrate the abundance of local food, highlighting local family farms and farmers’ markets, along with the restaurants, grocers, and organizations which support them.

Not only is EAT LOCAL! Week a chance to celebrate and explore, but it is also a chance to discover local food sources, to meet local food growers, to become more active in the local food and farming movement, to experience the joys of fresh delicious food, and to feel what it’s like to be connected to the local food and farming system, rediscovering a deep sense of community.

Here are the remaining events:

* “Flat Iron Chef” Local Food Cook-Off (Thursday, Sept. 2, 5:30 – 8:00 p.m.). “Iron Chef” style, local chefs— Eric Skokan (Black Cat), Matthew Jansen (Radda/Mateo), Ayan Rivera (Chef at Large)—are paired with local farmers to produce a feast to benefit the Boulder County Farmer Cultivation Center, held at Highland City Club, 885 Arapahoe Ave. (sponsored by Slow Food Boulder, Highland City Club, Transition Colorado, and Everybody Eats!). Advance tickets $20 (www.TransitionColorado.org/events.php), $25 at the door.

* Local Foodshed Commons & Conference (Friday, Sept. 3, 9:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.), at University of Colorado’s Union Memorial Center, Glenn Miller Ballroom. Free! (see details below)

* EAT LOCAL! Celebration (Friday, Sept. 3, 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.) at the Millennium’s Outdoor Pavilion and Gardens and Thyme on the Creek, featuring local food prepared by local chefs, local music with Mojomama, DU4, and Jeff Brinkman, along with original local art. Admission $20 at the door.

* “Tour de Coops” (Saturday, Sept. 4, 2:00 – 5:00 p.m.). Become familiar with chickens and the variety of their dwellings in Boulder, plus visit beekeepers, goatkeepers and cultivators of special culinary gardens. Free!

Local Foodshed Commons & Conference, Sept. 3

As the centerpiece event of Boulder County’s EAT LOCAL! Week, on Sept. 3, Transition Colorado and CU’s Museum of Natural History are hosting a wellspring of community-supported agriculture, gardens and gardeners, urban farming, new farmer development, reskillings, Permaculture, food products, retailers, and farmers markets. The day begins at the spacious Glenn Miller Ballroom (9:00 – 5:30 p.m.) with the Local Foodshed Commons, featuring a variety of exhibits and demonstrations from local restaurants and chefs, local farmers and growers and their markets, local food retailers and distributors, non-profit organizations and community groups, local independently-owned businesses, Boulder-born-and-bred companies, renewable energy solution providers, sustainability services, green builders and developers, and many more! An open-mike farmyard stage will provide opportunities for brief presentations from exhibitors and enthusiasts, with sprinklings of local (acoustic) music.

In the accompanying Conference, several leading experts will share their knowledge and wisdom in special presentations and workshops. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn from and talk with Fred Kirschenmann, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture (author, Cultivating an Ecological Conscience); Vicki Pozzebon, Santa Fe Alliance; Bruce Milne, New Mexico Foodshed Alliance; and Bob McFarland, California State Grange. These will be held 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Sept. 3, at CU’s University Memorial Center.

The day will conclude at Millennium Harvest House’s famous Outdoor Pavilion and Gardens, with an extraordinary harvest-gathering celebration of those who support local organic food, offering culinary pleasure with awareness and sustainabililty. Here you can enjoy samples from Boulder County’s finest chefs, as local musicians offer their creative talents to bring EAT LOCAL! Week to a stunning conclusion. 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.

For more information to to Eat Local Week’s website