A Day at the Farmers' Market

 At the Boulder Farmer's Market, the early bird gets the worm...or...er...the burrito. On a mission to find provisions for a day hike, I arrived early to the Boulder County Farmer's Market. Some vendors were still setting up their tents and arranging their wares in colorful and delicious displays, touting everything from Palisade Peaches, kombucha, pupusas, tomatoes, and what appeared to be fist-sized grayish logs labeled as "raw-vegan bean brownies". 

 

No thanks. 

 

After scooping up a couple particularly fresh, yet firm, peaches I wander over to a corral of food trucks to find heartier sustenance. I'm just early enough to catch an elderly woman tenderly rubbing fresh lumps of corn masa into tortillas. The pale yellow circles were baked into a pleasant beige as the morning sun too transitioned from its shade of gold to a cheerful flaxen hue. 

 

I grab a veggie burrito, thankful for the warm tin-foil lending its structural integrity to the home-made tortilla. It was now 8:30, and the market was bustling with Boulderites of all ages, riding bikes, pushing strollers, and roller-blading towards the rows of produce-laden tents.

 

Reusable shopping bags bursting with fresh fruits, veggies, and baked goods, people mingled in the street and in the nearby Central Park, enjoying their purchases and people-watching. 

 

I stood on the corner of Canyon and Arapahoe and watched people fork over cash for organic tomatoes and carrots, the juice of my own Palisade Peach running down my chin as I try to covertly snap a photo. 

 

This, is fall in Boulder. 

Zoë Rom

Zoë Rom is a science and environmental journalist with bylines in The New York Times, Outside, and High Country News. She co-hosts Your Diet Sucks, an evidence-based nutrition and wellness podcast, with registered dietitian Kylee Van Horn, RDN, where they investigate how wellness culture distorts science and how athletes can do better. A Colorado-based ultrarunner, she finished second at the Leadville Trail 100 and top five at Run Rabbit Run 100. Her reporting and commentary focus on the intersection of sport, science, and the wellness industry's long history of selling women their own anxieties.

Previous
Previous

Next
Next

The Science that Inspired "Stranger Things"