Four Seasons Farmers and Artisans Market presents the Colorado Honey Festival

this Saturday, October 1^st, from 10am-4pm.

The event features presentations by Ron Fessenden, MD, MPH on the the health benefits of honey, as well as a Beekeeping 101 class and a presentation by Sustainable Eiber on their work with Bee Safe Neighborhoods. Local vendors will offer a variety of honey-based products for sale, including, of course, honey from Colorado hives, as well as honey salted caramels, baked goods sweetened with honey, and honey-based bath and body products.

Event schedule:

10am and 1:15pm (inside):

Presentation by Ron Fessenden, MD, MPH: The Revolutionary Health Benefits of Consuming Honey   Book signing to follow each presentation.

11:15am (inside): Sustainable Eiber: Bee Safe Neighborhoods

11:30am (outside): Beekeeping 101 Class by The Honey People and Five Fridges Farm,

presented by Localworks

12:15-1:15pm Lunch and Tea Tasting

Delicious lunch options will be available for purchase from our vendors!

Dragon Sauces will be serving up Honey Chicken Skewers and Culinary Adventures will serve Palisade Peach, Caramelized Onion and Melted Cheese Flatbread Sandwiches.

Tea tasting: Ashby Teas provided by Griffith Enterprises and and two herbal tea blends by Golden Bee Tea: Pumpkin Spice Chai and an herbal/fruity, caffeine free blend called Blood Orange Smoothie. by Golden Bee Tea. Plus sample Colorado honey with your tea!

Recipe Contest Rules:   CLICK HERE

                      Best Juicy Tomato Rules:   CLICK HERE

We are thrilled to have this fantastic barbershop quartet performing at Four Seasons – you don’t want to miss these 4 time Sweet Adelines International Region 8 Champions!

With a shared sense of humor and passion for singing barbershop harmony, the members of Ruby Blue have become close friends since their inception in 2009. Ruby Blue recently won the 2016 Rocky Mountain Region 8 Quartet Competition and will be competing at their fifth International contest this year.

Sharing the beauty of the barbershop style and the love of singing with others is a large part of Ruby Blue’s reason for existence, so you’ll likely find them performing wherever they go!

For more information or to hire Ruby Blue, go to www.facebook.com/rubyblue.quartet.

Rebecca Richards – Baritone

Jocelyn Nguyen – Bass

Heather Tavel – Lead

Cindy Wadsley – Tenor

On Saturday, August 27th, Foothills Music Teachers Association students and teachers will be performing at the market from 10am-1pm.   Guitar, piano, flute, and harp music will be featured during the day.  In addition, the FMTA music teachers will be available to provide information about how prospective music students can benefit from professional music instruction and performance opportunities through the Foothills Music Teachers Association.

Join us a week from Saturday to hear some delightful music by local students and teachers! We’re so thrilled they will be performing here.

Plus… this Saturday, August 20th, our house band Velvet Compass will be performing – you don’t want to miss this funky soul blues duo! www.velvetcompassband.com

Watch and listen to The EverHopefuls at the Four Seasons Market on April 16th.    Click HERE.

Knives Edge Japan  

Hear music by the Kindred Spirits and meet vendor Linda Fitzgerald March 20th – Click HERE

Bluegrass music by Ryan Lee and guest, see baby pigs and Bee Keeping presenter – Click HERE

The Four Seasons Market has a Little Free Library located by the windows on the East side of the market. Many, many people have brought in books and magazines to share, and there is a wonderful selection of books and magazines, including gardening books, fiction of all kinds, magazines ranging from National Geographic to Sunset to Yes! magazine, as well as a good number of kids books. If you’re looking for a quiet place during the day or early evening (Tues- Friday, 12-6pm) for a cup of coffee and a good book or to meet with a friend, this is your new favorite place!

Click HERE to watch our Grand Opening Video!

Four Seasons Farmers and Artisans Market is dedicated to giving consumers an opportunity to support local entrepreneurs, farms and gardens and to benefit by purchasing fresh, safely produced food at a fair price year round through our new indoor market.  We are also committed to providing a year round option for small businesses to sell their products and maintain a stable source of income.

There are no longer any year round indoor markets in the Denver area aside from the corporate stores.  It is essential that businesses operate profitably, and we are no different, but profit making is not our primary objective in raising healthy animals and vegetables.  As the agricultural trend from the small family farm to corporately controlled operations has occurred, the same attention to animal health, safely grown crops and vegetables has diminished in favor of profit making. While we all benefit from efficient food production, food safety is often forfeited to achieve profit goals.  Small producers generally are diligent in their efforts to be accountable for their products.  It is much more difficult to hold large, cumbersome corporate entities equally accountable.  Even though they make enormous contributions to providing communities with healthy, safe food, small producers struggle to thrive and grow, because they cannot obtain funding to buy new equipment, expand into a new market or consolidate debt.  Larger corporate farms can obtain financing for nearly any purpose including purchasing the small farm next door.  Yet the products from these operations is not guaranteed safe, it is not guaranteed to be healthy.  Consumers can only guess as to how the  food they buy from them was produced

By buying fresh, local food, consumers gain some control over what they eat.  And by sharing information and resources, the urban and rural communities can work together to improve the  safety and quality of food for all.

10 Reasons to Shop the Farmer’s Market

By Joanne Littau

I love Farmer’s Markets. Some of my favorite memories are of joining my in-laws on a late summer’s day for a trip to the farmer’s market. I looked forward to those days more than they probably know. I’m not even sure they remember the trips we made. On those days, we would climb into the car and head north of Denver to visit the farms. I bought tomatoes and corn, beans, cauliflower, and cabbage. The cabbage turned into homemade sauerkraut, which my husband loves.

I’m so thankful for the farmer’s market this year. When in season, I buy peaches nearly every weekend. I make peach cobbler, peach ice cream, peach-mango salsa, and grilled peaches. Peaches. That’s where I’ll start my list.

• Colorado Wise Acres Farms ~ Fresh eggs, fall vegetables, lamb, squash, tomatoes, potatoes

• The Jelly Jar llc  ~ Peach Butter, Peach Jelly, Red Wine Jelly, Chocolate-Raspberry Sauce, Blueberry Jam, Strawberry Jam, Seasonal Fruit Jams, Jellies and Preserves

• Stress-free Christmas Shopping, I’ve managed to knock out some Christmas shopping for my mom, daughters, grand babies, my son-in-law. I love that the gifts are simple, organic, and homemade.

• Green Chile. It smells good. It tastes good. And, I made an incredible Chile Relleno casserole with my chiles tonight.

• Coffee. I don’t drink coffee, but the breakfast burritos and the coffee cake are delectable.

• Monsanto’s profits are down and we want to keep it that way!

• Real food. Simple Ingredients. No secret concoctions.

•  Fruits and Vegetables In Season ~ Beans, Corn, Broccoli, Plums, Peaches, Apples, and a plethora of fresh greens. I shop Saturday for ingredients to use in a Sunday dinner.

• Fresh Eggs. Eggs are a nutritious, inexpensive complete protein and farm fresh eggs pack more B vitamins and taste than their counterparts. Plus, they’re fresher. Our eggs are usually not more than a few days old when they reach our customers. 

I Support local farmers and artisans. Did you know that 68% of funds spent in locally owned,  independent businesses returns directly to the community? We should all buy from local small businesses when possible.