Welcome to Nibbles, Boulder’s weekly food newsletter. Because of the Memorial Day holiday, we’re arriving in your inbox on Wednesday this week. Typically, you’ll find Nibbles every Tuesday for a smorgasbord of Boulder County food and restaurant news, dining tips and cooking hacks. Encourage your favorite foodies to sign up for this free community culinary resource, too.
Summer hiking is more exciting when you know you are surrounded by tasty treats. In this week’s Nibbles, I talk about the dos and don’ts of harvesting wild foods with a veteran forager. Plus: tasting a great biscuit, and Hinman Pie says goodbye.
Finally, National Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Day may be celebrated on June 9, but we’re sharing a recipe instead for a simple rhubarb cake this week from Gold Hill.
— John Lehndorff
This is where Boulder gathers around the table. Where trail days turn into patio nights and quick bites become something worth slowing down for. Downtown Boulder is filled with menus that are fresh, local and in season, and patios buzzing with energy from morning coffee to late-night bites. From laid-back favorites to elevated plates, it’s all right here. Welcome to Downtown Boulder, where Boulder comes to life.
Tara Lanich-LaBrie sees wild tastes everywhere. For her, taking a walk in the Boulder foothills is like a shopping trip to a supermarket.
“I’ve already been running around outside, foraging spruce tips this morning. I’m making spruce tip mochi ice cream. It’s a nice, bright flavor,” Lanich-LaBrie says.
She is the author of the 2024 book “Foraged & Grown: Healing, Magical Recipes for Every Season” (Countryman Press), featuring 100 plant-based recipes ranging from Nettle Gnocchi to Hollyhock Wraps using foraged and homegrown ingredients.
“All you need to get started is to know the basic rules. Part of the joy of foraging is that you’re out taking a walk and find food,” she says.
Lanich-LaBrie advises finding a good, illustrated Colorado foraging guide and taking a class with an experienced forager.
“I do not recommend relying on plant ID apps. I’ve found them to be not correct most of the time. You don’t want to poison yourself or anyone else,” she says.
Start foraging in your own backyard
Novice foragers don’t have to travel far to get started.
“If you have one, your own backyard is the best place to begin, unless you’re spraying it with chemicals,” she says.
“Next, I encourage people to become friends with their neighbors. Like when we first moved here from rural New Mexico, I would say to my neighbors: ‘You have a very nice crop of dandelions there, or lilacs, roses and elderflowers. Can I harvest some of them, and I’ll share the preserves or tincture I make from it?’ You just have to ask permission,” she says.
Boulder and Longmont neighborhood alleys are also often full of fruit, herbs and edible flowers.
You can forage within reason on National Forest sites, but foraging of any kind, including mushrooms, is forbidden in all National Parks.
Greens, berries, flowers and fruit
There is a green plant springing up in Boulder yards that many homeowners regard as a weed.
“Lamb’s quarters, which is related to quinoa, is a green that tastes like spinach and is more nutritious. It grows everywhere. I make lamb’s quarters lasagna.”
According to Lanich-LaBrie, the hills will fill with tasty treats as the season progresses, including wild plums, currants, elderberries, chokecherries, dandelions, feral asparagus and apples.
“You just have to get them before the birds do.”
To find wild raspberries and huckleberries, she recommends driving or hiking into National Forest land at higher altitudes, such as above the Peak to Peak Highway.
Respect the forager’s code: Never take it all!
Foragers are a pretty secretive bunch, so nothing brightens a hiker’s day like coming across a fresh crop of mushrooms or berries. The natural tendency is to harvest everything in sight.
“You never take it all — ever. You always leave some for the wildlife. Also, you never want to pull a plant up by its roots. Just harvest the top, and it will grow back,” Lanich-LaBrie says.
Tara Lanich-LaBrie shares a plant-intensive life with her husband, Mark DeRespinis, who grows produce for top local restaurants, including Frasca Food and Wine at his Esoterra Culinary Garden farm in Boulder.
Lanich-LaBrie also operates The Medicine Circle.
“I think of plants as kind of being our elders. It might sound a little bit out there, but I teach people to look at foraging through the lens of reciprocity with the plants. By asking permission and thanking them, you form a deeper connection and relationship to the plants,” she says.
Foraging 101: Take a class, go on a fungi foray
Legendary Boulder herbalist Brigitte Mars leads an Urban Herb Walk in Boulder on May 30. Register here.
Mars will also lead an herb walk at the Botanica Festival in Lafayette.
Jenni Hlawatsch of The Singing Cook teaches “Preserving the Season: Making Homemade Jams & Curds” at Botanica: A Festival of Plants, June 27-28 at Lafayette’s Three Leaf Farm.
Kids ages 5-12 can learn to forage safely through The Kiva Center, July 20-24 in Lefthand Canyon. Sign up here.
Forager Orion Aon will lead a mushroom foray July 11 followed by a wild foods dinner prepared by chef Kyle Mendenhall at Enso Farm and Forage. Register here.
Mushroom forays and workshops are featured Aug. 21-23 at the Eagle Mushroom & Wild Food Festival.
Check out Colorado’s mushroom foraging rules here.
Malted milk biscuits and race logistics
It sounded like a scone, but the malted milk glazed biscuit at Lucky’s Bakehouse turned out to be a sweet encounter of a better kind.
This buttermilk biscuit had a crispy exterior with a tender buttery crumb inside. The drizzled glaze made with barley malt syrup added a maple-like earthiness.
I enjoyed bites with butter and sips of coffee as I swiped through your responses to my off-the-cuff proposal to launch a new Boulder race built around pastries.
The reaction to the Boulder Pastry 10K was so heartwarming and enthusiastic that it is worthwhile to seriously consider staging the inaugural race on a weekend this fall.
As one Nibbles reader put it:
“As a fellow Boulderite, I’ve seen weird things and this is definitely not the weirdest idea.”
I’m willing to provide guidance and help convince bakeries and restaurants to participate. What we need now is a volunteer race director in a city that is chockablock with folks with race organization experience.
If this job description fits you, let me know: nibbles@boulderreportinglab.org.
Citing rising costs, Hinman Pie closes
Boulder County fans have loved John Hinman’s pies since he started baking at The Post in Lafayette more than a decade ago. His sweet and savory creations have been featured at farmers markets and Thanksgiving feasts.
Sadly, Hinman Pie is closing this week.
I talked with John Hinman about the reasons for his decision:
“I’m closing because of the rising cost of selling pies. Everything is up. My workers compensation insurance is up $14,000 over last year. Butter is up and ground beef costs $8 a pound. Packaging costs are up because of tariffs, and gas to deliver the pies to stores is through the roof,” Hinman says.
“It means I can’t charge enough for a sweet treat to survive. Is pie a luxury? I think not. Pies have always brought people together. Pies have no sides. So, to see real pies disappear from the market really stinks.”
To grab one last hand pie, John Hinman advises visiting Lucky’s Market in Boulder, which may still have a supply.
Market Meals: Rhubarb takes the cake
Rhubarb — also known as “pie plant” — is one of the first fruits to appear in spring and has been part of local recipes for 150 years.
This week, the Boulder County Farmers Markets shares a recipe for Fresh Rhubarb Cake from a historic Gold Hill cookbook.
“Summer cooking implies a sense of immediacy, a capacity to capture the essence of a fleeting moment.” — British food writing legend Elizabeth David
Want more Boulder bites?
Mustard’s Last Stand must leave longtime Boulder location, but a new home may be possible
The city plans to demolish Mustard’s current building because it sits in a floodway, but says it is still exploring options for the restaurant to relocate. Continue reading…
Sanitas Brewing closed. Its co-founder is opening a new Boulder brewery in the same space.
Pattern Break Brewing takes over with an experimental approach to brewing, a broader drink menu and a redesigned taproom experience. Continue reading…
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