Denver Harvest Week Celebrates Colorado Wine

Here's another slow foods movement event in Denver, one that celebrates locally grown foods and beverages and the people who produce them.

According to a press release ,"The Denver Independent Network of Restaurants (DINR), comprised of the area’s top independent restaurants, has created Harvest Week, September 6 through 12, a weeklong celebration of Colorado’s exceptional produce and products. Harvest Week is presented in partnership with the Colorado Wine Board, Colorado Proud, a statewide program that promotes local food and agriculture, and the Denver Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau.

"Each participating restaurant will create a menu for Harvest Week that features food and/or beverages grown or produced in Colorado and highlights the style of that particular eatery. All menus will be posted on the Harvest Week section of DINR's website...Several renowned Colorado ingredients are expected to make appearances, such as peaches, sweet corn, chevre, trout and lamb. Other lesser-known Colorado products will also be featured, such as heirloom tomatoes, berries, greens and potatoes."

You can read the release here.

As Lori Midson writes in a special to the Rocky Mountain News, the event pays, "--homage to local farmers, ranchers, suppliers, winemakers, breweries and distilleries during Harvest Week. This weeklong tribute is all about supporting independent restaurants while embracing the bumper crop of food and beverages grown or produced in Colorado."

"Forty local restaurants turn out seasonal menus focused on local produce and fruit, buffalo, lamb, beef and fish, farmstead cheeses, wines, microbrews, whiskeys and vodkas."

Read the article here.

DINR goes on to say,“Eating locally not only helps keep the cost of food down because it doesn’t have far to travel, but also encourages the production of superior ingredients while benefiting the environment,” said Elizabeth Williams, Harvest Week Committee Chair and Events Manager at Highland’s Garden Café. “Harvest Week will surely be the start of more ongoing relationships between restaurants and local producers.”