> Co-owners Genae Lako and Doug Wargo opened Public Wine at 100 S Public Road to offer Lafayette a curated selection of boutique wines, beer, and spirits with a focus on natural wine, organic wine, European selections, and unique offerings from the West Coast and beyond. Open Tuesday through Saturday from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM and Sunday from 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM, the shop specializes in Old World selections with more than 50 wine labels under $20 and the majority of wines under $80, making quality wines accessible to all enthusiasts. What sets Public Wine apart is their commitment to community education and connection: they host FREE in-store wine tastings every Thursday from 4-6 PM, allowing customers to discover new favorites, and offer a quarterly wine club where members receive six bottles every quarter for $150, complete with detailed information about each wine and food pairing suggestions. This boutique bottle shop has become a Lafayette destination for wine lovers seeking natural, organic, and carefully selected wines from around the world, with owners dedicated to sharing their passion for wine through tastings, education, and personalized service.

To those living on the periphery of the food and the farming world, winter’s toll on the land may seem like an opportunity for producers to take a long nap and rest before the ground thaws and it’s time to grow again. The truth? It’s anything but that.

Finding ancient, heritage, or landrace grains and flours is no easy task if you are trying to source them as locally as possible. The goal of this section of Daily Grains is to start sharing the grains we come across during our Grain Chain research. We recognize this is ambitious and the data will sometimes be outdated, but we're going to give it a shot. 

The University of Minnesota, in collaboration with a multi-state coalition of researchers, farmers, educators, industry leaders, policy experts, and climate scientists, was awarded a highly competitive 5 year, $10 million grant through USDA. This grant, called a Coordinated Agricultural Project - or CAP - aims to scale the research, production, awareness and commercialization of Kernza, the first perennial grain available for commercial production in the United States.

Supply chain disruptions steadily increased this year and with each new hiccup, a new sector of food production or distribution has been impacted. Though each of these supply issues happens on their own scale, it’s clear they’re connected. That cargo ship stuck off the coast of Los Angeles is part of the reason your peanut butter is more expensive. Pull on a single loose thread and you can unravel the whole supply system.

We've all loved the community feel of this set up. Farming is not easy work, and some days are hard. It's really nice to be able to lean on each other occasionally for the extra support. — Melissa Ogilvie, Speedwell Farm & Gardens

“To find a property like the one we’re sitting on right now is pretty challenging. Not just in Colorado, but all over the country,” Jurbala said. “The price of land is incredibly high for young people trying to get into farming.”

I started to research for web tools or apps already in the market with similar functionality. I wasted no time and started to talk to my grain community including students, researchers, farmers, millers, and bakers. After months of defining our goals, we moved ahead with a company that helped us to develop Golden State Grains.