The épicerie is firmly grounded in brick-and-mortar tradition, gaining customers not through novelty or Instagrammable branding, but by reviving the regional culinary know-how and personal relationships with farmers and customers that empowered épiciers of the past.

To restore a balance of supply and demand, farmers and ranchers across the valley need to drastically cut how much water they pump out of the ground, according to the Colorado Division of Water Resources. If they don’t, the state has threatened to step in and shut off hundreds of wells, which local water managers say would devastate the valley’s agriculture-driven economy. 

“This is an extremely challenging situation,” Meiman said. “There aren’t simple solutions. There aren’t easy solutions. We’ve exhausted all of those.”

Grocery bills have already increased as farmers face tighter water budgets, Shields said. And they’ll climb higher if additional cuts plague the industry.

Agriculture consumes the vast majority of Colorado River water across the basin, so policy makers see the industry as an obvious target for conservation efforts.

Water managers from the states, irrigation districts, Native tribes and others are discussing proposals for steep 2023 cuts, which must be submitted to the Bureau of Reclamation next month. The reductions are expected to fall most heavily on agriculture, which uses about three-quarters of Colorado water, and on the lower basin states.

Thanks to Colorado’s Cottage Foods Act, social justice fundraisers and social media, everyone from enthusiasts to pros started baking comfort foods and finding their own dedicated audience. By the end of 2020, pastry and bread devotees were even waiting outside of some Denver bakeries for hours just to get a bite.

Now many of these small-business success stories that came about during the baking boom of 2020 are graduating into full-scale bricks-and-mortar restaurants and shops.

Pico plus ovens are coming for you America 🇺🇸

Swanson encourages other distillers to get as involved as they can in the agricultural side of the process. Some, like him, might be able to grow their own grain, a tradition that dates back hundreds of years. Others might not have that opportunity, but he would encourage them to buy local grains and speak with the farmers about which variety they use and why. By developing the agricultural side of distilling, the end user experience gets better and better.

Before evidencing a closely-linked culinary ideology, Czarnecki made a strong impression on Goodlaxson in the form of a thoughtfully-prepared “bribe.” “She came in and interviewed and brought a bunch of really good baked goods,” laughed Goodlaxson. Coming from a science background, Czarnecki began baking after becoming disillusioned with a career in oil and gas. After an apprenticeship at Babettes Artisan Bread in 2018, she was hired in 2019 for Frasca’s bread program, where she worked under head pastry chef Alberto Hernandez.

Her locally-oriented philosophy and on-site milling have rightfully received a cosign from Dry Storage bread baker Daniel Gray, with miller Colton Steiner actually helping to set the millstones in Fox and Raven’s kitchen. While the bakery clearly provides an outlet for Czarnecki’s natural talent, much of her approach is still informed by her more technical background. “My recipe book looks like a lab notebook,” she smiled.