To be honest with you, I think that there's not enough love for smaller towns.

In addition to farmers' markets, Denver Pops has contracts with Whole Foods, recreation centers, campgrounds, and other vendors throughout the state. Robbie and Ashley pride themselves on the fact that Denver Pops are made with locally sourced ingredients and no additives or artificial dyes in their 34 flavors.

A provider of organic food to Boulder County residents for years, Moxie Bread Co. recently established a production facility in Longmont. The company used to split its bread and pastry production between its Louisville and Boulder locations, respectively. Those locations are still open, but now, Longmont is the sole place where both bread and pastries are baked and sent off to hungry customers.

Gardening is such a huge topic, and people have a wide variety of questions.

Founded by Helen Williams, who has been vegan since 2009, Best One Yet creates ice cream using a coconut milk and cane sugar base rotated with seasonal flavors from local farmers. Williams describes her creation as 'a deceptively rich treat, with a smooth texture and consistency that matches dairy ice cream, albeit with a very slight hint of coconut.' The colorful vegan ice cream truck operates at Boulder County farmers markets, where Williams shares: 'When we're at a farmer's market and we're selling ice cream that has peaches from the farmer who is right across from us, people love that story.'

Ashley Overstreet, a founder of the local bakery Daily Grains in Lafayette, said she is looking forward to having a large farmers market in the city again this year. She said that the impact of buying local is much more profound than buying bread from a grocery store chain.

Founded by Zoe Deutsch and Kate Lange in January 2020, Moon Raccoon Baking Co. began as a farmers market bakery selling whimsical croissants made from Colorado-grown and milled grains. The duo opened their first brick-and-mortar storefront at 2839 W. 44th Ave. in Denver's Sunnyside neighborhood in September 2025 after years of attending weekend farmers markets including Lafayette, Boulder, City Park, and Parker. Moon Raccoon partners with local Colorado suppliers: Dry Storage in Boulder provides freshly milled flour from Colorado-grown grain, Five Freedoms Dairy in Loveland supplies milk and cheese, and Croft Family Farms in Greeley provides eggs and produce. Additional sourcing partners include Ela Family Farms, Aspen Moon Farm, Cure Organic Farm, and Palisade Peach Shack. The bakery received the Slow Food Snail of Approval award for their sustainable sourcing practices. Lange shares about their partnership: 'We really love baking together. The way we bounce ideas off of each other, only grows and benefits the creative process.' Deutsch explains their expansion: 'We're completely building a bakery from the ground up inside of this warehouse.'

Punch Buggy Shave Ice, operating for the past five years in Louisville, is preparing to soon start offering its icy tastes of Hawaii in neighboring Lafayette.

Punch Buggy owner Neige LaRue grew up bouncing between Kailu-Kona, Hawaii and the mainland before she moved to Colorado almost 10 years ago. In that time travelling in the mainland, she realized she missed authentic Hawaiian shave ice, so she figured she would do it herself.

"A lot of our customers have been word of mouth. People give the gift of our bread, which is a cool thing I didn't know about," says Ashley Overstreet of Daily Grains Bakery in Lafayette.

"I think the way to transform the food system is to have high standards," says L.R. Laggy, founder of Rang Tang Craft Barbecue, on his commitment to using only local, organic ingredients and eliminating seed oils from his menu.