Not to panic you, but Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa will be celebrated only about 20 days from today. In the meantime, those who celebrate have the Winter Solstice (Dec. 21) and Festivus (Dec. 23), not to mention white elephant holiday parties and various fests. Many of those holly-jolly gatherings call for gifting. This annual need to please could cause anxiety and some bad language, but there is a simple solution. When in doubt, forget the trinkets and feed your family, friends, co-workers and neighbors. Nobody will ever complain if you give them food and drink that they love. Rather than wrap generic national food and drink brands or grab a restaurant gift card, choose to go local with your shopping.
It’s not “settling” for something crafted locally but surprising folks with the impressive array of signature tastes made in Boulder County and Colorado.
Some of the following gift suggestions and other local foods can be found at neighborhood markets, on the Boulder Farmers Market online ordering site and through Pinemelon, a local grocery delivery service that functions like a year-round Colorado farmer/maker market.
Make Santa say, ‘Ho Ho Whoa!’
Longmont’s Dry Land Distillers offers a truly artisan gift set for crafting whiskey and rye dark chocolate cookies. The kit includes a bottle of Dry Land’s smooth antero wheat whiskey, plus chocolate from Denver’s Bibamba Chocolates, white Sonora and ryman rye flours milled at Dry Storage in Boulder, with flaked salt, vanilla bean paste and a cookie recipe. Details: drylanddistillers.com
Play Hot Ones: BoCo Edition
Hot Ones is a viral show featuring celebrities being questioned while consuming increasingly spicy chicken wings. Gift friends who love fiery food a lineup of Boulder County hot sauces to stage your own episode at home. Include bottles of Seed Ranch Co. umami reserve, Boulder Hot Sauce smokey serrano sauce, Green Belly yellow hot sauce and Chiporro wicked hot sauce.
McGuckin Hardware and Peppercorn in Boulder stock large selections of sauces hot enough to make you sweat.
We like to do mushrooms
The expansive world of fungi fascinates many locals who enjoy everything from mushroom-enhanced coffee (Myco Cafe) to mycelium-based protein (Meati) and psychedelic pursuits. Moksha, Boulder’s bean-to-bar chocolate company, offers organic ceremonial cacao infused with functional mushrooms including reishi, cordyceps, lion’s mane, maitake, turkey tail and chaga. mokshachocolate.com
Bread bakers delight
There is a world of yeasts beyond the two bland varieties available at supermarkets. Boulder Fermentation Supply, 2510 47th St., stocks dozens of yeasts that homebrewers love for ales. The same yeasts add flavor to breads. The store stocks kits for making cheese, yogurt, pickles and kombucha.
Colorado’s best from the vine
Impress the oenophile on your list with the top Colorado vintages blind-judged for the 2024 Colorado Governor’s Cup Collection. Tasty winners include Alfred Eames Cellars 2019 Collage; Carboy Winery 2021 Chambourcin; OBC Wine Project 2023 Colorado Red; Sauvage Spectrum Bodega Dessert Wine; and Snowy Peaks Winery 2022 Cabernet Franc. More wine winners: coloradowine.com
Give the gift of future cider
Finding something to surprise a deeply nerdy backyard gardener can be vexing. Try giving them the chance to propagate a rare Colorado heritage apple tree. The Montezuma Orchard Restoration Project finds, saves and ships cultivars of forgotten varieties like the Colorado orange apple. montezumaorchard.org
Coffee toffee in the mountains
Attention toffee devotees: If you love great toffee, it’s well worth the scenic drive to Red Rocks Toffee Company, 19336 Goddard Ranch Court in Morrison. The company handcrafts several varieties of deeply caramelized crave-able toffees. Besides the original toasted almond variety, Red Rocks makes toffees featuring roasted hazelnuts. Some bars are coated in dark chocolate and dipped in coffee nibs or pecans. Also available: Bags of crushed toffee! redrockstoffee.com
Drink a toast to Ralphie
The celebrated Laws Whiskey House in Denver is bottling Ralphie’s reserve straight bourbon from heirloom Colorado grains and El Dorado Springs water. Some proceeds support the Ralphie Live Mascot Program caring for CU’s bison mascots. Bottles are available at local liquor stores.
Gifts that keep on feeding
For foodies on your list who love cooking and appreciate locally produced ingredients, sign them up for a CSA (community supported agriculture) share. Many Boulder County farms are now offering 2025 weekly shares of produce, meat and local foods. Popular CSAs are often sold out well before spring. Consider Cure Organic Farm (cureorganicfarm.com), Ollin Farms (ollinfarms.com), Aspen Moon Farm (aspenmoonfarm.com), Benevolence Orchard (benevolenceorchard.com) and Black Cat Farm (blackcatboulder.com).
For more local farms, visit bit.ly/FarmStandsBW.
Tastes like Colorado
The following recently published cookbooks offer distinctive tastes of Colorado’s culinary landscape.
• Cocina Libre: Immigrant Resistance Recipes (University of Denver) by Denver authors Julia Roncoroni and Delio Figueroa (available in Spanish and English)
• Friuli Food and Wine (Ten Speed Press) by Bobby Stuckey and Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson, founders of Boulder’s Frasca Food & Wine, and Meredith Erickson
• The Asian Hot Pot Cookbook (Tuttle) by Boulder’s Amy Kimoto-Kahn
• Foraged and Grown: Healing, Magical Recipes for Every Season (Norton) by Tara Lanich-LaBrie, co-owner of Esoterra Farms.
Local stocking stuffers
What’s the tea? The Boulder Tea Company’s advent calendar is filled with 24 individual tea bags as well as a Tea of the Month Club. boulderteaco.com
Wired bike rides: Boulder’s Coffee Ride offers subscriptions of freshly roasted beans delivered locally every month by bicycle. thecoffeeride.com
Sustainable art: Boulder Colors crafts watercolor paints extracted from local farm vegetables and flowers. bouldercolors.com
Spaced-out sweets: Boulder-based Astronaut Products packs melt-in-your-mouth freeze-dried ice cream treats. astronautfoods.com
Pucker preference: Treat your pickle-loving friends to award-winning Mountain Girl Pickles crafted in Boulder, such as pickled okra, peach salsa, garlic dills and pickled beets. mountaingirlpickles.com
Keto Cleanliness: Longmont-based Fatworks is a nationally known source of fats ranging from duck fat and ghee to Wagyu tallow and pure chicken fat. The company also produces animal-based body products like the Fatbar, a juniper and citrus-infused soap made from grass-fed beef tallow. fatworks.com