GILPIN COUNTY - The wind was at odds with vendors’ tents, but that did not stop the fun at the final Gilpin County Holistic Homestead Farmers Market on Saturday, October 5, 2024. 

Held at the Gilpin County Community Center, the Homestead Farmers Market featured an array of fresh fruits and vegetables, like Asian pears and acorn squash, just in time for those Fall recipes.

Skeen Acres was on site selling their free-range chickens, turkeys, and duck eggs. There’s nothing like eating mountain-raised fowl to get ready for winter! 

Speaking of winter, warm tea samples were offered from Earth Star Minerals and Botanicals, pioneered at the beginning of this year by local resident Pam Dumont. 

Dumont has combined the healing properties of herbs with the power of crystals in her soaps and teas. Crystals jutted out of her handmade soaps and some of the teas were even geared toward aligning specific chakras.

What was more enticing (but not available until mid-November) was Dumont’s “Fire Cider,” containing oranges, lemon, jalapeno, rosemary, thyme, elderberry, horseradish, burdock, ginger, and onion. Once it is finished brewing, a shot can be taken for quick relief from the seasonal ick.

Also on site, a community favorite, Dory’s Dozens offered a rainbow assortment of jams, jellies, salsas, and mustards. 

A jazz trio named Blue Moose played some fun, easygoing tunes and the smell of quesadillas rocketed through the air. 

If you missed the event, you can still get in on the healthy goodness that is the Holistic Homestead at 972 Golden Gate Canyon Road, just up the street from the Community Center in Gilpin County. 

Stay tuned for next year’s events!