The first event I attended during the 2017 Slow Food Conference was the tour and lunch at Blue Bear Farm. Blue Bear is an urban garden at the convention center. Centerplate pays Produce Denver employees full time to manage and maintain the garden. All of the produce and flowers go to the local restaurant Limelight. They grow many ark of taste plants (ex: deer tongue lettuce), so there is a definite focus on flavor.
Basil borders almost all the plants in the area, so there are plenty of edible herbs ready and available as well. Although growing is important, Blue Bear is also about promoting a place for the community to enjoy; they encourage mental and physical well-being.
Though this farm is not perfect and they face many challenges. Six hives have been lost over the past few years (maybe due to city pollution), and it is difficult to convince Centerplate to let them have more hives. The gardens are hard to maintain due to labor issues and tree trimming is restricted due to the farm technically being a Denver city park.
Luckily, the retention pond is the only thing that prevents the convention center from expanding on top of the farm. Having porous soil also means they have to fertilize every other week and amend with compost in the Spring. At the end of the day though, it all comes down to convincing Centerplate to try and do what they want.
All of the garden beds are raised cedar and there are gravel pathways. Wire posts are found within the beds to attach covers to, so the season may be extended for the plants by protecting them from the heavy frost.
Their fertilizers consist of seabird guano, beet molasses, and fish emulsion. They are not certified organic at the farm, but they try to do everything mostly organic.
As far as the tour went, it was interesting and a nice attempt at urban gardening; I guess there is no solution that is perfect though, but at least they are trying. The lunch itself left me puzzled; I wasn’t exactly sure what actually came from the garden. The appetizers were delicious, but the only thing explicitly listed as coming from the farm was the basil (though I’m hopeful some of the other ingredients came from the farm as well). After the tour we were paraded across the street to LimeLight and presented with our menu and beverages. Our first course was Baby Japanese Eggplant with arugula pesto, cured grape tomatoes, and burratina.
Next came the Lamb Sausage with chickpeas, great northern beans, saffron rice, and baby carrots. It was savory and seemed like an exotic comfort food, but alas I couldn’t finish all of the sausage.
Finally my favorite dish arrived and I excitedly dug into my third panna cotta dish in a row that week. This one was a melon flavored dessert though, made with macerated berries, whipped cream, and basil. So refreshing, light, and sweet… I was glad to end the lunch on such a pleasant note. I still was left wondering what exactly came from the garden though.