Food around town

Check out these delicious and fun food activities and new food trucks around the Grand Valley! There is even an amazing new app that connects local charities with backyard gardeners. Such a terrific idea! Saturday, June 8 — Kiwanis Club Pancake Day. Come out to the Mesa County Fairgrounds between 8–11 am to eat some pancakes, listen to music, have fun and support a good organization. Tickets are $10 adults. Kids under 12 are free. Saturday, June 8 — Philippine Independence Day Celebration at the Grand Mesa Shelter in the Long Family Memorial Park at 3118 E½ Road in Grand Junction. Children 12 and under are free and adults are $10 each. From 1-3 p.m. there will be prep and decoration time and then the party is from 3-7 p.m. The organizations request you to, “Please bring your favorite/specialty Filipino delicacies and dishes to share. Drinks will be provided. There will be door prizes and traditional Filipino games for kids, Philippines history lessons, Philippine dance performances and karaoke of course!”

Saturday, June 15 — Juneteenth Block Party at Lincoln Park, 1340 Gunnison Ave., from 2-6 p.m. Food, music and celebrations galore.

Sunday, June 23 — Swedes’ Mid-Sommar Picnic & Celebration from 4-7 p.m. at 400 Gunnison Ave. — picnic, music and socializing. Bring a dish to share.

There are new food trucks everywhere I look! Cakes Baby Bakery is one that features cupcakes, cookies and cake pops. I had the pleasure of eating one of their yummy cupcakes. I tried the “local honey and pistachio” flavor. They will also be adding a gluten- free menu starting this weekend. You can often find them outside of Tractor Supply by Mesa Mall or at the Lowell School in downtown Grand Junction. Their schedule can be found on Facebook and Instagram.

Base Camp Beer Works at 2575 U.S. Highway 6 & 50 now has their own food truck called Street Eats and features items such as Korean wings, a “Colorado Cubano” sandwich, Vietnamese bahn mi sandwich and more. I’ve also been seeing the food truck Dynamite Gal around town and need to try this Asian-fusion truck soon. It sure is great to see so much variety happening around the valley!

Do you need to find a home for all the extra produce from your garden this summer? There is a new app that connects home gardeners to food nonprofits. The app is called Fresh Food Connect. The Sentinel’s Tammy Gemaehlich noted that, “Gardeners can sign up to have their excess homegrown produce and eggs picked up from their doorstep by local nonprofit organizations working to address food insecurity, or can schedule times to drop off the produce at those organizations.” You can find the app on freshfoodconnect.org or through various app stores online for free.

Be sure to read Nathan Deal’s article from May 31 in the Sentinel for even more details. I think this is an absolutely wonderful idea and am guessing our talented backyard gardeners are going to be pleased knowing their bounty is going to help nourish others in the community.

If you have any food and beverage-related events or information you want readers to know about, please email me at AllThingsFoodChristine@gmail.com.

A box of produce from the Fresh Food Connect. (Photo by Christine Gallagher).

The menu from the Cakes Baby Bakery food truck. (Photo by Christine Gallagher).

A cupcake from the Cakes Baby Bakery food truck. (Photo by Christine Gallagher).

FOOD NEWS

ALLAGHER