Welcome to September, NOCO Crew!
I’m never quite ready for it. It still feels like summer outside, but the light is changing, gardens are giving us more tomatoes than anyone asked for, and Labor Day is right around the corner.
So this one is mostly about looking around. There are very tiny weird things living here, a new bakery I want to try, and thousands of pounds of backyard produce finding somewhere useful to go.
Also, I found you a sweet house and a very good dog.
Let’s dig in!
– Megan
Every contribution keeps us out in the field, digging into local history, and showing up for the towns we cover. We're grateful for every bit of support. Thanks for being part of this.
— Megan & David
Colorado gets weirder the closer you look.
Colorado wildlife has a very good marketing department.
Elk. Moose. Bears. Eagles. Marmots yelling at hikers. Those are the celebrities, but theres weird stuff that’s smaller.
Colorado has plants that eat animals. Wildflowers that temporarily trap their pollinators. Tiny creatures that hitch rides on other animals. Fungi bulging from aspen trees. And, apparently, pseudoscorpions. They look a little like someone shrunk a scorpion and forgot to put the tail back on. They’re tiny arachnids, usually just a few millimeters long.
This is the territory naturalist Kevin Cook is getting into this morning at Loveland Public Library as part of his appropriately named series, Creatures You Never Knew Live in Colorado. And there's plenty of material.
This month's installment: Tiny Flowers, Fairy Fingers, Mites and Pseudoscorpions.
The whole series is built around the Colorado wildlife that doesn't make it onto brewery logos.
WILDLIFE WINDOW WITH KEVIN COOK
Wednesday, Sept. 2 · 10:15–11:15 a.m.
Loveland Public Library
Gertrude Scott Meeting Room
It’s Free!
Grew too much? Good!
It's September in Northern Colorado, which means there is a decent chance somebody you know is trying to give you a zucchini. After a tough grow season, now the tomatoes won't stop and the squash have almost become a problem.
There is another option besides leaving produce anonymously on your coworkers' desks. Give it away.
Larimer County's Grow & Give program connects backyard gardeners with food pantries and community organizations that can actually use the extra harvest.
And we're not talking about a few grocery bags.
Last year, more than 60 Larimer County gardeners donated 11,387 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables through the program.
Sixteen sites around the county received it. That's nearly six tons of food grown here and handed to people here. You don't need a farm. You don't need 40 pounds of tomatoes. You just need more than you're going to eat.
Larimer County maintains the current Grow & Give information and donation resources, including ways to find somewhere to take your extras.
$240K · RED FEATHER LAKES – Well, somebody beat us to it. A 1976 A-frame on 2.6 acres, tucked into the trees near Red Feather Lakes. Tiny, charming and exactly the sort of place that makes you briefly reconsider all your life choices. It went under contract last week. We can still look. → Go ahead, look inside
SARGE — Sarge is an 11-year-old pittie mix at NOCO Humane Larimer Campus's Weld Campus. He likes walks, belly rubs, giving kisses and, at this point in life, finding a nice shady spot to lie down. Reasonable. He's lived well with kids and cats, but would like to be the only dog in the house. What he really needs is a place to nap, some treats and somebody to hang out with. Again: reasonable. Go meet Sarge →
Trickster Bakery & Cafe
For years, Jenn Lewis and Shannon Morr had one of those conversations coworkers have when they’re deep in the restaurant business:
What if we had our own place…
What would they serve? What would it look like? What would they do differently?
For a long time, it was mostly a joke. Then it wasn’t.
On August 10, after nearly three decades of combined experience in restaurants and coffee shops, they opened Trickster Bakery & Cafe in Fort Collins.
And the part that caught our attention wasn’t just the croissants.
Why We Like It:
The Idea: Trickster was built around a pretty simple belief: good food can bring people together. That means a big community table meant to start conversations, room for groups to gather and work, a kids’ corner with books and toys, and a space designed for people to stay awhile. That idea hits pretty close to home around here. Bringing people together is a big part of why we started NOCO WORD, too.
The Goods: Croissants, muffins, cookies and cakes are baked in-house, alongside vegetarian breakfast and lunch, plus a full coffee and espresso bar. There’s even a pizza croissant — a little nod to the building’s previous life as a Pizza Hut.
The Local Part: Trickster works with local vendors and artists to keep more money in the local economy, composts when possible, and donates leftover pastries to the FMC Food Pantry.
The Place: They took an old Pizza Hut on Pennock Place and made it unmistakably theirs: colorful, comfortable, a little whimsical and very much not designed to get you out the door as quickly as possible.
The joke became a bakery. And now you can have breakfast there.
How to Support:
Visit: 1075 Pennock Place, Fort Collins
Hours: Daily, 6:30am – 2:30pm
Online: See what they’re baking →
