My Experience at The Harvest Gathering in Denver Colorada

The Harvest Gathering in Denver, Colorado, was an incredible retreat that allowed Jewish food professionals to learn, eat, and network amongst the mountains.

A person wearing sunglasses, a scarf, a beanie, and a jacket stands in a grassy field with mountains and a forest in the background under a partly cloudy sky.

An open field with dry grass, a gravel path, a round yurt, a stone building, large rocks, and distant pine-covered hills under a cloudy sky. A wooden fence runs across the background.

The Devil's Thumb Ranch

Nestled amidst the mountains of Colorado is the rustic Devil’s Thumb Ranch. It is a small, picturesque resort made up of log-cabin-like buildings and an outdoor swimming pool. Endless rolling hills, blue lakes that reflect the sky, and as much mountain air as you can stomach.

Cowboy paraphernalia like spurs and Stenson hats are scattered around the premises like the cast-aways of a bored Westerner who moved on to California in search of shinier gold.

And early this month, for a glorious 48 hours, it served as a host to myself and 60 other young-at-heart, starry-eyed Jewish chefs, food writers, and other food professionals who took part in the Harvest Gathering in Denver.

A wooden bench faces a calm pond with a grassy field and trees in the background. Mountains and a partly cloudy sky are visible in the distance. A large rock sits near the water’s edge.

Several wooden Adirondack chairs are arranged in a circle around a stone fire pit on a patio, surrounded by landscaped greenery and trees with mountains visible in the distance under a cloudy sky.

Put on by The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation in partnership with Hazon. This retreat enabled Jewish professionals who work with food to come together, explore the shared grounds of their passion, and push the boundaries of what we all consider as Jewish food.

Who was Featured

A dirt path runs alongside a calm body of water with grassy fields and trees. Distant mountains rise under a partly cloudy sky. A few people walk on the path to the left.

A group of people sits facing a speaker in a large, wooden building with high ceilings and large windows. The outside view shows mountains and trees under a cloudy sky. Light streams in through the windows.

The array of talent present here was mesmerizing. Chefs like Lior Hillel (Bacaro LA, Nature's Brew, and Bacari PDA in LA), Daniel Asher (Root Down, Linger in Denver, Colorado), and Josh Pollack (Rosenberg's Bagels). Writers like Alix Wall (The Forward, The Organic Epicure), and bloggers like Amy Kritzer of What Jew Wanna Eat and Lilly Shor of Three Silver Spoons. The opportunities for meeting incredible, inspiring people were unlimited.

And (obviously) I was also there, the writer of the blog At the Immigrant's Table.

One moment, you found yourself debating the merits of gluten-free pie crusts. The next, you were discussing methods of cooking bull testicles. Five minutes later, there was fly-fishing. From kosher butchery to anarchism in food businesses and cooking with cannabis, the workshops we covered were as diverse as the participants. It opened my horizons to new ways of approaching food in intentional, inherently Jewish ways.

Intentional Jewish Foods

For you see, beyond the networking aspect, there was a single unified thread going throughout the Harvest Gathering in Denver. This was the arch that brought all the disparate parts of the puzzle together. The schmear that bound bagel and lox into one incomparable creation. The Harvest Gathering had one single theme: that Jewish found is food that is grown, cooked, sourced and eaten intentionally.

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Whether we spoke of how we ran our businesses, where we bought our vegetables, how we butchered our meat (or if we chose to eat it at all), or how we celebrated Sukkot, Pesach or Rosh Hashanah, we all agreed: it requires thought, care and intentionality.

Good food, Jewish or not, doesn't just come from thin air; it requires conceptualization, excellent ingredients, and meticulous execution. And so do our businesses, relationships, and Jewish lives.

A person wearing blue reflective sunglasses and a scarf stands outdoors in a grassy field with hills and a partly cloudy sky in the background.

A man wearing a brown cowboy hat, glasses, a blue shirt, and a plaid jacket stands outdoors with arms outstretched, smiling. Autumn trees and distant hills are visible in the background.

A stone building with a wooden patio featuring tables, chairs, and umbrellas overlooks a grassy field with mountains in the background and a yurt off to the right. The sky is overcast.

Reflexing on the Harvest Gathering

A grassy field leads to a line of tall pine trees with mountains in the background under a partly cloudy blue sky.

A paved path curves through a grassy area with scattered rocks and trees showing autumn colors, with forested hills and a cloudy sky in the background.

A stone patio with wooden tables, chairs, and closed umbrellas overlooks a misty field and distant mountains under a pale sky at dusk or dawn.

A grassy field with a dirt path leading to a small round yurt and a stone building with a steaming hot spring pool. There are mountains and pine trees in the background under a cloudy sky.

So, at the end of the day, I'd like to thank the Harvest Gathering for giving me the chance to get back to the basics. To breathe, stretch, reflect, ask for advice. To explore discomfort, taste, criticize, discover, harvest, and gather.

Want to see more see more photos of the food we ate at The Harvest Gathering? Check out my social media galleries on Facebook and Instagram.

I took part in the Harvest Gathering thanks to the generosity of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation. However, I received no financial compensation for this piece; all opinions expressed here are my own.