Colorado Honey and Cherry Season

Colorado Honey and Cherry Season – summer time in Northern Colorado with a drive out towards the mountains for local honey and freshly baked cherry pies.

We have been busy every weekend since we moved back to Loveland, Colorado. It’s been fun checking out all the familiar places as we try to get reacquainted with the city. Loveland has grown since we left 12 years ago. More shopping and restaurants on the eastern part of the city and just as pretty at the western foothills of the Rockies. It is great to be home and it felt like we have never left.

Colorado Honey and Cherry Season

Our favorite weekend activity was and still is to drive up to Estes Park. We enjoy going hiking (in the summer) and snow shoeing (in the winter) up in The Rocky Mountain National Park. You can check out some pictures and a video in this post and some others in this post.

For today, I want to show you two local goodies here in Loveland – honey and cherries. First up on the drive to Estes Park on US-34 is Papa Joe’s Local Honey.

Papa Joe’s Local Honey

Papa Joe’s Local Honey is located near Devil’s Backbone Open Space, only 10 minutes drive from our future home which we are currently building. This little unmanned store is more like a self serve or honor system stand. You pick up a jar of honey, place the payment in an envelope and drop the envelope through the mail slot at the door. The sign above the slot says.

Love that clear, delicious honey. Will definitely return to get another jar once the one I bought is done. We’ve been enjoying it with our blueberry tea we bought on our next stop.

For recipes using honey, please check out the following.
Sticky Hoisin Honey Chicken
Baked Honey Sesame Chicken
Slow Cooker Honey Spare Ribs

Back in the car, we continued to drive on US-34 past the iconic Dam Store which survived the devastating 2013 Colorado Front Range Flood. We have stopped at this store many times but this time we drove on.

We love this scenic drive along the Big Thompson River up to Estes Park. Many stretches have been reconstructed after the flood.

After several miles, you will see the Colorado Cherry Company on your left. This store is busy during the weekends. They sell all kinds of jams, cider, and of course fresh cherry pies. On this trip, we picked up half a gallon of peach cider, a cherry pie, a bag of popcorn, and a packet of blueberry tea.

Since we had already gone up to Estes Park the day before, we turned around and headed home for tea time. 🙂