Hygiene, Colorado October Farm Stands and Pickup Days

Hygiene's October is a farm schedule more than an events calendar. Most of the month's dates are produce pickups and stand hours. The one big ticketed event, Applefest at Ya Ya Farm & Orchard, sold out every date it offered. What's left is the farm year itself, and this month it changes over on a specific Wednesday.

The changeover lands the week of October 21

Aspen Moon Farm's 2026 summer CSA runs from the week of May 20 through the week of October 14. As of today, October 6, that leaves two farm pickups: October 7 or 8, then October 14 or 15. Members choose Wednesday or Thursday each week, 2 to 6 p.m., at 7940 Hygiene Road. The fall share starts the next week and runs through the week of December 2.

The fall share is more than the summer share carried a few weeks longer. Aspen Moon changes the format along with the season:

The Denver pickup drops off the schedule, and the Boulder pickup moves to Wednesdays from 3 to 6 p.m. So the fall share is collected closer to the farm. It also comes down to one choice, because the farmers pick what goes in the box. The farm says its farmer's choice boxes come in at 10 to 15 percent below the prices posted at its stand and farmers market stalls.

What goes in the box follows the field. The farm's fall list includes carrots, beets, celeriac, rutabagas, parsnips and other root vegetables, kale, chard and tatsoi, every kind of winter squash, and dry beans. It also lists two items a vegetable stand rarely carries, Aspen Moon's own heirloom Dutch Butter popcorn and heirloom stone-ground cornmeal. One summer add-on is ending now. The fruit share from Ela Family Farms in Hotchkiss, with peaches, pears, apples and a jug of cider, is handed out on six dates from mid-August through mid-October.

The stand serves people who never signed up, too. Aspen Moon keeps its roadside store open to the public during pickup hours. The farm lists store hours of Tuesday through Thursday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Boulder Reporting Lab's 2026 farm-stand guide calls it Boulder County's largest selection of certified organically grown vegetables. Eggs from the farm's free-ranging hens are sold only on-site, so the Hygiene Road stand is the one place to buy them. The farm calls the store seasonal but hasn't posted a 2026 closing date. Its email list sends stock and open-day notices, which is the best way to catch the late-season weeks.

Applefest filled every date it offered

Down Ute Highway at 6914, Ya Ya Farm & Orchard scheduled Applefest for five afternoons this October: the 4th, 10th, 11th, 17th and 18th, each from 3:30 to 6 p.m. All five are sold out. A ticket covers a plate from Nordy's BBQ, apples, apple cider doughnuts and a local bluegrass band.

So for anyone without a ticket, Ya Ya's October comes down to the dates that still have room and the barn store itself. The farm's events page lists:

• October 31, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.: all-ages gourd and pumpkin painting, $20 per person, with supplies, hot mulled cider and cider doughnuts
• October 31, 5 to 8 p.m.: BOOFest
• November 1: a second pumpkin-painting session

The painting event uses gourds and switches to pumpkins only if gourds run out, so it isn't a pumpkin patch.

According to Ya Ya's farm-stand page, the stand runs from August through November and sells apples, doughnuts made daily, pies, cider and apple butter. The Boulder Reporting Lab adds that Ya Ya sells Western Slope fruit alongside its own, and that it's one of the few local places to buy frozen tart pie cherries. Ya Ya hasn't posted October hours or a closing day for 2026, so check before you drive over.

A night walk at the place that kept the old name

The one free October program in Hygiene takes place at a site named for the town's past. Hygiene was called Pella until 1881. That year the Rev. Jacob S. Flory opened the Hygienic House, a three-story, 35-room sanitarium for tuberculosis patients. It ran for eight years, became a hotel, and was torn down in 1926, but the town kept its name. Today the old name belongs to Pella Crossing, the county open space at 11600 N. 75th St.

On Saturday, October 24, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Boulder County Parks & Open Space is leading an easy night walk around the Pella Crossing ponds. The walk covers myths and stories about the moon and ends by welcoming the full moon. Registration is required. The county's trail alert page, updated September 8, lists no closures at Pella Crossing. The county describes the wetlands as habitat for migrating birds.

The walk falls on a Saturday between the last Applefest weekend and Halloween. It sits right inside the stretch when the farm calendar has just turned over. These are the month's dates in one place:

1. October 7–8 and 14–15: final Aspen Moon summer pickups
2. October 10, 11, 17, 18: Applefest at Ya Ya, sold out
3. October 21–22: first Aspen Moon fall pickup
4. October 24: fall full moon walk at Pella Crossing
5. October 31: pumpkin painting and BOOFest at Ya Ya
6. November 1: second pumpkin-painting session at Ya Ya

The intersection keeps regular hours

Hygiene's two everyday stops keep regular hours while the farm calendar shifts around them. The Daily Camera called the hamlet's downtown "a generous term for a single intersection along Hygiene Road." The Mountain Fountain, at 11809 N. 75th Street, describes itself as a country store with a bakery, coffee bar, deli and butcher shop, open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day. Cafe Fritz, at 7502 Hygiene Road, is open Wednesday through Sunday, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Cafe Fritz had a full summer. Sisters Olivia and Lily Ossola rebuilt a corner cafe that had closed during the pandemic. Olivia came from Trick Dog in San Francisco. Lily worked at SHED in Healdsburg and trained at ALMA, a culinary school outside Parma. Their Saturday aperitivo series began in summer 2025 with help from local musician Julian Peterson, and the cafe paid each Saturday performer $300. On August 23, the cafe and Willow Farm, Steve and Susan Mullins' 10-acre property with a backyard stage, co-hosted the first Hygiene Howl. It brought 17 acts to town for free, and donations went straight to the performers. Singer-songwriter Jo Fuller, who helped organize it, told the Daily Camera, "Hygiene, with its slowness, was the right place."

Hygiene's music calendar is also in its off-season. Cafe Fritz hasn't posted a fall aperitivo lineup. Willow Farm's events page reads "Nothing booked at this moment!" and says its October 4 benefit was canceled. In 2026 the music season ran from the Hygiene Music & Arts Festival on June 27 at 7527 Hygiene Road through the Howl in late August. In October, the fixed points in town are the store, the cafe and the Wednesday and Thursday pickup window at 7940 Hygiene Road.

I've watched the seasons change along this stretch of Boulder County for more than 30 years, and the fall share is one of my favorite signs that the year is turning. If you're thinking about how your own home could follow that rhythm, from a pantry that can hold a fall share to a mudroom ready for harvest boots, I'm always happy to talk it through. Kristi Clary | Let's Connect