(Photo credit: Jason Dewey Photography, St. Regis Aspen’s Farm-to-Massage Table Menu)
I love September and the hint of fall it brings along with the bounty from my garden. While a full-blown explosion of color is getting underway in Colorado’s high country, it’s harvest time galore in gardens planted a little lower in elevation. My tomatoes and peppers are producing at a good clip so it’s salsa-making time, my son and his friend picked a couple backpacks full of apples for apple crisp and apple butter, and what to do with all the cucumbers?
Speaking of produce, I’ve noticed that several of Colorado’s many great spas are linking into the local foods movement. C Lazy U has offered creative options in the terrific setting of massage tents situated next to a gently meandering creek and for the lovely 15,000-square-foot Remède Spa at St. Regis Aspen, Spa Director Julie Oliff and Executive Chef David Viviano have created a five-course pairing menu using seasonal ingredients from local growers that is three hours of pure bliss.
Here’s a sampling of what’s on Remède’s Farm-to-Massage Table menu until the end of October, when it will be switched up.
- Amuse-Bouche: Rejuvenate in the Oxygen Bar with a fresh-pressed juice
- Appetizer: Savory Salt Glow Scrub in choice of flavors paired with a culinary creation. Choose from Lemon Black Pepper and a Green Tea Poached Chicken Lettuce Wrap topped with lemon black pepper, Watermelon-Spearmint and Watermelon Mint Agua Fresca, and Cucumber-Mint served up with Chilled Cucumber Soup complete with jumbo lump crab and mint yogurt
- Main Course: 60-minute massage
- Intermezzo: Warm eucalyptus compress
- Dessert: Whipped Body Butter in a choice flavors paired with champagne and dessert. Choose Mango-Ginger paired with Mango Mousse and a gingersnap crumble, Oatmeal Milk & Honey served with Oatmeal Crisp and honey-infused milk, or Lavender-Vanilla with a Lavender Scone served with blackberry jam and vanilla bean cream.
It seems like offering spa options on meeting and incentive itineraries is back, and it’s certainly not an option that is only enjoyed by women. While in the airport recently, I ran into a friend’s husband who was heading to The Broadmoor for a corporate meeting and had left his golf clubs at home, opting for spa and tennis instead.
