Thursday night prep has developed it’s own fun routine. Volunteer prepsters show up at 6:45, often with a dish to pass, a snack to share, or something to drink, and then we focus up–washing hoop house greens, chopping vegetables, slicing apples, making yogurt, breaking eggs, mixing bread dough and setting up the tables and chairs. Around 8 or so, we take a well deserved break, gather around the dining room table and share supper and good conversation. A quick clean up after we eat, and we’re about ready for Friday morning.

With the powerful organizational skills of our new Kitchen Goddess Susie Baity Sterns; Scott Macinnis, food-maker extraordinaire was back again whipping up breakfast with cool wing man Jose Lemus. They led the hard working team of dedicated helpers including Joanna Campbell, Myra Klarman, Erin Schumacher, Garin Fons, Matt Burton, Brad Wicklund, Riva Jewell-Vatale and Brett Athey.

If you’d like to be part of the inner workings of FM @SELMA, but haven’t yet joined in on the Thursday evening prep party, let us know you are interested and plan on coming by to help one of these weeks!

Our morning kitchen volunteers this week were Susie, Garin, Matt, Joanna, Carolyn Christopher, and Jim Wessel Walker. It was a full-on morning, with the volunteers working non-stop to fill empty coffee cups, pass around plates of food and magically clear up the dishes.

And oh yes, the food! Scott pulled together a beautiful fallen souffle, filled with Michigan mushrooms and local Kapnick Orchard’s asparagus. Served with a sauce duxelle, rich with roasted vegetable stock and mushrooms, a garnish of roasted asparagus and a hoop house greens salad, this dish was sigh-worthy. It was so sigh-worthy we ran out, and pulled together, in addition to the waffles and yogurt-strawberry-granola parfaits, an option of eggs, black beans and tortillas. Needless to say, there were no empty bellies at the end of the morning.

We have noticed that there can be a bit of a wait for folks who show up later in the morning. We encourage you to come early if you need to be on your way by a certain time. Remember, we aren’t a real cafe or food establishment! Just like at your house, you sometimes have to wait for things to come together.

If you haven’t come by Friday Mornings @SELMA, and want to join in the experience, please contact me with an email or phone call so I can personally invite you to come share amazing food, interesting conversation, opportunities to network and build community all while supporting our local food and farm initiatives.
Hope to see you soon! ~Lisa

Thursday evening prep came together beautifully with the wonder woman organization of Susie Baity Stearns, leading a team of hard workin’, fun lovin’ good food makin’ friends. There was plenty to do, including making, from scratch, lard or butter infused flour tortillas, and Jeff’s smokin’ delish chorizo. Washing tub loads of hoop house greens and scrubbing and slicing potatoes were also major activities for many. Thanks for the “what can I do next?” attitude from everyone: Amber Webster, Matt Burton, Emily Stearns and her friend Judith, Brad Wickland, Riva Jewell-Vatale, Carolyn Christopher, Jorg Zeller and Joanna Campbell. I hope I’m remembering everyone!

During a dinner break, Matt presented a new concept for Friday Mornings @SELMA called Annalog (the Ann Arbor Analog Log)—a real time message board set up on the wall of the dining room to share thoughts, ideas, suggestions and comments on 3×5 cards for all to write and read.

All the prep was well worth the effort when Max Sussman and Kate McCabe showed up Friday morning and put together amazing breakfast burritos filled with softly scrambled eggs, spicy chorizo, Michigan provolone cheese, and garlicky black turtle beans. Topped with a spicy habanero tomato sauce and served with fried Tantre potatoes and dressed hoop-house greens, this was clearly a crowd pleaser. As usual, we had both a meat and a vegetarian version to please various sensibilities.

Waffles with gingered apples and bacon, and yogurt, fruit and granola parfaits rounded out our meal. We had a great bunch of friends helping out this morning, with some returning after a brief night’s sleep: Amber, Matt, Carolyn, Susie and Jorg showed up bright and early rubbing sleep from their eyes, with Meghan Milbrath coming by a little later to step in for Nevon Clark, who took off for his very last day of high school. Congrats Nev! Free at last, man! Free at last. A shout out goes to Stephen Nose, an old friend whom we haven’t seen in awhile, who came by for SELMA connection and breakfast and ended up making a special trip to the People’s Food Co-op to fetch a few bags of Michigan apples so we wouldn’t run out half way through our gathering. Thanks Stephen—come back soon!

The Ann Arbor Analog Log was a big hit, with many folks taking the time to write out cards. Some samplings that started conversations: “what do others think about a local currency for Ann Arbor?” and “What can kids do to help around here?” Other posts shared information: “CSA shares still available at Community Farm of Ann Arbor”, and some were asking questions: “What is the house waffle recipe?” Answers to these questions coming soon!

Be sure to take a look at the message board next time you come by. If you haven’t been here before, and we haven’t met previously, please email me so that we can personally invite you to our home.

Until next week, have a wonderful weekend, enjoy the lovely spring weather, and eat well and locally.

We are continuing to have conversations with the County Public Health department regarding our Friday morning breakfast salon. The County wants to make sure we aren’t running a restaurant out of our home. As I have reported on this blog previously, and in comments on the Ann Arbor Chronicle website, we are not a restaurant, cafe, or any other type of food establishment. We are family and friends who like to get together on Friday mornings, in our home, to cook, share a meal, and work towards local food initiatives, including building gardens and hoop houses in collaboration with Agrarian Adventure and Ann Arbor Public Schools.

To that end, we are making a few changes to address the County’s concerns, and to clarify our intention and activities.

What used to be called Selma Cafe will now be referred to as Friday Mornings @SELMA. Since we aren’t a cafe, we won’t call ourselves a cafe.

We will not give any indication to visitors to our website that we are “advertising to” or “inviting the general public”. Please contact us directly if we haven’t met you, so that we can personally invite you to come by on Friday morning. We enjoy making new connections.

We will not use any signage on our property that gives anyone an indication that we are having a gathering in our home. We will not call anyone “guest chef”, or “server” on the website. We will not call what we are eating at our house a “menu”.

We will not post the starting and ending hours of Friday Mornings @SELMA on our website.

What we will continue to do is make and share food with friends on Friday mornings. Throughout the times we gather we will encourage and promote conversation, discussion, networking, brainstorming and planning to support our mission and goals.

We look forward to seeing friends, old and new, sometime soon.

Our hens have returned to their home in our backyard, where they will remain. They are legal now, as we have permit in hand. Please stop by and visit them, especially with your children!

There has been interest in our Friday breakfast event from both City of Ann Arbor Planning and Development Services, and Washtenaw County Department of Planning and Environment due to an anonymous letter from an Eberwhite school parent. We have addressed these concerns directly with both departments, and are continuing to plan and enjoy our weekly breakfast salon.

For a more in depth look at the issue, read Dave Askins’ article in the Ann Arbor Chronicle.

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t a big surprise to most who showed up for breakfast this morning that guest chef Li’l teapot is, in fact, just me, Lisa G.

Thanks to the amazing and efficient performance of our ONE and ONLY prep’ster last night, Joanna Campbell, along with the non-stop support of sous chef and all around go-to-guy Jeff (uh huh, my hard workin’ hubby), waffle man and so much more Garin Fons, good-sport dishwasher and my very own son Nevon Clark, and Jedi knight servers Claire Rice and Susie Baity Stearns who managed to pour drinks, take orders, deliver food, and clear plates for 91 hungry guests with calm and ease— we pulled it off. I bow down to you all!

The day’s special was corn bread pudding served warm with a pat of butter and some grated cheese on top, each in their own individual ramekin. With a side of black beans, chorizo and hoophouse greens, it was clearly the crowd favorite. A few sweet-toothers ate their black beans, chorizo and greens first, with just some of the pudding; then created instant dessert by pouring michigan maple syrup on the pudding that was left. Smart! Creative! Makes me think of a reprise of corn bread pudding later this summer when local fruit will make a lovely compote to make this dish sweet instead of savory.

The whole grain waffles served with apples and blueberries, with a side of smoked bacon, ran a close second to the special. Who says it’s just the kids who love the waffles! Yogurt and granola parfaits with raspberries rounded out the menu.

A special shout out goes to Ferris Organic Farm who supplied us with black turtle beans, cornmeal and all the flour for the corn bread pudding and the waffles, Tantre Farm for the raw whole milk we use to make the yogurt, and Locavorious for the blueberries and raspberries that help us as we wait it out ’til july and start picking our own again.

Thanks to one and all for coming out on this beautiful first of May to share food, conversation and camaraderie while supporting our local food focus.