As you may have seen in an earlier blog post, the Spirit Farm hoop build was challenging and exhausting due to the miserable weather and less than perfect hoop kit that arrived at the site. Jeff and I decided to throw our volunteer hoopsters a party to show our appreciation, and to make it even better, we scored some door prizes to give away from some awesome and generous Selma supporters.
Our volunteers were really pleased, and felt extra-appreciated. We were thrilled that folks in the community are so generous and thoughtful. Thank you so much to:
sweet display @ red shoes
Catherine from Red Shoes, one of Ann Arbor’s best gallery and gift shops, donated a sweet smelling, long burning soy candle from her home wares collection. Red Shoes has cool everything –from sweet and funky gift cards, to lovely jewelry; and baby gifts to graduation presents. Catherine takes extra care with the special gift wrapping, adding to the loveliness. Be sure to stop by her place, check out the fairy door on her front porch, give her cute pup some love, enjoy her pretty little canaries, buy a little something, and tell Catherine thanks for her support.
a refreshing Arbor Teas Thai iced-tea
Arbor Teas, the neighborhood tea company owned and operated by Jeremy and Aubrey Lopatin, gifted our volunteers a beautiful bag of herbal berry tea, packed in their new, completely compostable bags. Arbor Teas in deeply committed to fair trade, organic teas, and eco-friendly packaging. They bicycle deliver in Ann Arbor, and ship all over the world. If you haven’t had an opportunity to try their teas, come by and have a cup some Friday morning soon, or, even better, order a bag of your favorite tea from their website, and be sure to mention a thanks for their support of RP&F!
easy to shop @ everyday wines
Mary from Everyday Wines was both generous and thoughtful. She donated a hefty gift certificate to use in her lovely Kerrytown store, so that the door prize winner could choose exactly what they want from her ample supply of reasonably priced white, red and bubbly selections. Mary also offers beautiful accessories to her wine selections, including glasses, openers and other items, and there are always some delicious bottles of sparkling wines chilling in the front case, just waiting for a spontaneous picnic or party. She also carries some Pot and Box goods–when I was there the other day there were some sweet little terrariums all ready to come home and spread some happy plant joy. Stop by her shop soon, and let her know you appreciate her support of our work!
Last but not least, John Roos, of Roos Roast Coffee donated a couple of bags of his best coffee in all the land brew. What can we say about Roos that captures his enthusiastic, consistent, glorious support of all RP&F events? I’m not sure if regular words work. How about hugetastic? Or fabumassive? You get the idea. Check out Roos’s latest venture–his coffee shop on Rosewood. Stop in, buy a pound or two, and be sure to thank John for his ongoing support of all things Selma.
We all had such a great time at the party we want to keep it going. Sign up for our next hoop build here, and be part of the community that builds hoops together, and celebrates our successes together with drinks, snacks and door prizes galore. Are you someone who has a service, a shop, or a product you would like to donate to our volunteers as a door prize for our next party? Please contact me and let me know!
Big thanks again, to everyone. See you soon,
~Lisa
It was a busy, busy morning here at Selma Cafe. So busy that I couldn’t take as many photos as I would have liked. By the time I got around to capturing the deep red beauty of David Klingenberger’s 
It was really fun to have David in the kitchen. He has a sweet and positive attitude that pretty much rubs off on everyone. And, he had his own little posse of Tantre friends who came by to support him.
All in all it was a really great week at FM@SELMA. Thanks to everyone who came out to help with prep Thursday night: Noah Miller, Nevon Clark, Michelle Fortin, Charles and Simone Racine, Nicole Aruda, Jennifer Jensen, Susie Baity-Stearns, Mike Woodruff and Olivia Gramprie. Thanks too, to our Friday morning set-up, server and clean-up volunteers, including Anne West, Cassie Peabody, Siri Gottlieb, Mike Christianson, Carolyn Miller, Jennifer Jensen and, especially Michelle Fortin, who worked into the afternoon to bring order back into our kitchen.
Sure, Jeff and I had a few concerns when we headed out to Detroit at 7am Saturday morning. Ever the optimists, we hoped the “30% chance of rain” forecast was happening sooner than later. “Fine”, we thought. “Get it over with”. Probably just as well we didn’t know then that it would continue to rain, intermittently, along with a bit o’ hail, and gusts of wind that were both bone chilling and strong enough to take our breath away…for the next 12 hours.
I knew right then and there, we were going to have an amazing day. And we did. (Okay, granted, this rainbow isn’t the exact rainbow I saw out the side window of the van. But Jeff wouldn’t pull over and stop so I could get a good picture. Instead, I’m giving you a look at a different rainbow. Because really, it’s the vibe of the thing that matters, don’t you think?)
We got fortified, and we got to work. And let’s put the emphasis on the WE, okay? There were close to 25 people who got themselves to the D, through the maze of closed expressways, construction delays and rainstorms. They made the commitment to spend their whole Saturday working hard in less than ideal conditions– at times it was down right miserable. And not one single person complained. Not once. Look, they’re even smiling, and it was pouring rain when I snapped this shot right before lunch.
Okay, backing up for a bit, let’s take a look at the hoop site. Here’s the spot, with a view of 
One of my favorite tidbits is that the stained glass windows in the church were some of the first stained glass created by 
Black eyed peas, collard greens, potato salad, broccoli salad, corn bread, cornbread dressing, corn salad, fried chicken, fried fish, mac and cheese, beets, and cucumber and tomato salad. Plus chocolate cake, pound cake and peach cobbler for desert. There was a ton of food, and we ate all of it.
All in all, it was a spectacular day. Big weather, hard work, lots of laughs, muddy boots, red noses, full bellies, and at the end of the day, a hoop house for a church farm and all it’s friends and neighbors.
We have loved having Emil and Monica in our kitchen, each and every time. They make delicious food, and they do it with an easy going panache.
Both the specials were served with a side of baby hoop greens, which were beautiful and tasty.
It was a wonderful day of tamales here at Selma Cafe. Thanks to Margaro Dominguez and Gauri Thergaonkar who got the ball rolling, we had savory tamales 3 ways:: chicken, pork and asparagus–with 2 sauces:: a deliciously rich mole, and a fresh and flavorful salsa. There is just nothing like warm tamales, straight from the steamer, served with a garlicky flavored cabbage slaw and a side of wheat berries with chopped veggies.
It’s a little hard to tell from the photo the size of this pan, but I can tell you it was big enough to hold over 200 tamales. And there weren’t any left overs either. I know, because when I got home from work later, I searched the fridge, and there were none to be found. Needless to say, they were a hit.
They seemed to be fascinated by the latest addition to our kitchen these days…our new baby chicks.
All nine of them are healthy, happy, and growing beautifully. It’s pretty sweet to watch them do their baby chicken things.
