Garin Fons, aka Mr. Bacon, was one of the very first supporters way back when Selma Cafe first began.  A core volunteer and planner, always calm and cool, and never one to get upset, Garin ran Thursday night prep, served Friday morning breakfast, helped cut up a whole pig right here in our kitchen with Jeff and Matt Burton, and learned to make his own cured meats with the best of them.  His homemade bacon was as good as any we’ve tasted.  Like many folks who come to Ann Arbor for studies and then move on, Garin decided to leave to work with some folks doing some really great food stuff.  As far as we are concerned, The Underground Food Collective, in Madison, is lucky to have him.  And Garin, being the creative, enthusiastic foodie that he is, will learn tons and, we’re hopeful, will come back and visit soon.  To celebrate, a party was thrown, and even though it rained in a downpour the whole night, it was the best party around.

matt, kim & bob

shane, eric & oliva

elizabeth, molly & shana

susie & claire

amazing pig cake made by olivia and heather leavitt

garin, olivia & susie

garin & lisa

All the best to you Garin.  We love you and miss you already.  There’s a Selma Cafe chair waiting for you when you come on by our kitchen when you’re back in town.

~Lisa, Jeff & all the RP&F friends and volunteers who had the pleasure of your company.

Carol Palms, an enthusiastic and generous instrumental music teacher at Slauson Middle School is bringing her students to play us some tunes this Friday.  We are thrilled to have them!  Please take a monment and read Carol’s message:

The Slauson 8^th grade orchestra is a dedicated group of 28 students (17 violins, 6 violas, 3 cellos and 2 string basses – what you’d call a perfectly balanced ensemble!) who have played together since the sixth grade.  They rehearse at school every day during fifth hour.  They recently played their final school performance on May 6 in the Slauson Middle School Auditorium.  Soon after that concert, we began to think about fun and meaningful ways to end our school year together.

Many of the kids liked the idea of “busking” on the streets of Ann Arbor for tips!  Well, since you have to obtain a license or a permit to do something like that, we realized that might not work for us.  Instead, we asked the folks at the SELMA Café if we could play at their home during a Friday morning breakfast.  They said “YES!”

As their orchestra teacher, I’m especially happy to see these students putting their energy into a healthy and worthwhile cause such as this.  They are all helping to plan our big event: Josseline is making sure all the kids will have a ride there, Vishal is our equipment manager, Melanie and Chanda are our music librarians, Beth, Tim and Iris have made some great posters and flyers, Keely is writing those important thank you notes, some of the kids will even be clearing the compost and wood chips out of the driveway so we have a space to play, and Chenxi is running the musical rehearsals.

Speaking of the music – we’re going to play some of our favorite OLDIES BUT GOODIES from their 6^th and 7^th grade orchestra concerts!  Some songs, like “Dragon Hunter” and “March of the Metro Gnome”, are easy and a little bit goofy, but we might also satisfy the more sophisticated listener with Tchaikovsky’s “Trepak” and Vivaldi’s “Concerto in g minor for two celli.”

We want to thank the volunteers at the SELMA Café who have embraced this idea.  The kids will be learning a lot about the local food movement when Jeff and Tomm visit our classroom on Wednesday.  They’ll also understand how rewarding it can be to do community service.

Hoping to see all food-lovers and music-lovers put a little something in our “tip jar” – and wait ‘til you see our tip jar!  Music begins at 7:30 am ‘til about 8:30 am.

Sincere thanks from their proud and excited teacher – Carol Palms.

Be sure to come by and enjoy this great group of students, while supporting Selma Cafe.  Big thanks to Carol for making this happen!

~Lisa

sunset through the hoops

Check out a little moving pictures taste of the muddy fun out at Sunseed Farm yesterday right here.  More photos and thanks coming soon.

~Lisa

Suzy and Nora are back, inviting us to taste their breakfast goods.  The first time the girls took part, it was to help us celebrate our first anniversary, and now we get to help them celebrate their first!  Fresh off a visit from Anthony Bordain and a new menu for the spring season, they are ready to rev us up for our big hoop building weekend.  There seems to be some road trip story about a desperate breakfast stop at a certain well known fast food joint that has led them to cook up what we will call:
·        M. C. Griddle Cake breakfast sandwiches – two pancakes filled with egg, cheese and your choice of bacon or pancetta
·        A simple omelet –eggs gone fluffy with seasonal herbs, served with toast and bacon
A little hoop greens will round out the both
Don’t forget our “fruit seasonal” (sometimes freeze-onal) regular breakfast choices: Waffles with gingered apples or blueberries and Lisa’s bread pudding (blueberry this week, and sweetened with honey until Michigan figures out how to grow some non-GMO sugar!)

Looking forward to seeing you in our kitchen!

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