Proceeds from the FM@SELMA breakfasts have allowed us to help create two new local hoop-houses, adding 4000 sf of four-season production to our food-shed. Each of the projects was financed with a small loan package that will allow the proceeds of this new food production to feed back into the fund and finance additional hoops for more farmers down the road.

The first went to Greg Willerer of Brother Nature Produce on Rosa Parks in Detroit on August 1, 2009. Greg is one of a number of urban farmers re-creating farm production in what has become a food desert in inner-city Detroit. Besides taking produce to Eastern Market each Saturday and supplying several restaurants, Greg has established a u-pick food source for his neighbors that he thinks he can now extend to every month of the year with this latest hoop.  Greg was recently featured as one of the “Big Eight” in Time magazine, as one of the individuals (along with Kym Worthy, L. Brooks Patterson and others) in “The Committee To Save Detroit”.

Two weeks later on August 15th we were building off Joy Road, just north of Ann Arbor. Tomm Becker and Trilbey MacDonald are starting SunSeed Farm on land they just acquired. Their 30×96 hoop sits in front of a giant oak tree in the middle of one of their newly plowed fields. Tomm has been the resident farmer for the MSU Student Organic Farm, which among many other programs has created a 100 member, four-season CSA program. SunSeed may be the first 12 month CSA in the Ann Arbor area and will surely be a great addition to the choices we have available to feed ourselves. We look forward to purchasing their bounty for many SELMA breakfasts to come.

We hope to build additional hoops as a regular part of our community agricultural development, both for new and expanding farmers as well as integral parts of area school garden programs. Stay tuned for our next build dates and let us know if you wish to add hoops to your food cultivation plans.