Stone Coop Farm is on a lovely bit of land in Brighton, tended by farmers Joane’e DeBruhl and Shannon Rau.  Next to the farm is the Hamburg Fitness Center, and surrounding  all the rest of the land are beautiful views and lovely trails.

What a perfect site to gather our volunteers and build a hoop on a cool spring day.

Here is our group at the start of the day, gathered in front of the hoop footprint.

And here we are at the end of the day, with the completed hoop behind us.  Want to see what happened in between?

lots o' compost to spread

hoop footprint

building the bows

installing the bows (photo: Ben Strutin)

bows installed (photo: Ben Strutin)

securing the plastic

buttoning up the hoop

Cleaning up the site.

view from the back, through the deer fence.

One of the best things about this hoop build was the collaboration between Stone Coop Farm and the First Universalist Unitarian Congregation of Ann Arbor’s Locavore Group.  Thanks to Guala Lauzzana and the volunteers in the Locavore Group, everyone was well fed throughout the whole day, including creative and delicious desserts. The UUAA group also helped with the build itself, which was a huge support.

Thank you to Jackie, Shannon’s sister in law for making both these delicious and wonderfully fun cakes for us. Thanks also to Lauren Peterson for her donations from Zingerman’s Bakehouse, and Connie McGuire, Eileen Wright, Ruth Vail, Keely Kaleski, Linnea, and Colleen Crawley for cooking such delicious food for us.  In addition, we have the hoop builders to also thank, including Scooter Merrins for his work facilitating this build with Jeff, Shannon and Joannee, plus Ben Strutin, Ricardo Wyatt, John Seeley, Becky Swank, Vanessa Campbell, Jim Merrins, Stacy, Adam, Dale, Allie and Jenna Russell, Laura Vantaolalla, Cathy Muha, Phil Tuchinsky, Terry Butcher, Mike Muha, Kathy Friedrichs, Tim Richards, Mary Sexton, Hajnal and Robert Minger, John Russel, Erin J Ryan, Milagros Paredes, Mary Evergreen, Kris Meyer, Kate Sankey, Jenny Ritter, Nicole, Samantha and Savannah Gravier, Jim LeMoine, Hannah Rose Weber, Jon Rosema, Kendal Kuneman, Meaghan Foley, Joe, Greg and Frank Bednarczyk, Paul DeMarco, Erik Stalhadste, Jennifer, Allie and Nathan Kangas, Janet Max, Theresa, Sam and Charlie Basset and Kevin Rau. Thank you one and all.  We had a great group of volunteers, who worked safely and had fun, and the hoop was completed in one day.

If this looks like a fun adventure to you, please consider signing on for our 20 Hoops in 20 Days project, beginning in mid-June. Fill out the interest form HERE, and sign up for hoop builds HERE

 Thanks, and we’re looking forward to seeing you either at breakfast, or at a hoop build soon,

~Lisa

The sun was out, it was warm enough for just a fleece or sweatshirt, and folks were ready to button up the recent Tilian Farm Development Center hoop house with a big ol’ sheet of polymar. Here’s the group giving the guide rope one more tug to get the hoop aligned just right.

Take a look below at the series of photos that document what it means to pull plastic on a pretty afternoon.

Thanks to the plastic pullers who came out to help Thursday afternoon, including Andrea Ridgard, Mary Lynn Bigelow, Nate Lada, Sandy Lada, Jill Sweetman, Lindsey Kerr, Meghan Milbrath, Ginette Golembiewski, and Ben Fidler. First hoop of the season is coming together beautifully. We’re looking forward to the 20 hoops in 20 days adventure this June, and hope to see you there.

~Lisa

We had Scott MacInnis (r.) from Tranche de Vie Catering and Thad Gillies, from Logan Restaurant bringing us more of their delicious, creative and way awesome food this past Friday, and, as usual with these two fab chefs, the food came out fast, piping hot, and totally satisfying.

Here’s what they served us. On the left, a rich, cheesy, perfectly salted corn grits, Southern Italian style, topped with a mix of wilted chard, kale and spinach, and just right fresh Dragonwood Farms poached egg. A little fresh herbs on top, and mama mia, it was va bene all morning. To the right, a Croque a Chaval, similar to the classic French Croque Monsieur. They started with a grilled slice of Zingerman’s Bakehouse farm bread, topped with Steinhauser sliced ham, another poached egg, and a very tasty bechamel mornay sauce to add even more richness and flavor to the dish. A little local herbs on this dish too, and it was ooh la-la ma cherie yummy in every way.

Thanks so much to the volunteers who helped prep and serve this week: Susie Baity Stearns for facilitating prep, Andrew Bozio for expediting, Michelle Fortin for coordinating the post breakfast clean up, Mel Adams and Solomon Jost for their general kitchen awesomeness, and Cecily Donnelly, Dave Krick, Avery Robinson, Roberta Knox, Giana Fazioli, Mary Rock, Codi Sharp, Michael Schmid, Alyssa Ackerman, Lizzie Olenzek, Rich Kato, Jen DeMoss, Sarah Alexander, Eric Wichenheiser, Nate Lada, Jill Sweetman, Jordan Eckstein, Jennifer Jensen, Brent Beam, Alyssa Francini, Kit, and Carrie Burgess.  Thank you one and all for keeping it all together on a nearly record breaking morning– we had 183 guests!

Get ready for the U-M Catering crew to serve up some wonderful specials this Friday when Peter Veach comes back into the kitchen with his fab team, and in the meantime, keep thinking spring.

Looking forward to seeing you in our kitchen again soon,

Lisa

Elena Levin from Taste Our Goods, created two wonderful new specials this week, which, after two years of weekly breakfasts, is impressive! It’s clear that coming up with her breakfast specials is a solid indication of Elena’s creativity and passion about food.

The first dish was Elena’s own version of eggs Benedict, with spicy cheddar cheese and buttermilk whole wheat biscuits, topped wilted spinach and kale greens, a poached egg, a side of bacon, and a drizzle of a honey mustard sauce. This dish was savory, rich, flavorful and so delicious!

Elena’s second special was an amazing plate of rich buttermilk pancakes with strawberries and peaches, with a big dollop of maple syrup infused farm cheese, and served with a side of bacon.  Both these specials were beautifully presented, and they were a great mix of flavors and textures.

Thanks to all our volunteers who stepped up to help this week, including Michelle Fortin for facilitating Thursday evening prep and after service clean up on Friday, Andrew Bozio for expediting, Mel Adams for over all Friday kitchen management, my sister Mia Gottlieb for making the bread pudding this week, plus Dave Waterhouse, Erica Mooney, Eric Huston, Dorran Dihle, Emily Knoll, Mallorie King, Annie Dugan, Gary Mazzio, Sarah Alexander, Jen DeMoss, Jennifer Jensen, Anthony Nitsos, Yorgos Strangas, Lindsey Kerr, Alyssa Francini, Carrie Burgess Andrea Ridgard, and Kristin Pope.

In addition to the above mentioned volunteers, we had the Tilian Farm farmers in the house volunteering on Friday morning, and they were wearing their cool new t-shirts too. From l. to r., Ben Fidler, Nate Lada, Alex Cacciara , Mark Nowak, and Jill Sweetman. Though not pictured, I want to add a shout out of thanks to Gretchen Adracie from Festifools for volunteering Thursday evening and bringing us a slew of Festifools aprons for our future Selma Cafe chefs and volunteers to wear.

We want to give an extra big thanks to Chris Wick for her idea to host a bake sale during Selma Cafe hours, with all proceeds earmarked for supporting Japanese relief efforts.  Here’s Chris with Erin, with a whole table full of beautiful baked goods that Chris baked herself.

Our neighbor Mary Hathaway was at Selma Cafe on Friday too, with signs to give away to those interested in working towards other things to do with our library lot than what is currently being promoted and  discussed by our city counsel. Come on now folks. We can do way better than that.

We’ve got chef Dan Vernia in the cafe this Friday, and rumor has it he’s got some fab dishes to share. Come by and find out for yourself!

See you in the kitchen soon,

~Lisa

Selma Cafe chefs, and vegan cooks extraordinaire, Phillis Engelbert and Joel Panozzo are the brains, creativity and owners of one of the new food carts opening for business this spring in the latest Down Town Home and Garden project, Mark’s Carts. Their cart, called The Lunch Room will offer a wide variety of vegan options, including breakfast, lunch, dinner, side dishes and desserts.  I recently had a chance to speak with Phillis and Joel about their latest venture, and I’m happy to share it with you here.

What gave you the inspiration to focus on vegan dishes?
We have both carefully considered questions about food and diet for a long time. Joel has been vegetarian his entire adult life. Phillis has been a vegetarian on and off since the age of sixteen. A few years ago, having given up meat again, Phillis developed a lactose intolerance and made the leap to veganism. Joel made a similar shift within the last year. We have looked at a meat-and-dairy free diet as an opportunity to explore the wonderful options of plant-based cooking.

Tell me about your experience as vegan cooks
We are both self-taught cooks, and have focused mainly on vegan dishes for the last few years. Last summer we started dreaming up a cafe where we would serve delicious vegan food. We envisioned a comfortable, inviting space that would involve music, art, gardens, greenhouses, and environmental sustainability. Lacking the financing and experience to open a cafe, we decided to take small steps. We became more adventurous cooks and attempted more complicated menus. Our friends were willing guinea pigs for experimental vegan brunches and dinners. We took their feedback and improved our recipes and skills. In the fall we joined a small group of people offering vegan specials at Selma.

In October we jumped at an opportunity to host a “pop-up” meal at a downtown retailer’s event space. That marked the beginning of a new chapter in our vegan cooking project and provided us with a crash course in cooking for large groups, marketing, business, and more.

We started with an email list of 85 of our friends. Our “Lunch Room” meals grew in popularity and by April our email list had grown to 375 people. Throughout the fall and winter we held 11 events in various locations. Each meal was five courses, everything was made from scratch, and we never repeated a dish. We had various “theme” meals, such as vegan Thanksgiving, holiday brunch, tapas dinner, Thai dinner, Valentine’s Day with heart-shaped items, and a New Year’s Eve Eve (Dec. 30th) party that included special raspberry-tiramisu-amaretto cupcakes. With each successive meal we began creating more of our own recipes and relying less on cookbooks. While we still have much to learn, we feel that we now do have experience as vegan cooks.

How did you decide to commit to a food cart?
In early February an article appeared in annarbor.com describing the vision of Mark Hodesh, owner of Downtown Home & Garden, of a food-cart courtyard where start-up food entrepreneurs would sell gourmet food out of carts, using an adjacent commercial kitchen. Several friends sent that article to us, urging us to look into it. We spoke with Mark that day and soon thereafter sent in a business plan and application.  We learned that our proposal had been accepted on Valentine’s Day. We were cooking for a big dinner that night and found it hard to concentrate, we were so excited. Once we were accepted, we did not find it hard to commit. It felt right; like a logical next step for our food business.

What is your goal for bringing a vegan food cart to the community?

Our goal is to serve people delicious, satisfying food that happens to be vegan. We are not preachy. We cook and eat this way because we prefer it; we feel good about it and like how it makes our bodies feel. We are also serious eaters. Last summer I went with a friend on a canoe trip through the Boundary Waters — five days of wildnerness travel carrying all our own food and supplies — and we ate gourmet vegan meals the whole time. Cooking and eating, for us, are expressions of joy. We love to do it and share it. So you could say our goal is to make others happy by providing them with wonderful food and to make ourselves happy by doing what we love to do.

What will you serve?
We will have a pretty extensive menu of breakfast, lunch, and dinner items, plus sides and baked goods. There will be some fairly permanent items, like homemade coconut milk yogurt with granola, fruit-yogurt smoothies, coffee cake, summer rolls with peanut sauce, curry-chickpea-potato wrap, tangy slaw, roasted potatoes, crostini with tapenade, blackstrap gingersnaps, raspberry bars, and spicy chocolate snickerdoodles. Then we will rotate in items like homemade bagels with spread, gingerbread cupcakes, apple cake, Caesar salad, barbeque seitan sandwiches, hummous with veggies on rolls, tempeh with brocolli on wild rice with wild mushroom gravy, and lemon bars. Our menu will vary with in-season produce and other factors.

What will your price range be for your offerings?
Inexpensive; probably starting at $1 for cookies. Everything will be under $10.

When will the cart be up and running?

That depends on when the courtyard construction is finished. Hopefully by mid to late April.

Will you do any vegan catering for parties and events, in addition to your cart?
This is something we are considering. People have asked us about it and we want to get our feet wet first with the cart. Then we’ll see what else we can handle. In the off-season, catering is definitely a possibility.

What are your favorite vegan dishes?
Wow, there are so many! But when we just cook for ourselves and our partners or a small group of friends, we most often go for summer rolls. They are so versatile; you can put almost anything in them. Just grill some tofu, cook some rice noodles, chop up vegetables, reach for some fresh basil and mint leaves, whip up a nice batch of spicy peanut sauce, and roll it all up in a soaked rice-paper wrapper. Voila — you have a little piece of heaven! We’ll also be coming out with a Lunch Room cookbook sometime this summer, and we will sell it at our cart. Be sure to come by!

Thanks Phillis and Joel for taking the time to share your vision, and best of luck in your new adventure.

~Lisa