Hi! I’m Bee, Growing Hope’s Incubator Kitchen Manager. Fall is my favorite season for many reasons, but mostly because of the bounty of food we have available this time of year. Bumper summer crops and cool weather greens, apples, squash, berries… One of the biggest delights is seeing what the makers in our incubator kitchen whip up with local ingredients. We had the privilege of hosting Beara Bakes recently for a pop-up on the urban farm- fried green tomatoes on freshly baked focaccia liberally kissed with dollops of pimento cheese along with sweet treats and salads and even fresh coffee sourced from Depot Town’s Hyperion Coffee. Children scampered around the youth garden, their parents strolling along the garden rows, demo beds, and hoop house… it was a beautiful slice of community support on the most gorgeous of autumn Sunday mornings.

Beara Bakes cooked outside for their pop-up on the farm

Our farm is such a vibrant space, morphing to the various needs of our community. We’ve recently been firing up our adobe oven and inviting folks to eat with us as we experiment with techniques to get our timing right. Planning crops for next year to support making our own pizza sauce, and of course, copious amounts of basil and other herbs to tear onto bubbling hot pies emerging from the oven. Dreaming of ways to maximize the fire burning and invite folks to bake and share bread, or simmer a stew as the embers die down from a scorching 800-degree inferno ideal for making pizza… Meanwhile, our incubator kitchen hosts a rotating cast of 20 or so small food producers as well as providing space for our friends at Peace House to hold monthly events called “Around the Kitchen Table”, where everyone is invited to enjoy food and conversation at no cost every 3rd Sunday of the month.

Finding ways to bridge our locations between the farm and the market and invigorate the entire stretch of the neighborhood from W Michigan Ave down to S Washington Street remains the driving force behind my joining the Growing Hope team last September. I’m hopeful these test runs for our makers doing pop-ups will grow into weekly events and all our neighbors will enjoy food together, our team culture continues to revive casual food preparation to share with anyone walking by, and our entire community will benefit from just being together.

Matt Hamilton from Masafrenda shared tortilla demos in our incubator kitchen for Around the Kitchen Table

We hope to hold more pop-ups at the farm and the marketplace

People spent time together on the farm while enjoying delicious food from Beara Bakes

Around the Kitchen Table will take place every 3rd Sunday of the month at the Ypsilanti Farmers Marketplace