morning day cafe – The Hilltop Monitor

Morning Day Cafe brings sunshine to Liberty Square

Savanah Malam — Fri, 12 Oct 2018 12:45:42 +0000

The Historic Liberty Square provides a vast array of restaurants and businesses that can make for a great outing for the typical cooped-up William Jewell student. One such small local business is the Morning Day Cafe, a fairly new addition, which first opened in July of 2014.

The cafe describes itself as “an artsy, quirky café, coffee shop and breakfast pub that’s totally focused on creating food that’s natural, unprocessed, chemical-free and locally sourced.”

Morning Day provides a uniquely conscious menu, making sure to cater to the needs and bellies of the surrounding community. Owner Miranda Barchers says that the most popular dish is the “Hot Mess” – a stack of breakfast potatoes with poblano cheese sauce, sauteed onions and peppers and sunny-side-up eggs.

In terms of beverages, Morning Day provides a full bar, has bottomless locally-roasted coffee and also smoothies, teas and espresso drinks on the menu. Barchers also says that the best seller is the Mexican Mocha, made with beans sourced from Guatemala and roasted locally, organic house-made cinnamon syrup, dark chocolate, organic espresso and choice of milk.

The sources of the culinary goodness are proudly presented, as their produce and meat are obtained locally. Their eggs, bacon, pork and beef come from Baham Farms in Kearney, MO, and the microgreens come from Simply Sprouts – right here in Liberty.

The brunch atmosphere is great for a cheap and healthy date, a simple meeting or you and a book. Morning Day strives to create a place that reflects what they preach.

“I want to give [customers] a relaxed, kind of all-inclusive atmosphere. Something that they can take a break from the stress of their life and just relax… I want people coming from all walks of life to be comfortable there,” said Barchers. “My staff is all unique and very accepting.”

With colorful chairs and local artwork on display, the vibes at Morning Day are bright and inviting. As the Cafe says, they are your “community cafe,” and that is extended to the community of William Jewell students as well.

“One thing we really pride ourselves on is being community-centric. A part of that is our artwork displayed,” Barchers said.

Each month, the cafe has a local artist that they support, by displaying their works in order to promote them to the community. All that they ask of the artist is that they can receive a piece of their artwork. Those 11 art pieces are on display for the month of December and then a silent auction is held – all of the proceeds go to their annual charity.

Barchers wants the Cafe to be a regular spot for Jewell students. Since their opening, Morning Day has offered a 10 percent student discount.

“We try to be a place where you can catch local events, and we also keep up on the events Jewell is holding as well. We’re a place where Jewell students can plug in, hang out, and just get to know the community,” said Barchers.

Whatever your dietary restrictions or stomach desires, Morning Day Cafe is a quick walk from campus and will be sure to satisfy and make you feel good about the community and your bodies.

Photo courtesy of morningdaycafe.com

A review of Morning Day Café

Lauren Berndt — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 14:00:46 +0000

If Morning Day Café (MDC) were a laptop it would be littered with bumper stickers that read “good vibes only,” “save the bees,” “eat organic” and “stay funky.” The local eatery and coffee stop is dedicated to sustainability and serves up a breakfast and lunch that is chemical-free, unprocessed and abound with gluten-free and vegetarian options—all in a hip and comforting atmosphere.

I walked into MDC on a Monday morning with allergies chiseling a hole into my sinuses. Praying for healing qualities, I ordered a ginger tea made with freshly minced ginger root, local honey and coconut milk for $3.25. The tea was served on a long plate painted with a banana leaf. The potion was soothing and fresh. I sat back and sipped while I listened to the café’s soundtrack playing James Taylor and Simon and Garfunkel.

Next I ordered Breakfast in Bed, which is a croissant sandwich with ham, cheddar, herb cream cheese and a poached egg served with a thinly sliced red-delicious apple drizzled with caramel for $8.75. The breakfast sandwich was so messy I was tempted to grab a fork. Instead, I championed through with croissant flakes dropping into my shirtsleeves—thoroughly thankful I didn’t invite a friend on the journey last minute, earning me the right to be as messy as I pleased as no one was there to judge. Needless to say, the meal was delicious and worth the greasy fingers.

Now with a full tummy I began observing the ambiance of the café that seemed to meld together and create a singular feeling of peaceful invigoration. MDC has a mix-match style that sets all types at ease, as diners sit in old-fashioned spindled chairs painted pink next to church pews all against a backdrop of exposed-brick walls juxtaposed with a few bright green and blue walls.

Photo courtesy of Morning Day Café

A fireplace, mason jar water glasses and local artists’ paintings that adorn the walls lend to the comforting and free atmosphere. MDC also has an outdoor seating area in the back with string lights stretched overhead.

An aquaponics system, a symbiotic environment used to sustainably raise plants and animals, stands in the middle of the café. The system includes various suspended watering cans streaming into one another culminating into a bathtub filled with frolicking goldfish and is crowned at the top with strings of ivy that reach all the way to the ceiling. William Jewell College students helped install the network.

MDC is just a short walk from the Jewell campus and located on E Franklin Street on the Liberty Square. Breakfast, lunch, small bites, coffee and tea are served from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day of the week.

The menu reads, “Eat local, eat natural, smile, belly-laugh, and have a beautiful morning day.” The Café just launched a new menu March 3 boasting sections ranging from “morning munchies” to entrees. MDC dishes plunge on the wild side with B-Mac, a breakfast macaroni and cheese ($10), but also satisfy the less adventurous with classics such as pancakes ($6) and omelets ($7.50). For lunch expect a variety of salads and sandwiches such as the “Sunday Driver” with house-made pesto, provolone, turkey, cucumber and tomato on a torta roll for $8. Entrees span from “Quinoa Krakatoa” ($9.50) to a locally sourced sirloin steak for $15.

Some may be familiar with the café’s former Night Bites in which the restaurant was open late and featured live music. Due to staff shortage MDC is currently not able to continue with the ritual.

However, MDC is open late every fourth Friday and Saturday of the month until 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. respectively. The café also has Art Bash the last Saturday of the month in which the eatery is open late and features live music and food specials. I also eyed a disco ball hanging in the restaurant. I am not sure if this is involved in the late night offerings, but you can bet I will be back on March 26 to find out.

At the end of my experience, I walked out of MDC with—still a sinus headache—but a quieter mind and a happy stomach.

Physics students travel, work with Liberty community for aquaponics project

Caitlin Troutman — Fri, 24 Apr 2015 22:11:53 +0000

For the last several years, the William Jewell College Physics Department has been in the process of developing an aquaponics system. Aquaponics is a system in which plants and fish grow in water with no soil or chemicals. The plants and fish then have a cyclical relationship that allows them to feed each other: the fish provide nutrients for the plants, and the plants keep the water fresh for the fish. Both the plants and fish are edible. This system uses approximately 90 percent less water than traditional soil-based systems, making it suitable for growing food in developing countries where both water and food that have not been imported may be scarce.

Sam Cobb, junior, and Alicia Loecker, sophomore, have been researching and developing these systems. Cobb began her research as a Pillsbury Scholar in 2013. She had the opportunity to install solar panels for an aquaponics system in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, and then began her own research on the systems when she returned home.

“I decided that I was going to study and build a system in the department for my research class,” Cobb said. “I then got obsessed with aquaponics and took every opportunity to talk about it or implement it.”

Loecker worked as a Pillsbury Scholar the following summer and also became interested in how the systems could be implemented in other countries.

“The more information I acquired about it, the more I realized how useful a system could be for a developing nation,” Loecker said.

Since then, the two have built a system within the physics department.

Cobb and Loecker have been communicating with representatives from different countries about implementing systems in various rural communities. Cobb and Loecker traveled to St. Croix in the Virgin Islands in 2014 to learn more about aquaponics and undergo training on how to implement a system. Then they, along with Margaret Perko, junior political science and communications major, traveled to Eleuthera in the Bahamas last January over the 2014 winter break.

“We want to find the most efficient way to provide food for communities, as well as provide members of the community with the knowledge of how aquaponics works and all the intricate parts that go into it,” said Loecker. “We don’t want to just build a system for a community; we want them to be interested and involved.”

Each member of the team emphasized how important building a relationship with these communities is, rather than just building the system and then leaving.

“Really everybody’s role there was to acquaint ourselves with the island and its amazing residents,” Perko said. “The important backbone of our project has been the understanding that lasting change does not come from ‘one and done’ encounters with people who think they know ‘the solution.”’

Cobb echoed this sentiment.

“I don’t want to just go in and tell people that this system is something they need. If you think about it, when people tell you that you need something, do you actually believe them?” said Cobb.

Currently, Cobb and Loecker have a working system in the physics lab, and they are in the process of implementing the system in other countries as well as in a Liberty coffee shop, Morning Day Cafe, which is owned by Miranda Barchers.

“One of the professors I met [at the cafe] happened to mention aquaponics and I thought, ‘that’s really cool; I’ve been wanting to do that here.’ I try to be really transparent with what I serve, and this was one more way to do that,” Barchers said.

Barchers visited the system at the College and decided to pursue the idea for the restaurant. At Morning Day Cafe, the focus was less on creating a great quantity of food and more on making an appealing structure in the restaurant.

“[Working in a restaurant] has been a different experience. In a community, we are focused on efficiency and making sure the most productivity is reached. In a restaurant, we are more focused on making it appealing to the customers so they may also become interested in aquaponics,” Loecker said. “We want to help members of communities get involved in the sustainability of their community.”

Barchers also expressed a desire to create buzz for the project.

“We also included a couple of artists in the design process. We want to be able to reuse things as much as possible: different tanks, recycled pipe,” Barchers said. “You know, I want my daughter’s friends to be talking about aquaponics.”

Support from the community for the project has helped the students gain attention and funding for their work.

“It is nice to see that the local community is getting excited about something like this,” Cobb said.

The Morning Day aquaponics project is currently in the development process, and the physics students will continue working with aquaponics systems for the duration of their time at Jewell.