ISSUE # 250 MAY-JUN 2015­1

BROWNIES

Magic­Brownies

Black­Magic­Brownies

Pecan­Blondies­

Townie­Brownies

COOKIES

Ginger­Jump­Up­­Molasses­Cookies­

Oatmeal­Raisin­­Cookies

Lemon­Cookies

SCONES

Currant­Scones

Country­Scones

Ginger­Scones

Lemon­Scones

Cheddar­Herb­Scones

Bacon­Cheddar­Scones

Create your own Zingerman’s baked gOods gift boxCustom Six-Piece Baked Goods SamplerZingerman’s fat, wallet-sized brownies. Huge, all-natural cookies. Luscious, buttery scones. Now you can customize for mom and pick the six treats you know she’ll love.

Create your own assortment of Zingerman’s scones, cookies and brownies. Use the menus below to choose the pastries you’d like. Your selec-tion is hand-packed to order in our fun, cartooned gift box. Flat rate shipping

Mom’s new traditionDaisy Fondant Cake

You’ve gotta hand it to fondant frosting. It makes a gorgeous cake. It shapes like potter’s clay and holds color like a fresco.

All those tilting, day-glo cakes you see that are so alluring—all fondant. Unfortunately, most of the cake’s engineering

stops at decoration.

We’ve made sure our buttermilk cream Daisy Cake is dif-ferent. It’s baked with real butter, buttermilk, fresh lemon juice and real vanilla. After it cools, the daisy decorations are added by hand. They’ll love how it looks. They’ll talk

for weeks about how it tastes. Free overnight shipping.

Thick, creamy, elegant, luscious. Eating gelato is an event, a special occasion that borders on a reli-

gious experience for ice cream connoisseurs.

Just in time for Mother’s Day, our gelato maker, Josh, has pulled together a collection

inspired by his own mom, Linda, and some of her favorite flavors.

At Zingerman’s Creamery, Josh mixes fresh milk from Calder Dairy—one of the last farmstead

dairies in Michigan—with organic Demerara sugar and an array of other ingredients to churn out this

Italian-style ice cream with direct, intense flavors.

"The best Reuben in America"

Food & Wine The deli sandwich of his dreamsZingerman’s Reuben Sandwich KitsThe perfect lunch—by mail. If your dad loves real deli fare, sending this gift will cement your status as his most clever, generous child. Some assembly is required, but considering it has been known to make grown men weep in appreciation, we think it’s worth it. Free overnight shipping.

Don’t forget Dad!Included

Jewish Rye (Pumpernickel in

Brooklyn Reuben), Meat Fixins, Sauerkraut,

Emmentaler Swiss, Redskin Potato Salad,

Coleslaw, Russian Dressing, Garlicky

Pickles, Magic & Black Magic Brownies, Professional Deli

Instructions

Mother’s litTle helperZingerman’s Superior Scone SamplerMy mother has been hooked on these for years. I bring her a few every time I visit. Sometimes I wonder if it’s me or the scones she’s more excited to see.

I can understand why. These scones are the real deal. An old fashioned treat made with fresh butter, cream and just enough flour to hold them together. Warmed for a few minutes in the oven they smell outrageously good. And unlike most brittle coffee shop scones, their texture manages to be fluffy and creamy all at once.

We’ll get you hooked, too. This cartooned box holds half a dozen scones—two each of our Currant, Ginger and Country—plus a little jar each of Preserves and Italian Honey. Flat rate shipping

Don’t worry. We’ve just got so much going on around the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses that we needed two whole pages to list everything. Find out what’s happening on pages 6 and 7!

with gifts from zingermans.com

A special collection inspired by gelato maker Josh’s mom, Linda

Six­tubs­total,­twelve­ounces­each:­

Dark­Chocolate made with Scharffen Berger cocoa, an award winner

Maple­Pecanmade with real Michigan maple syrup and butter-roasted Georgia pecans

GingerMario Batali calls this one “exhila-rating, like a dive into a cool lake.”

Vanillamade with Madagascar’s famous bourbon vanilla beans

Burnt­Sugarmade with Demerara sugar toasted until it just starts to burn, like the top of a crème brûlée

Coconut­MacaroonJosh’s mom’s favorite, filled with pieces of coconut macaroons from Zingerman’s Bakehouse

free overnight shipping

isSue #250 may/June 2015•­2

Every spring bacon lovers, bacon makers, cooking school teachers, culinary historians, writers, statisticians, sociologists, chefs, roller derby professionals and other pork-driven people from all over the globe get together to talk, taste and toast the terrific flavors and cultural iconography of all things bacon (and bacon-related). Every year’s lineup seems to surpass the excellent group of speak-ers from the previous season, and this spring’s session promises to be another transcendent step in cured pork’s rising profile.

As always, this year’s Camp Bacon is a fundraiser for two of our favorite non-profit organizations—the Southern Foodways Alliance and the 4H Club of Washtenaw County. Southern Foodways, based in Oxford, Mississippi, has been celebrating and honoring Southern food traditions for 15 years now. Pork, of course, takes a prominent place in the Southern culinary pantheon. Many of our best bacon connections have come from through our work with SFA. The 4H Clubs have been supporting the work and study of young people in agriculture since the early years of the 20th century. Our com-mitment to community-based agriculture makes them a natural fit for Camp Bacon. The higher the quality of American hog rearing, the better our bacon is likely to be! All the monies raised by Camp Bacon will go to help support these two important community non-profits.

Potlikker Film Festival at the DeliWednesday, June 3 • 7pm • $30Zingerman’s Events on 4th 415 N. Fifth Street, Ann ArborThe folks down at the Southern Foodways Alliance have done an incredible job capturing the stories behind some of our most beloved Southern food makers in a series of award-winning short documentaries by filmmaker Joe York. Join us as we watch a few films and enjoy foods from the producers featured. Come with an appetite and be ready to fall in love with Southern Foodways!

6th Annual Bacon Ball at the RoadhousePancetta,­Pasta­&­PassionThursday, June 4 • 7pm • $752501 Jackson Road, Ann ArborA celebration of Southern Italian pork dishes fea-turing leading culinary light, innovative importer and cooking teacher Rolando Beramendi.

Bakin’ with Bacon­Hands-on baking class at BAKE! Thursday, June 4 • 1-5pm • $125 3723 Plaza Drive, Ann ArborOur Friday class already sold out so we’re adding this class to the schedule! We’ll use the power of bacon to flavor three amazing baked goods. You’ll make a version of our wildly popular peppered ba-con farm bread, bacon cheddar scones, and sweet and salty bacon pecan sandy cookies. We’ll take you to hog heaven with a demonstration of our ma-ple glazed bacon apple doughnuts. Try and contain yourself. You’ll leave BAKE! with our recipes, the knowledge to recreate them at home, two loaves of bread, a dozen scones, three dozen cookies and great coupons.

Zingerman’s Camp Bacon Talent ShowThursday, June 4 • 9pm doors The Blind Pig • $10Want see a whole bunch of local talent & support a great cause at the same time?

Come to the 1st Annual Zingerman’s Camp Bacon Talent Show and watch the stars being born right before your eyes! Bands, solo artists, DJs – we’ve got it all! Enjoy a fun evening of great local per-formers, tasty snacks and drinks, and help support a great organization while you do it.

Join us at Ann Arbor’s only porcine bar, the Blind Pig and help us support our local performers, as well as the Southern Foodways Alliance, an orga-nization based at the University of Mississippi at Oxford that’s dedicated to preserving Southern food culture.

Saturday Night Pig Pickin’ Dinner on the farm Saturday, June 6, 6-9pm • $30 (proceeds benefit Washtenaw County 4-H)

Pig­Picking’­Menu:Whole Hog Pig RoastBakehouse Rustic Rolls Yellow Mustard SlawFresh FruitsBakehouse Jumbleberry Pie

Join Zingerman’s and local 4-H students for an evening of music, games, fun and, of course, pork. For the first time this year, we’re bringing a south-ern tradition way up north just in time for camp; we’re roasting an entire Cornman Farms hog right here on the farm, and y’all are invited!

The fine folks at Zingerman’s Roadhouse are han-dling this one, and they’ll serve it pulled right off the bone along with your choice of three amazing sauces: Eastern North Carolina Vinegar BBQ, Alex’s Red Rage Tomato BBQ, or South Carolina Mustard BBQ. Bring your family, friends, and neighbors for this brand-new Camp Bacon tradition!

6th­Annual

The Kitchen SistersBacon­Buzz­on­the­RadioNationally known radio culinary personalities Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva come to Camp Bacon to share the power of pork on the radio. Colorful bacon stories culled from twenty years of broadcasts!

Rolando BerAmendi The­Most­Powerful­Culinary­Pairing­Possible—Pancetta­and­PastaInnovative importer, cooking teacher and expert in all things Italian, shares the secret behind his favorite bacon dish.

Susan Schwallie Bacon­by­the­NumbersBy popular demand Susan returns to share a plethora of pork-based consumer statistics: Who’s eating bacon? How? How much? How was that consumption changed?

Leo Landis Local­Bacon­in­a­State­­with­20­Million­PigsLeo brings his love of his home state of Iowa, agriculture, history and hogs to the Camp Bacon table telling tales of Iowa’s hog history and bacon!

Adam Seger & Mitch Einhorn Bacon:­Tippling­and­TempuraChicago’s Godfather of craft cocktails shares a series of entertaining and slightly inebriating bacon cocktail recipes and stories and the Chef/Owner of Chicago’s Twisted Spoke reveals the secrets to most decadent tempura you’ll ever have in a cooking demo.

Kat Gordon Baking­with­BaconCupcake Queen of Memphis, Kat’s col-orful cupcakes and scrumptious pies at her Muddy’s Bake Shop are a Memphis institution. Her flair, style, and points of view about pork are one of a kind!

Fred Bueltmann Bacon,­Beer­and­the­­Wizard­of­OzThe man, the myth and the well spoken legend behind New Holland Brew-ery waxes pork and poetic on three subjects close to his heart—bacon, beer and L. Frank Baum‘s Wizard of Oz.

Greg Laketek Salumi—The­Italian­Tradition­­of­Pork­Curing­Co-founder of West Loop Salami, one the country’s leading young salumieri, Greg will share tales of curing tradi-tional culatello, Stroghino, Finnochi-ana, Lonzino, Ciauscolo, Guanciale, and other Italian pork delicacies.

STeve Carre A­Long­Hop­from­Down­UnderBringing a taste of the latest hit on the Australian food scene—Kangaroo Chorizo.

William Marshall The­Story­of­the­BLTZingerman’s Deli’s own William Mar-shall, one of our most passionate pork promoters, tells the long and savory story of the Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sandwich.

Antonio FiaschE The­Magical­Spicy­Pork­Spread­of­Southern­ItalyThere’s nothing in the world like N’duja. After learning the recipe from his grandfather in Calabria, Anto-nio Fiasche set to work crafting this traditional spicy, spreadable Southern Italian specialty in Chicago.

THE MAIN EVENTSaturday, June 6, 8am-4pm (breakfast starts at 7:30am) $150 Zingerman’s Cornman Farms8540 Island Lake Rd., Dexter, MI

An all day festival of meaty speakers, lots of learning, a whole lot of laughing, and, of course, all the bacon you can eat!!

Bacon Street FairSunday, June 7 • 11am-2pm • FREE! Ann Arbor Downtown Artisan Market (donation to Washtenaw County 4-H encouraged!)

The smell of bacon will fill Kerrytown neighbor-hood as bacon makers and other bacon and pork purveyors offer up tastes of their products and sell their wares. We’ll also have an assortment of kid-friendly, bacon-related games!

isSue #250 may/June 2015•­3

thanks to our sponsors!Ari: We’ve been working together for over twenty years now! How did you get started importing traditional Italian foods?

Rolando: When I was in college at UC Davis I was always the one cooking for fun, friends and to practice all the recipes I knew from my family. I always saved money to drive to Sacra-mento to the only store I knew had good extra virgin olive oil (Corti Brothers!) and cherished every drop on the wonderful greens from California. I graduated from in 1987 and went to Italy on a ski vacation. At a dinner I met a group of friends who owned a company sell-ing corporate gift baskets which included some very high quality extra virgin oils, pasta, sauc-es, jams and delicacies. The name was “Villa d’Aglie” and they asked me if I could find them an importer for their products in the U.S.

Having just graduated and having no career in sight, I told them to send me a case of each product they wanted sell. The products ar-rived, I took pictures of them and I made a bro-chure with the photos by gluing them on white pages and typing a small blurb under each pho-to and explaining what to do with them. I sent it to many importers and distributors and only one asked me to come see him. Walter Guerra from ItalFoods was very interested but the lack of inventory and my lack of experience made him proceed to tell me how I could go about it. So after that meeting I created Manicaretti and ordered a pallet of products.

I then sent the same presentation and a prod-uct list to my favorite spots where I was finding good imported products at the time: Vivande on Fillmore Street and Gump’s in SF, the Pasta Shop at the Rockridge Market Hall in Oakland, Oakville grocery in Napa. They all called me mad but within a month all my products were on their shelves! And then it all started to roll and grow, and now Manicaretti is 25 years old,

and we are shipping tons of containers every year across the ocean and have a warehouse in New Jersey and one in Oakland. . .seems like yesterday!

Ari: You’ve been to Zingerman’s a number of times. Are you excited to come back for Camp Bacon?

Rolando: I will never forget the day we met at the first Fancy Food Show! When you placed your first order for olive oils and pasta, it was my first order to cross the Mississippi! It was a huge milestone for Manicaretti. You asked me to come visit and I came a few times with some of my producers to teach cooking classes and do demos. We taught together with Contessa Rosetta Clara from Principato di Lucedio a ri-sotto class in the backyard with an improvised cooking station and enjoyed getting to see the real America where you live! Your support to the producers and products has always been so important. And since my favorite dish is Spa-ghetti alla Carbonara, I can’t think of a better excuse to come see you again!

Ari: Speaking of bacon, can you tell us about the role that bacon (or, really, pancetta, guanciale, lardo, etc.) plays in Italian cook-ing?

Rolando: I see it as a key and basic staple of every fridge in Italy. Everyone has always pan-cetta in the fridge! You see people using a little piece as flavoring or in many of Italy’s pasta sauces.

Ari: What are some of the dishes you have in mind for this year’s Bacon Ball at Zinger-man’s Roadhouse on June 4?

Rolando: Grilled asparagus or radicchio driz-zled with Agrumato lemon oil, crispy pancetta, cubed hard boiled eggs, and shavings of Par-migiano. For pastas, Spaghetti alla Carbonara,

Camp Bacon Guest Star Spills the Beans on

Italian Cured Pork

An­Interview­with­Importer,­Chef,­­and­Italian­Food­Expert­Extraordinaire,­Rolando­Beramendi

continued on page 4

ISSUE # 250 MAY-JUN 2015 ISSUE # 250 MAY-JUN 2015­4 ­5

The late, great R. W. Apple, long-time writer and editor of the New

York Times, once called Nueske’s Applewood Smoked Bacon “the beluga of bacon, the Rolls-Royce of Rashers.” What impressed him—and impresses me, too—was

the bacon’s balance. It’s intensely porky, nicely smoky, never too salty,

with a slightly maple-sweet flavor. There are a lot of things that contribute to

the flavor, from the kind of hogs used to what they’re fed to the curing method to the propor-tion of sugar, salt, and spices in the rub. Yet after one visit to the Nueske’s production facil-ity in Wittenberg, Wisconsin,

Apple had it figured out. He wrote, “the key to the flavor and consistency of Nueske bacon...

lies in the smokehouse.”

Nueske’s has been building identical smokehouses for 80 years.

The original Nueske smokehouse stands in front of the company’s retail pork shop. It’s functional, but today it’s just for show. There are 32 smokehouses built to match it, though, and those are in use every day. They’re all built according to the same original plans—why mess with suc-cess? Many of them have been smoking for decades. As the smokehouses get older, the smoky aroma is more deeply ingrained, and they get better and better, like a well-sea-soned cast iron pan.

Each smokehouse is about the size of a walk-in closet. You might be imagining a small village of tiny houses in the for-est, chimneys puffing away, but these days the smokehouses are all indoors, in an enormous smoking room. They are watched by smokemaster Mike, who’s been overseeing the smoking at Nueske’s for more than twenty years. Mike will

tell you that the smokehouses are each a little differ-ent, like children. Some are easy, some difficult, some unpredictable, some stormy. He has a couple of appren-tices who have been training to operate the smokehouses for a few years now, but Mike retains the final say in the smoking. He says when each slab of bacon is done. Since each batch smokes for 24 hours and they smoke seven days a week, that means Mike is on call 24/7, you know, for smok-ing emergencies.

Inside the smokehouses, whole sides of bacon hang from special racks on wheels. The smoke comes from open fires built from applewood logs. The design is meant to help all the sides of bacon smoke evenly, but that’s about as much as I can tell you about it because that’s about as much as I know. The particulars of Nueske’s smokehouse workings are closely guarded company secrets. If you go and visit them, like Apple did, they’ll let you take a look—but you can’t take photos. If you just call to ask questions, like I did, the details are left largely to the imagination.

The Nueske family only smokes with applewood logs.

The recipe came from Wilhelm and Wilhelmina Nueske, who emigrated from Prussia to Wisconsin in 1887. Two generations later in 1933, R. C. Nueske, started selling apple-wood smoked meats made with the family recipe. The same recipe is still used today. His son Bob, who once said he was “born in a cooler and raised in a smokehouse,” helped bring Nueske’s to national prominence along with his brother Jim.

Smoking with applewood might not seem that distinctive, given how much bacon out there is labeled as “apple-wood.” But as Tanya Nueske, R. C.’s granddaughter and the fifth-generation bacon maker leading the company today, explains it, “’applewood smoke’ can mean almost any-thing these days—apple juice, apple smoke flavoring, liq-uid smoke. But we only use real logs of Wisconsin apple-wood.” Using those logs creates a sweet, aromatic smoke that gives the bacon so much of its flavor. Using shortcuts like smoke flavoring or even applewood sawdust doesn’t give bacon the same depth. Nueske’s smokes each batch of bacon for at least 24 hours. That’s much longer than the

industry standard, which is an hour or two at most, if they smoke at all—many just pour on liquid smoke flavoring. That full day of smoking gives the sweet, smoky aroma time to totally penetrate the meat.

Most of the applewood comes from a couple of hours away in nearby Door County, Wisconsin. Each year the trees are pruned and the byproduct is plenty of applewood. The abundance of orchard “waste” is probably what led Wilhelm and Wilhelmina to start smoking with it 130 years ago, but I bet they chose to keep smoking with it exclusively because they loved the flavor it imparts.

Nueske’s Applewood Smoked Bacon has been the house bacon at Zingerman’s Deli for 33 years.

It shows up on our half-dozen versions of a BLT and atop a slew of other sandwiches. Pounds and pounds are fried up every morning alongside eggs for breakfast. It hasn’t stuck around just because we’re lazy. We taste new bacons every month—dozens in the past year—sent in by aspiring bacon makers around the country. Today we sell more than 20 dif-ferent bacons. But for all of the bacons that we’ve tried and loved, Nueske’s Applewood Smoked Bacon has remained the standard by which all others are judged.

And this year we are holding our annual Camp Bacon cele-bration in memory of Tanya’s dad, Bob Nueske, who passed away this past year. He was the hit of Camp Bacon 2014 and will be dearly missed by many.

Val Neff-Rasmussen writes The Feed blog for zingermans.com. To get regular issues of The Feed in your inbox, go to www.zingermanscommunity.com/e-news

NUESKE’S APPLEWOOD SMOKED BACON

AND THE LEGACY OF BOB NUESKE

THE FEEDThe Secret Life of Amazing Food at Zingerman’s

Rigatoni Amatriciana, Bucatini alla Gricia. For a main course, maybe pork belly porchetta style. But we’ll see what’s good and fresh when we get closer to the date. One thing I can guarantee is that it will be great!

Ari: When it comes to pasta, few Americans understand what makes the difference be-tween an OK commercial pasta and an A+ artisan offering. Can you explain some of the differences?

Rolando: The quality of the grain is essential as is the craftsmanship. Making an artisan product is very hard because the production is so slow and requires such incredible attention. The

bronze dies give it the amazing texture. The drying process ensures its bite and flavor!

Ari: You and I are both huge fans of the Rustichella pasta from the Peduzzi family, in par-ticular their PrimoGrano line. Can you tell us more about both of those?

Rolando: The Peduzzi family pasta-making tradition is the heritage of Gianluigi’s mom, Nicolina Sergiacomo, whose father had a mill in the town of Penne where all the farmers would bring their wheat to be milled. He then started to make pasta for some of them. Since pasta is the ba-sic staple made on a daily basis, the pasta from the Mulino Sergiacomo was called “la pasta ac-quistata” meaning “bought pasta” which was then served as a luxury mostly on Sunday meals. Gianluigi wanted to recreate the same idea with the PrimoGrano line: 100% Abruzzo-grown wheat. They call those products “0 Kilometer” in Italy. It has the flavor of what his grandfather was making back in the 1920s.

Ari: What else should we know about bacon, traditional Italian cooking, great pasta or anything else?

Rolando: I guess here is when the most basic and simplest notion of what I consider “Italian food” might come to some scrutiny. We all overheard everyone saying keep it seasonal and simple. And it’s basically that. I think when you use high quality ingredients you need less fuss about them and around them. What’s wrong with just a bowl of Spaghetti alla Carbonara? It’s just egg, Parmigiano and guanciale! Do you think adding peas or this and that would actually make it taste better? How about having a bowl of peas with Pecorino and lots of olive oil when they are in season, but not on the carbonara! I feel sometimes like just having a perfectly ripe tomato cut in half with a delicious Crudo oil from Sicily or a piece of bread with a thick slice of sweet butter and a great salty anchovy on it. Why do we need to complicate things when we’re using the best ingredients?

I still remember my grandma serving prunes wrapped in bacon as an appetizer with cocktails. I think figs and bacon are the perfect fruit pairing as well as radicchio, asparagus and a sprinkle of chopped hazelnuts. If there is a dish I would eat forever on a desert island would be Spaghetti alla Carbonara!

ISSUE # 250 MAY-JUN 2015 ISSUE # 250 MAY-JUN 2015­4 ­5

We’re really excited to have Kitchen Sisters Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva join us at this year’s Camp Bacon Main Event. They’ll share some of the big bacon highlights from their years as radio hosts on NPR. I chatted with Davia about their years in radio and their upcoming visit to Ann Arbor.

Ari: I love what you two do! Can you explain to folks here who don’t yet know the Kitchen Sisters what your show is all about?

Davia: We say our mission at Kitchen Sisters is building com-munity through storytelling. Our stories connect people, hopefully give strangers a sense of one another, their culture and their lives. We do big, epic series that air on NPR’s Morn-ing Edition and All Things Considered. We talk a lot about the hidden kitchens—secret, unexpected, below-the-radar cook-ing—things people don’t often know about how communities have come together through food. We did another series, The Hidden World Of Girls (girls and the women they become), about rituals and rites of passage, coming of age, women who cut a trail. We did another called The Sonic Memorial Project after 9/11—a memorial to the people who lost their lives in 9/11.

There’s so much! We did a big series called “Lost and Found Sound.” It’s about how sound has changed history. We have interviewed thousands of people across the years. And we do a lot with oral history, recording oral traditions before they get lost. Honoring and recording vanishing traditions and the rituals of cultures is important to us.

We say our stories come from “the flip side of history.” It’s the stuff people rarely talk about in mainstream media, but we think is really important. We use interview and archival recordings. We produce our stories as if they were movies—stories you hear, but can see, full of interviews, music, oral histories, field recordings, archival audio....

Stories are like blueprints. You become the stories you tell. We believe we can change the world through stories. Our ul-timate goal is world peace. If people know other people’s stories—especially food stories—they wouldn’t be at war. We say that, “Enemies are just people whose story you don’t yet know.” A bit simplistic we know, but I think you know what we mean.

Ari: Food does provide a common way to communicate.

Davia: It’s the universal language. Music and food. Some piece of you opens up to food. And food connects you to the planet. We open up and welcome the world and the nation to tell us their stories. We like to bring people’s voices to the fore—really bringing in stories from everyday citizens.

Ari: How did you get started?

Davia: Kitchen Sisters is a collaboration between myself and Nikki Silva. We’ve been doing it on and off for thirty years. We met in Santa Cruz. We both went to UCSC but met after we’d finished school. I wanted to be the first woman Supreme Court justice or a disc jockey. Everywhere I went in town people would go they would say “Oh! You know, there was just this nice woman here named Nikki Silva col-lecting artifacts. You two would really like each other.” She was working at the museum. Later she moved into radio, and we’ve moved forward together ever since.

Ari: What’s the best place for people to connect with your work?

Davia: www.kitchensisters.org is our website. All those series are on there. We’re on NPR and BBC and radio networks around the world. People can look us up on npr.org. And we have a new podcast called “Fugitive Ways.” We’re part of the Radiotopia Collective too.

Ari: Going through your website it’s a pretty impressive list of people that show up. Patti Smith, Ira Glass. . . . I’m really intrigued by the recordings of R.A. Coleman you’ve featured. Also Georgia Gilmore. Can you talk a bit about those?

Davia: We look for sonic pioneers, kitchen visionaries, street heroes, grandmothers, butchers, farmers, community activ-

ists, musicians, anthropologists, detectives, groundbreak-ing girls, pioneering women. People who are possessed—by principles, by a vision, by a recipe, a pig, a view of how to make of this world a peaceful, enlivened, eccentric place.

Ari: You’re coming to Ann Arbor in part for Camp Bacon—how has bacon been a part of the Kitchen Sisters story?

Davia: Can’t wait. We just had breakfast and bacon was at the heart of it. We gave a Ted Talk here in Vancouver, and it took a rasher of bacon to ground us and help us make it through and not fall off the stage with fear—your brain on bacon! Or our brains on bacon. Yes, we have been telling stories and a lot of them reference bacon. Either because it’s the thing everyone eats. Or in some stories, because they can’t eat it. You can hardly tell a food story without pig being some part of it. It gets woven into everything. Often if you least expect it. If not the front story, it’s in the backstory.

Ari: Are you excited to be coming here to Ann Arbor? Is this your first time in town?

Davia: Very excited. I was there once before for a flash min-ute and loved it and have wanted to come back. And Zing-erman’s has been like a lighthouse beacon in the world of food that we’ve been wanting to make a pilgrimage to since we met you and first heard about the vision and the place. I actually turned 40 in Ann Arbor. My boyfriend at the time was a comedian and he performed in Ann Arbor that night. I loved it and the show went great. We were there about 48 hours. But when you’re doing comedy you live by night so I really didn’t see anything in the day. So this will be my first non-vampire visit. And Nikki has never been.

Ari: I think we met at the Southern Foodways Alliance Symposium in Oxford, Mississippi maybe nine or ten years ago. Camp Bacon is, of course, a fundraiser for them. Can you talk about your experiences with SFA?

Davia: I can’t overemphasize the importance and power of SFA. They convene people, not just physically in Oxford but because they have an ear to the ground about old ways that need to be connected to the new ways. Some of their work is scholarship. Some of it is pure love and gluttony, but at the same time there’s always this sincere mindfulness about the problems in society. They talk about poverty and hunger and racism and the land what we can do about them. One minute you’re hearing about slavery and poverty and then you’re out eating beautiful tomato salad. You never know who will be at their table. SFA is like one big table (as Molly O’Neill

says). Even if you’re not from the South, it makes you look at your own culture and region through a different lens and want to connect in different ways.

Ari: So it’s really had a big impact on you?

Davia: Definitely. I think we suffer so deeply in this country from a lack of leadership and knowing how lead ourselves. We really want to come there because of the moral force of Zingerman’s and of Southern Foodways Alliance. It’s just food I know . . . but you all work through food to help people do better governance, better community and better conver-sations.

Ari: You’re also going to be doing a Speaker Series talk at ZingTrain on the morning of Wednesday, June 3 about your corporate story telling work. It sounds fascinating to me. Can you tell us more about it?

Davia: We call it “The Art of Storytelling and How to Use It.” It’s about how stories relate to your business’ brand and mis-sion and your training work. We have a manifesto that we share: how to tell strong stories and connect people to them. We notice that businesses can use these same principles of storytelling to tell the mission and message of their organi-zation and to connect to their audience or customer base. We think of your customers as your “listeners.” It’s our mani-festo. We call it the “12 Commandments of Storytelling” and we’ll be sharing those at that morning session, talking about how you can use them to boost yourself and convey your organizational mission in a more meaningful way. We’ll play a little sound and story and see how these techniques can be applied to your project and your company to help build com-munity, audience and a base for your endeavor.

Ari: What else would you like folks to know?

Davia: We want to know about the “hidden kitchen” of the region. What’s the hidden kitchen in your life? What do we need to know about it? Our next Hidden Kitchen series on NPR’s Morning Edition is called “Kimchi Diplomacy: War and Peace and Food.” It’s about using food as a diplomatic tool since traditional politics seems to have capsized. After all, what’s so funny about peace, love and understanding? We also want to know what music people think we should hear—Motown has always been our taproot and we would like to hear the soundtrack of Ann Arbor and Detroit these days.

Meet NPR’s The Kitchen Sisters

at Camp Bacon!

Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva will be appearing at this year’s Camp Bacon Main Event! You can also catch them at the ZingTrain Speaker Series talk on Wednesday June 3, 8-9am where they will

discuss the power of storytelling in building your business. Reserve your spot at zingtrain.com

ISSUE # 250 MAY-JUN 2015 ISSUE # 250 MAY-JUN 2015­6 ­7

Imagine February in Southeast Michigan. Cornman Farms is blanketed in snow. Angry, freezing clouds swirl overhead, and the wind howls. Daylight is a thin, gray window, and aver-age daytime temps hover around zero. To a casual observer, Cornman Farms is asleep. But, look a little closer and you’ll see a preview of bright green spring.

Farm Manager Mark Baerwolf meets me outside of the farm’s greenhouse on a chilly, sunny day in late March. The wheel of seasons is shifting, and the arctic weather has flown north again until next year. The snow is gone (save a patch or two in the shade), but the ground is still hard. Still, Mark and his team are already working on the fields. The farm crew has spread a layer of rich compost over one of the fields, prepping the land for planting later in April.

But the fields will have to wait. Mark motions for me to fol-low him into the Cornman Farms greenhouse. It’s built onto the southern face of the farm’s storage barn. Mark tells me the greenhouse was designed by Alex Young, founder of Cornman Farms and managing partner of Zingerman’s Roadhouse and the farm’s agricultural operations, and built by Alex’s son Ethan and a couple of similarly handy friends. We step into the stor-age barn and the air is immediately different; warm, dense, and filled with the smell of earth and vegetation. The open door-way to the greenhouse glows from across the room like a por-tal to another season, which it absolutely is. We step into the hot room, and all I can see is green.

The greenhouse twin-walls are a poly-carbonate thermoplastic and the weak March sunlight just pours in, filling the space with brightness and heat. The greenhouse is approximately 36 feet long, and pushes out about 12 feet southward from the barn. The roof slopes downward at a steep angle to keep it free of snow and heavier, potentially damaging debris. Bushy flats of lettuces cover the floor like a sea of leaves. Behind us, seed-ling-filled racks anchored to the barn wall rise nearly to the ceiling. Tiny tomato plants, radish shoots, and scores of other green sprouts thrive in their moist little beds, waiting for the fields to warm up.

Mark offers me a radish shoot. It tastes fresh, and radishy, but without the sharp, peppery note of the actual radish bulb. It’s delicious. Mark tells me that it’s because of this greenhouse that Zingerman’s Roadhouse is able to use these shoots on their sal-ads year-round. I am sold; all I can think about is eating more of these sweet little shoots. Mark tells me this greenhouse is one of the first steps in reaching their ultimate goal of becoming a four-season farm, a farm that can grow and harvest through the colder months as well as the summer growing season. It’s something they’ve been working toward for some time, and this will be the second year that Mark will have enough work to keep him busy enough between the last of the harvest and the spring planting season. In fact, Mark says, “there will be enough work for another person to help out this fall/winter.”

He continues, “This past November and December, we visited all of our customers, everyone who buys our produce, and we talked with them about what worked, what they liked, and what we’d like to do differently this coming harvest season.” For the rest of the December, and into early January, Mark plans out the coming farm year. He lays out a large calendar, and writes in the critical dates. And based on the feedback he received, he’ll put together his “grow list,” the list of crops he wants to raise this year. Then, Mark begins to draw the map of the farm’s production gardens, which will show the planting locations of all of the farm’s crops. This is critical, as crop rotations must be taken into account for the amount of area needed to grow, say, sweet corn versus a tomato plant.

The winter months are also when Mark, like thousands of other farmers around the country, begins to place his seed orders.

“We have a bunch of great seed companies that we use. One of our favorites is Johnny’s Seeds in Winslow, Maine. They have fantastic customer service.” Other preferred sources for quality heirloom seeds that Mark likes are Iowa’s Seed Savers [see essay in the Jan/Feb 2015 Zingermans’ Newsletter], High Mowing Organic Seeds in Vermont, and Fedco Seeds, also in Maine. And it’s though Fedco’s Moose Tubers division that Mark buys his potatoes. “We’re going to plant an acre of spuds this year!”

Although the greenhouse is now being used year-round for lettuce and salad shoots, it also serves as a germination space for crops that need a warmer environment to strengthen before planting outside. Crops like tomatoes, peppers, herbs, etc. are not hardy enough to be out-side in a Michigan spring, so Mark gives them a head start. “We found that if we can not only give them a chance to grow tall, but also develop a thicker stem, they’ll do much better when we transplant them outside.” This also serves to shorten the time needed in the field before they begin to yield. So once the seed packets start to arrive in mid- to late-February, some will immediately go into the greenhouse flats, with others following in subse-quent weeks.

By mid- to late-April, many of the maturing plants will have been transferred down to the farm’s hoophouse, a long half-tube structure down in the production gardens. The hoop-house is a much larger affair; about 30 feet wide by 96 feet in length. It looks like someone center-sliced a giant piece of ribbed conduit pipe lengthwise, and laid one of the halves on the field. Once plants have grown strong and tall in the germi-nation greenhouse, they move here as the next step prior to field planting. The hoophouse is large and airy, and the plants can really flourish and expand without the spatial restrictions of the greenhouse flats.

While the plants mature, Mark and the farm crew are taking steps to get the fields ready for the planting season. But the story of the fields really begins back in autumn. Once the fall harvest has come in, the fields are tilled and planted with what Mark calls “cover crops.” These are cold-hardy plants such as winter rye, and legume varieties like hairy vetch, which will take root and grow until the snow flies, going dormant through the winter. In the spring they’ll reawaken and begin to grow again. These crops help prevent soil erosion by holding the dirt in place through the nasty weather. They’re also what’s known as “nitrogen-fixing” crops, and they work in concert to main-tain an adequate nutrient content in the soil. Nitrogen is criti-cal for plant health and the legumes are very good at pulling this element from the atmosphere, while the rye grasses pull

their nutrients from the soil and are good at storing the nitro-gen in their root structure. But the legumes are a “lazy crop” and if the soil is too rich, they won’t realize their full nitrogen-fixing potential. On the other hand, the rye grasses are very hungry, and will drain soil of nutrients. Which, in turn, forces the legumes to work harder to fix nitrogen in the soil, and thus make it much more fertile for the coming produce crops.

By late March, the farm crew will have begun spreading com-post directly on top of the cover crops. “We try to use at least 10 tons of compost per acre,” says Mark. “That translates to about an inch of compost cover. But this year, we were able to put more like 40-50 tons, which gives us a nice thick covering.” The compost will feed the cover crops, which will in turn grow larger and stronger, simultaneously holding the soil in place and feeding it. As the Michigan spring progress, the rising tem-peratures will have sufficiently warmed the nutrient-rich fields for planting. This usually happens around mid-May.

Mark calls the cover crops “green manure” and says they’ll simply be tilled under with the compost to continue to feed the soil when the farm begins to plant. The seedlings from the hoophouse will have to go into ground by hand, but for the rest of the transplants, they’ll use a water wheel transplanter. For the direct-seeded crops, Mark will use an all-in-one seeder that drops seeds into the furrow at regular intervals, then cov-ers the furrow with a chain that’s dragged behind. Efficiency in action.

Our Welcome to Cornman Farms Tour is an idyllic and dynamic 90 minute introduction to the rich history, agricultural projects and humane raising of animals. Join us for a look at our vegetable and herb gardens, goat milk-ing operation and historic restored Farmhouse and Barn—and enjoy a meet-and-greet with our visionary Managing Partner, Kieron Hales. We’ll even throw in a taste of one of our seasonal vegetables! (minimum of 10 guests) Call 734.619.8100 to get started!

Tuesday, May 196-7:30pm • $20

Cornman Farms 8540 Island Lake Road,

Dexter, MI

EJ Olsen covers Zingerman’s for our newsletter and on zingermanscommunity.com and on Twitter

ISSUE # 250 MAY-JUN 2015 ISSUE # 250 MAY-JUN 2015­6 ­7

The Blue Plate breakfast specials at the Roadhouse have gone re-ally well over the last few months. This is my personal favorite of the five—you’ll find it there every Thursday morning! Simple as it is, it’s probably one of my favorite meals in the Zingerman’s Com-munity of Businesses!

Of course, based on the name alone this is probably not the most alluring food item you would opt to eat. My own interest in it hap-pened, really, as an accident. I was doing a bit of homework on cornmeal, started reading about mush in 19th century American cooking and decided I’d try making some myself at home. My ex-pectations weren’t particularly high, but the more I cooked it, the more I ate it, the more I wanted to learn about it, the more pas-sionate I became, the more, in turn, I wanted to learn.

I came out of it with a culinary equivalent of a crush. I’ve made mush at home as a main course, and then also set a little aside to eat for dessert (more on this in a minute). Like I said, I’ve had mush on my mind. If you’re not sure what to do next Thursday morning, head over to the Roadhouse and have at it. It’s delicious!

I also want to make clear that the emphasis here, as per the title above, isn’t really on mush for its own sake, but specifically about mush made from Anson Mills’ cornmeal which is of course what we use at the Roadhouse. Since the dish is just cornmeal, water and salt, it’s clearly only as good as the corn that goes into it. Anson’s is (like everything else we get from them) amazing. Mush made from Quaker cornmeal is going to be as bland as a sliced American single.

If you aren’t familiar with the name, “mush” is an old American dish that’s basically cooked cornmeal porridge. It’s pronounced “mush” like “rush,” and not “mush” as in “push.” Mush can be eat-en on its own for most any meal. Pretty much anything you do with grits or polenta you can do with mush. Which is why the first question most everyone asks is,

“What’s the difference between mush, polenta and grits?”

And a fine question it is. At a broad level you can certainly stick all three into the same category—porridge made of dried, ground corn. Taking the level of detail down a bit, the general answer I give about grits and polenta is that more often than not grits are more coarsely ground and polenta finer. Corn meal for mak-ing traditional mush would typically be finer still. (There are of course exceptions which is . . . fine.) While the casual cook might think that the two sound like pretty much the same dish with dif-ferent names, in the American South grits and mush are very defi-nitely considered two different things. And for reasons I’ve not yet learned enough to know, while grits are really unknown in old time eating north of the Mason Dixon line (except with southern transplants or people like me who want to eat southern food up here), mush is all over old New England cooking.

In trying to figure out more about what makes these three dish-es—mush, grits and polenta—different I talked to Glenn from An-son Mills, who’s done as much with growing, milling and cooking old corn varietals as anyone I know. He’s incredibly passionate about all things to do with old grains, corns and the Carolina gold rice we get from him and he poured out pages of good info for me on this subject. After a long series of e-discussions, I fi-nally came upon the belated glimpse of the obvious that I’d been

focusing way too much on trying to come up with a black and white difference between each of the three dishes when in truth they’re all a bit different but clearly related. I guess what I’m taking away is that the key for corn-curious people to focus on is less on the name that’s attached to the dish and, instead, pay attention more to:

a) The type of corn being used because between variety and terroir they all taste different, b) The grind and handling of the corn, and its impact on texture and flavor of the ground cornc) The ways that the dish is eaten—and what it’s eaten with—in various places.

So, leaving grits and polenta aside for future essays, let’s focus on the mush I’ve been making at home and that we’re serving at the Roadhouse. It’s incredibly simple: Anson Mills cornmeal, cooked at a ratio of about 4 parts water to 1 part cornmeal for an hour or so. You can go somewhat shorter or definitely longer. With all these corn porridges longer is almost always better if you have the time, and if you cook slowly, the starches steadily break down and you get a creamier, richer texture.

Again, the reason I’ve fallen so in love with making mush is be-cause the Anson Mills corn meal is so incredibly good. Like all their stuff this meal is made from heirloom varietals that yield about 20% at best of what you get out of commercial corns. (Alex Young has spoken at length about this with all the work he’s doing to grow heirlooms at Zingerman’s Cornman Farms.) Right now Anson’s meal is made from six old varietals—Leam-ing, Henry Moore, Jarvis, Pencil Cob, Hickory King Yellow, John Haulk. All six are dent corns (which are softer in texture than the alternative, known as flint corn). Glenn related that, “All, except the Leaming are of Carolina or Georgia provenance; Leaming is one of the three yellow corns used in the first hybrid produc-tion trials before 1900 . . . provenance Pennsylvania . . . very floral.” Like I said, the man takes his cornmeal very seriously. In the New York Times a few years ago he said, “Great corn is like great wine.” I agree wholeheartedly; this is the other end of the agricultural world from the industrial corns that Michael Pollan writes about in Omnivore’s Dilemma.

Like everything we get from Anson Mills, the corn is grown or-ganically. It’s field-dried and stoneground. It has the germ left in (which makes it way more flavorful) so it has to be refriger-ated. All four of the varietals in this mix are yellow corn. To quote Glenn, “It’s hard to make a general statement about corn flavors associated with color, but whites tend toward mineral and floral and yellows (like these) are usually more forwardly ‘corn’ in fla-vor with floral nuances in the background.”

Floral is the key word for me. The first time I ate this stuff I did a little double take, thinking maybe I’d let something into the pot other than the water, cornmeal and salt. It really was that good and that different. Aromatic. Delicious. I mean it sounds silly to get all poetic about something as seemingly simple as cornmeal mush but . . . I’m there.

You can serve most anything with mush. It can be cooked up with other items—certainly most any sautéed or roasted vegetable would be good. Unlike polenta in Italy you won’t see old recipes for it served with tomato sauce because colonial era Americans really didn’t eat tomatoes. What they did eat apparently was lots

of “mush and milk” which is just what it sounds like. A bowl of hot mush with cold milk either on the side or in a pool made in the middle of the mush. (This is no surprise since it’s exactly how the Irish still eat oatmeal today.) My 1918 copy of The Book of Corn Cookery gives recipes for mush with figs, dates, and prunes. It’s also good topped with honey and of course with cheese. (The book also has a buttermilk mush recipe—meal cooked in butter-milk instead of water in a double boiler. Haven’t tried it yet but I will.) I’ve seen it done with greens and I’ve got a Gullah recipe for oyster mush that I’m definitely going to try this week.

What I’ve been making at home is a dish that I read about in some Civil War era food writing. It’s just mush served up with fried ba-con pieces and a lot of bacon fat. I’ve been using the Arkansas peppered bacon (available at Zingerman’s Delicatessen and zing-ermans.com) which I love but any of our good bacons would work well I’m sure. Just fry the bits of bacon ‘til crisp and then pour it and the fat in the pan over top of the mush, add a bit of salt and pepper and eat it hot. I’m telling you . . . it’s good. Serve it with a fried egg if you’re so inclined. Speaking of fried, mush is often served that way as well—cooked, cooled and then cut into slabs and fried up the next day. Again bacon fat would be the obvious Southern choice but you could certainly do it with butter or olive oil, too.

And for dessert . . . up in New England mush most often seems to be known by the name Hasty Pudding. Hasty pudding is really simple—cooked mush topped with something sweet. Historically it seems like a precursor of Indian pudding, which required more ingredients and started to get closer to the steamed puddings the colonists would have craved from back home in Britain. In New England hasty pudding is often (though definitely not always) eat-en with a sweet topping, most often maple syrup. But to my per-sonal taste, better still is the Southern version, which is to serve the mush topped with sorghum syrup. I like the maple, but I swear by the sorghum. If you want it straight from the miller, Glenn’s official quote on the subject of sorghum on mush (sounds like a town in rural England) was “Yummy.” He added that, “my daughter Ansley would fight for this dish . . . and she’s a pacifist.” Me too, on both counts.

I know this corn-based dessert idea probably sounds strange but remember, unlike most of the population, I’m inclined towards savory rather than sweet so for me, this is like the best dessert (said with due deference to the masters of chocolate and pastry making and impassioned dessert eating people around here like Amy, Charlie, Nina and others). The sweetness of the corn and its . . . corniness come up against the slightly sour, just a bit bitter, deep dark sweetness of the sorghum. (Glenn suggested the term “whiplash” to describe this sweet/sour phenomenon as it was used to profile the best Madeira back in Colonial times.) I think, for me, the sourness of the sorghum draws me in more than the higher notes of the maple but you can do it any way you like. It would be good with molasses too I’m sure. (For more on sorghum syrup, drop me a line at ari@zingermans.com, and I’ll send you info ASAP.)

OK, there you go, more than you ever wanted to know about mush. If you’re up for a bit of cornmeal cooking, give it a try. If you like it half as much as I do, I think it’ll be worth the stove time. See you Thursday morning?

monday

BISCUITS & SAWMILL

GRA

VY

tuesday

SKILLET FRITTATA

wednEsday

LO

GGER SKILLET C

AKE

thursday

CO

RN

MEAL MUSH &

SYR

UP

friday

SM

OTHERED BURRITO

Two buttermilk biscuits topped with

applewood bacon gravy. Served with two scrambled eggs.

Chef’s choice frittata cooked and

served in a cast iron skillet.

Belgian pancake cooked in a cast iron skillet topped with whipped cream and

local berries.

Anson Mills cornmeal mush served with two sunny side up

eggs and real maple syrup.

Flour tortilla fi lled with chorizo, eggs and

Ig Vella soft jack. Topped with salsa

rancheros.Available Mon-Fri, 7-11AM · $11.00

All blue plate pricing includes a cup of Roadhouse Joe.

ISSUE # 250 MAY-JUN 2015 ISSUE # 250 MAY-JUN 2015­8 ­9

If we could design a dream client, North Shore Pediatric Therapy would come pretty darn close! They’ve come to seminars and they’ve brought us out to their offices to train their entire team. And they implement what they learn which makes our hearts sing! And they stay in touch with us as they implement new stuff and call us if they run into roadblocks.

We interviewed Maria Novi-Hammer, CEO of North Shore Pediatric Therapy and a powerhouse of ideas and execution to share their version of the ZingTrain story!

Gauri: Tell us a little bit about your business.

Maria: North Shore Pediatric Therapy (NSPT) was founded by Deborah Michael, an Occupational Therapist, and Dr. David Michael, an Obstetrician/Gynecologist, whose lifelong dream was to improve the lives of children and their families.

We have grown from our modest beginnings of two treatment rooms in an office building in 1999 to seven clinics throughout the Northern suburbs and Chicago.

NSPT has been committed to providing the most comprehensive and research-based pediatric therapy services. NSPT is one of the only multi-discipline pediatric therapy practices. Having all the disciplines under one roof enables our clients to receive a team approach for their therapy and easy access and scheduling for families.

We provide over ten different services including a nationally recognized Neuropsychology Department that provides diag-nostic testing for multiple conditions from Learning Disorders to ADHD, Tic Disorders, Autism Spectrum Disorders, Anxiety, Processing Disorders, and Depression. Our School Advocate provides expert services in helping parents navigate the difficult Individualized Education Program process, preparing parents for domain meetings and assuring that all recommended goals truly meet the needs of the child and family.

North Shore Pediatric Therapy wants every family to feel warmly supported and see change!! Our vision is to help chil-dren blossom and deliver a WOW customer experience to each and every family.

Gauri: What were you seeking when you came to ZingTrain?

Maria: Dr. David Michael originally introduced Zingerman’s to our company by bringing several of our leaders to Ann Arbor to attend one of the Zingerman’s seminars. We are a company that believes in Non-stop Growth. It is one of our core values. The only way to grow is to remain open to learning. That’s why we first began and continue to attend the ZingTrain seminars.

Gauri: What have you learned at ZingTrain that you imple-ment at North Shore Pediatric Therapy?

Maria: Where do I begin? We always find something we can implement as a result of attending ZingTrain! We never leave the trainings without an action plan. We developed a brand new role for a Director of Training to begin formalizing classes for our staff. We created a training classroom and now have a variety of courses offered to our employees. Classes include Company History and Culture, Communication, Insurance and Billing, and an entire series of leadership courses for manag-ers and leaders. We have taught all staff about Visioning and we have also implemented Open Book Management company-wide.

Gauri: Can you tell us a little bit about what you discovered while implementing some of the concepts you learned at ZingTrain?

Maria: It’s really important to remember that every organi-zation is different and has its own unique needs. Open Book Management was our biggest undertaking. What we learned is that broad standardization is necessary as we have several locations measuring similar lines. Standard operating proce-dures will help all staff understand how to find information and where the numbers come from. It is also necessary to define responsibilities. For instance, who will create these instruc-tions and keep them updated? If you want management staff to help your employees remain engaged, be sure that Open Book Management is a part of everyday conversation. Oh! And make certain that your entire team knows how the weeks are calcu-lated so that locations are tracking data the same way. You don’t want one team tracking Monday – Sunday, and another tracking Sunday – Saturday. Otherwise the numbers will never align. We also make sure that a vision is written and presented prior to any major project moving forward. It takes a little extra time but we need to make sure that every vision ties back to our com-pany core values.

Gauri: You first came to seminars and now you’ve brought us out for private training at your location and also con-tinue to attend seminars. Why did you decide to do that? Could you give us some sense of the similarities and differ-ences between getting trained here in Ann Arbor and us com-ing out to you.

Maria: We felt that our staff deserved an opportunity to meet the ZingTrain presenters. Attending a seminar in Ann Arbor is awesome and we wanted the rest of the team to get a taste of what it is like to work with Zingerman’s. After all, we are con-stantly talking about Zingerman’s and how ZingTrain has helped us improve our company. It only seemed fair to let everyone at NSPT experience it for themselves. We couldn’t send every-one to Ann Arbor, so we did the next best thing by bringing Zingerman’s to NSPT! What was similar is that the ZingTrain pre-senters were just as open, friendly and passionate with a large group in a different location. This was extremely helpful and appreciated. The biggest difference is that there is simply less time available for more intimate conversations and activities with large group. Bringing Zingerman’s to our location helped to create a very tailored seminar geared towards our specific company and concerns. The training staff collaborated with us prior to the seminars to help create an intimate experience for our employees.

Gauri: How has coming to Zingerman’s/ZingTrain changed NSPT as a business?

Maria: After learning about Visioning a few years ago at our first ZingTrain seminar, our company collaborated on a company vision, written 15 years out, that is now our guidepost, giving us

direction on where we would like to end up. Our company vision was written and published within two weeks of the ZingTrain workshop. We now apply visioning to projects, new roles, and anything that we can in order to get a clear understanding of what outcome we are looking to achieve.

Gauri: Can you share with us the top three ways you’ve changed the way you work as a leader because of ZingTrain?

Maria: I make a very strong effort in getting to know my employees and clients. I spend time going to each one of our clinics to keep an open door feeling. I also make a point to con-tinue to engage myself with our clients to keep a pulse on the business. Just as Ari makes his rounds by pouring the water for his clients in the restaurant.

Second, I make sure that I collaborate with all stakehold-ers when working on a project or changing something in our company.

And, finally, I give more feedback to my employees.

Gauri: Can you share the top three ways you think your team has changed the way they work because of ZingTrain?

Maria: I actually had 4 and could not leave any of them out!

FROM CREATING A VISION TO LEADERSHIP TO GOING OPEN BOOK

How ZingTrain helped North Shore Pediatric Therapy help their kids!

“We always find something we can implement as a result of attending ZingTrain! We never leave the trainings without an action plan.”

“We are constantly talking about Zingerman’s and how ZingTrain has helped us improve our company. It only seemed fair to let everyone at NSPT experience it for themselves.”

· There is a focus on giving more feedback to staff and trying to make it a part of the daily culture.

· Ongoing training is essen-tial for growth and develop-ment and staff members are excited by opportunities to enhance their learning.

· Customer Service is top pri-ority and we are focused cre-ating a wonderful customer experience.

· Teaching them the numbers in Open Book Management has created more account-ability and having our employees feel more like owners than renters

Gauri: What do you learn/hear from us that keeps bringing you back for more?

Maria: I have learned that what you do at Zingerman’s can be brought into any company. I love the success and culture at Zingerman’s and feel that we have the same emphasis on customer experience, employee engagement, servant leader-ship and culture. Every time I attend a seminar, I come back with amazing ideas and creativity to make our company and its employees grow!

ISSUE # 250 MAY-JUN 2015 ISSUE # 250 MAY-JUN 2015­8 ­9

SECRET #1 The Twelve Natural Laws of Business The keys to running your organization in har-mony with human nature.

SECRET #6 Revisiting the Power of Visioning An in-depth look at just how amazingly powerful the Zingerman’s visioning process can be.

SECRET #7 Writing a Vision of Greatness The basics of our approach to vision writing, including the four elements of an effective vision at Zingerman’s.

SECRET #9 An 8-Step Recipe for Writing a Vision of Greatness The recipe that we’ve used here at Zingerman’s for over twenty years and taught to thousands around the country and the world.

SECRET #19 Fixing the Energy Crisis in the American Workplace How working in violation of the Natural Laws of Business has created an energy crisis in the workplace and what we can do to help restore the natural human energy, creativity and intel-ligence of everyone in our organizations.

SECRET #29 Twelve Tenets of Anarcho-CapitalismA look at my views on how the tenets of anarchist thought can be put to work in the world of progressive business.

SECRET #35 The Power of Personal Visioning An in-depth essay on how to take Zingerman’s approach to visioning and put it to work to help you create the life you want to lead.

THE POWER OF PAMPHLETS

or small booklets, big ideasWe all have a special place or two. You know, those semi-secret spots that we return to now and again to recon-nect with meaningful experiences in our past. For me, the Labadie Collection, up on the 7th floor of the University of Michigan’s Graduate Library, is one of those spots—my secret garden of anarchist intellectual activity. Back in my student days, I used to spend a fair bit of time sitting qui-etly at the long wooden tables there, pencil in hand (no pens are allowed), looking lovingly through the country’s leading collection of anarchist and other radical writings.

I was particularly drawn to the old pamphlets: small book-lets put out a century or so ago to convey the views of anar-chist writers like Emma Goldman, Peter Kropotkin, and Jo Labadie, the man who donated the original contents of this special collection. There are over 30,000 pamphlets in the archive (along with many thousands of books, posters, and other printed materials). Back at the turn of the 20th century, pamphlets served much the same role in society that the Internet does today. They gave writers a way to share strongly held views, quickly and at low cost, with a large number of people, many of whom had neither the time nor the means to buy an entire book.

In the spirit of those anarchist publications that I love so much, we’ve decided to print the individual “Secrets” from the Zingerman’s Guide to Good Leading series as pamphlet-sized publications. While of course I love it when you buy a whole book, I’m honored to make the essays available in this form. Though these booklets are small, I hope the ideas inside provoke big thoughts for you as you read in the same way that Emma Goldman and her compatriots did a century or so ago.

HERE ARE THE FIRST PAMPHLETS COMING OUT FROM ZINGERMAN’S PRESS:

“I don’t read that many business tomes, but

I have to say that reading the Zingerman’s

Guides has proven to be an invaluable aid in

running Serious Eats.” —Ed Levine

“I bought multiple sets of pamphlets for my staff. They are a great way to learn about some of the most important topics that Ari teaches.” —Patrick Hoban, Probility Physical Therapy

My Kid is SickMatzo Ball Soup, noodle kugel, brioche with Michigan farm butter and preserves, herbal tea with lemon and honey, Dr. Brown’s ginger ale, ginger candy chews, a box of soft tissues. $25­per­person

My Kid is StudyingEdward’s butter roasted peanuts, Zapp’s potato chips, 4 pack of Zingerman’s Black Magic Brownies, Italian salami, Cabot cheddar cheese, Rustic Bakery crackers, cold brewed coffee.­­$50­per­person

My Kid is HomesickIndividual chicken pot pie with hand rolled butter crust, macaroni and cheese, tossed green salad, Zingerman’s Bakehouse roll with Michigan farm butter, baby apple pie, Spindrift soda. $35­per­person

My Kid Has FriendsJewish rye bread, Russian dress-ing and coleslaw, Swiss cheese, lean corned beef, pickles, Zapp’s potato chips, Black Magic brownies, Spindrift soda­$125­per­package (serves 5)

All packages include paper­plates,­napkins,­utensils­­

and­a­note­from­you.­

Delivery­to­Ann­Arbor­/­UM­Campus­is­$18.

Four different packages designed with your student or loved one in mind, no matter the occasion or situation! Whether you’re sending some TLC from far away, helping him get through exams or just want to buy her some dinner, we’ve got you covered.

- Packages That -

Show You Care

All the same great training content that we use to train our staff now available to you at the

stunning price of $250 (regular price is $516.95!)That’s more than 50% off! With an offer like that, why wouldn’t you take your customer

service to the next level?

GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE IS ON SALE

AT ZINGTRAIN THIS SUMMER!T he 3 Steps to Giving Great Service Training DVD

The 5 Steps to Effectively Handling a Customer Complaint Training DVD

The Guide to Giving Great Service hardcover

Go to zingtrain.com/books-and-dvds Not at all fine print:

Price does not include shipping. Offer expires June 30th.

Pamphlets in the series are available at Zingerman’s Roadhouse, Coffee Co., and ZingTrain or

order online from zingermanspress.com or zingtrain.com

Call 734.663.3400 or go to zingermanscatering.com to order!

ISSUE # 250 MAY-JUN 2015 ISSUE # 250 MAY-JUN 2015­10 ­11

3723­Plaza­Drive734­929­0500zingermanscreamery.com

3723­Plaza­Drive­•­734.761.7255bakewithzing.com

422­Detroit­Street­•­734.663.3400­­www.zingermansdeli.com

Zingerman’s­Deli­tastings­are­designed­to­give­you­an­insider’s­view­of­the­foods­that­we’ve­searched­the­world­for.­You’ll­often­meet­the­folks­who­make­it­and­leave­with­a­mouthful­of­flavor­and­a­new­understanding­of­everything­from­olive­oil­to­sardines,­cheese­to­chocolate.­ BETTER BRUNCH

Friday, May 29th • 1-5pm • $125Learn to make the classic brunch entrée – Eggs Benedict. By the end of class you’ll be able to make English muffins from scratch, creamy hollandaise sauce and poach the perfect egg! For the scrambled egg lovers in your family, we’ll teach you the classic French way to make them and then demonstrate a deli-cious waffle recipe. Put the waffles and eggs together to make a new breakfast sandwich. Okay, brunch isn’t brunch without some bacon. We’ll cook up two particularly well-made bacons for you to taste in class, along with your other creations. You’ll leave BAKE! with our recipes, the knowledge to recreate them at home, a half dozen English muffins, hollandaise sauce, waffle batter to cook later and great coupons.

NOODLING ABOUT STRUDELLINGSaturday, May 23th • 2-5pm • $75We’ll take a grapefruit-sized piece of strudel dough and stretch it out to cover a 24 sq. ft. table. Then we’ll make sweet and savory fillings to finish it off. This is just about the most fun you can have making food. You’ll leave BAKE! with our recipes, the knowledge to recreate them at home, two strudel you made in class, strudel dough to bake at home, and great coupons.

MARSHMALLOWS & GRAHAM CRACKERSSaturday, June 13th • 1:30-5:30pm • $100 We’ll teach you how to make our super gingery version of these “healthy” whole-wheat cookies. Then we’ll have fun making chocolate marshmallows as well as tell you how to make up your own flavors. Join us and increase the flavor of your s’mores by 100%. You’ll leave BAKE! with our recipes, the knowledge to recreate them at home, a dozen graham crackers, chocolate and vanilla marshmallows, graham cracker dough to bake later, and great coupons.

BAKE!-CATION SAVORY WEEKTuesday, June 23rd thru Friday, June 26th8-5pm • $1000This is the most mouth-watering, lip-smacking collection of recipes we’ve ever assembled! In this four-day action packed baking extravaganza you’ll learn the wide variety of baking techniques behind a savory line up of baked goods. The roster includes ham and cheese croissants, bacon pecan sandies, par-mesan pepper bread, New York-style pizza, quiche Lorraine, pasties, cheddar herb scones, pasta, rosemary baguettes, strudel, grissini, potato dill bread, maple bacon doughnuts and more! Your BAKE!-cation includes breakfast and lunch each day. You’ll leave BAKE! with our recipes, the knowledge to recreate them at home, a full tummy, boxes of amazing food you made in class, and great coupons.

BEST SERVED WITH SPRINGFriday, May 15th • 6-8pm • $45As we say goodbye to April showers and welcome in the May flowers, we also welcome the return of spring and summer seasonal beers! We’ve rounded up the new releases of beers from some of our favorite brewers and paired them up with cheeses from our shop. We’ll guide you through each pairing, giving some tips about why we have chosen specific beers to match up with the cheese selection, and talk about the brew-ers and cheesemakers that we have chosen!

FARMER’S MARKET BOUNTYFriday, May 22nd • 6-8pm • $35Spring is here and with it our return to the area Farmer’s Markets! We’ve picked up the best of the spring produce, sim-ply prepared and combined with cheeses we love! Fresh herb goat cheese, spring green salads, and more. Throughout the evening we’ll feature items from producers that we’ve met at the markets, delicious ways to combine spring produce with your favorite cheeses, and we’ll end the evening with a sweet treat of seasonal gelato made just for the tasting!

1ST SUNDAY TOURSunday, May 3rd and June 7th • $10Join our cheese and gelato makers for an hour-long adven-ture as we transform local milk into delicious cheese and gelato. You’ll watch our fresh mozzarella stretched into shape, taste our cow’s and goat’s milk cheeses while our staff explain the cheesemaking process, and sample our delicious fresh gelato. After the tour, make time for tasting our selection of American cheeses and provisions, as well as house made gelatos and sorbets in our cheese shop.

HEAD SOUTH FOR DELICIOUSFriday, June 5th • 6-8pm • $40We are celebrating the cheeses of the Southeastern U.S. From the Carolinas, Georgia, even Texas! In a region of the country known for its comfort food and smoked meats, there are arti-san cheesemakers taking advantage of the mild climate and natural bounty to bring delicious and unique cheeses to the plate. In honor of Zingerman’s Camp Bacon, $10 of every ticket sold for this tasting will be donated to Southern Foodways Association!

READY, SET, PICNIC!Friday, June 12th • 6-8pm • $45We’ve raided the shop to bring you the best in picnic fare! Cheeses that travel well, paired with beer and wine perfect for enjoying with good friends in the sunshine! We’ll also have suggestions and tastes from our pantry selection of jams, pickles, and other treats to get you picnic-ready for the summer!

Hands-on­Baking­ClassesBAKE!­is­our­hands-on­teaching­bakery­in­Ann­Arbor,­tucked­between­Zingerman’s­Bakehouse­and­Creamery.­At­BAKE!­we­share­our­knowledge­and­love­of­baking­with­the­home­baker­community,­seeking­to­preserve­baking­traditions­and­inspire­new­ones.­We­offer­dozens­of­different­bread,­pastry­and­cake­classes­in­our­very­own­teaching­kitchens.­All­of­us­at­the­Bakehouse­know­the­joy­and­excitement­of­baking­something­really­good­and­sharing­it­with­friends­when­it’s­hot­out­of­the­oven.­You’ll­leave­BAKE!­with­the­food­you­made­in­class­and­the­inspiration­and­skills­to­bake­at­home!

SPRING DINNER WITH GUEST CHEFS CENTRAL PROVISIONSThursday, May 14th • 7pm • $65at Zingerman’s Events on 4th, 415 N. Fifth St. Join us for a verdant feast with our favorite guest chefs, Abby Olitzky and Steve Hall of Central Provisions. They’ve picked some of their favorite Zingerman’s pantry staples to showcase their signature plates of seasonal, local ingredients, cheeses, and charcuterie. The five-course, family-style meal will be complete with wine and beverage pairings. Seating is limited, so please sign up quick!

POTLIKKER FILM FESTIVAL AT THE DELIWednesday, June 3rd • 7-9pm • $30at Zingerman’s Events on 4th, 415 N. Fifth St. The folks down at the Southern Foodways Alliance have done an incredible job capturing the stories behind some of our most beloved Southern food makers in a series of award-winning short documentaries by film-maker Joe York. Join us as we watch a few films and enjoy foods from the producers featured. Come with an appetite and be ready to fall in love with Southern Foodways!

This event is part of Camp Bacon 2015. For more info, see pages 2-5.

A TASTE OF TRADITIONAL TUNISIAwith Majid Mahjoub, owner of Les Moulins Mahjoub in Tunisia Monday, June 22 • 7pm • $45 Zingerman’s Events on 4th, 415 N. Fifth St. One of the most exciting events on our calendar this year! We’ve been waiting three years for Majid and Onsa Mahjoub to make a return visit to Ann Arbor. The dinner we hosted with them on their last visit was so fabulous that many who attended are still asking when we can do it again and now we can! The Mahjoub family are growers and producers are some of our favorite products. Everything from organic olive oil, sun dried tomato paste, their amazing harissa sauce, hand-rolled and sun dried m’hamsa couscous, naturally cured olives, wild capers and more—all will be on the table for this dinner along with the best of the season’s meat, fish and vegetables. Book soon—seats will sell out quickly!

THE SPIRITED CHEESE TASTINGTuesday, June 23rd • 6:30-8pm • $40Zingerman’s Events on 4th, 415 N. Fifth St. Join our cheesemongers for a spirited evening as we explore the potential of combining a really good cheese plate with our favorite distilled beverages. Happy hour will never be the same and a dessert plate will take on new meaning after an evening comparing the traditions between distillation and cheese production. Whether you are looking for the perfect Father’s Day gift or just want to learn more about really good cheese and mixers with friends, this will be fun for all.

Cheese­Classes,­Tastings­&­Tours!Our­events­are­intimate­affairs­where­our­cheesemak-ers­and­cheesemongers­share­their­passion­for­great­cheese­and­great­cheesemaking.­We­hold­these­classes­right­next­to­where­we­make­our­cheese­and­gelato,­and­sometimes­bring­in­our­favorite­food­makers­from­around­the­area­to­share­their­stories­with­you.­To­get­the­inside­scoop­on­all­of­our­events,­sign­up­for­our­e-news­at­zingermanscommunity.com/e-news.

BOOK A SPOT AT ANY ZINGERMAN’S EVENT AT EVENTS.ZINGERMANSCOMMUNITY.COM

Find more classes & register at bakewithzing.com or events.zingermanscommunity.com. Sign up for our e-news to get the early word about our classes.

ISSUE # 250 MAY-JUN 2015 ISSUE # 250 MAY-JUN 2015­10 ­11

FROMAGE IN THE FARMHOUSESunday, May 3 • 4-8pm • $120includes beverage pairings with each courseJoin us for Cornman Farms’ season kickoff event in 2015: an udder-to-table dinner featuring Zingerman’s Creamery! We’re hosting a farm-to-fork dinner using the best of the farm’s spring goodness, and featuring our talented and knowledgable friends at Zingerman’s Creamery. Each of the five dishes will include cheese components lovingly prepared by the experts at the Creamery, and they’ll be on-hand to teach us about how they masterfully craft each cheese. As an added bonus, we’ll visit the goats at Cornman Farms that contribute to the goat cheese mak-ing operation at the Creamery, and learn how they’re milked and cared for. The whole experience will be informative, interactive, and full of delicious dairy. If you’re a cheese-lover, you don’t want to miss this!

CINCO DE MAYO COCKTAIL CLASS: TERRIFIC TEQUILATuesday, May 5 • 7:00-9:30pm • $65Tequila is a truly unique liquor distilled from the agave plant and made only in certain regions of Mexico. This spirit is at once sweet, peppery, grassy, and spicy. It can be smooth, dynamic, complex and invigorating. Tequila is the spirit of Mexico, liter-ally and figuratively! Tequila is great in lively and refreshing cocktails and pairs well with complex, spicy foods in a way that most liquors simply can’t. This month at the farm we’ll learn about the history of tequila and different varieties of the liquor. We’ll make three cocktails that each highlight tequila in a differ-ent way. We’ll also enjoy farm-fresh snacks created by our own talented culinary team. Guests will end the evening with recipes and the know-how to craft these tasty tequila cocktails at home.

2501­Jackson­Road­•­734.663.3663­­www.zingermansroadhouse.com

Zingerman’s­Roadhouse­hosts­regular­special­dinners­that­highlight­old­favorites,­new­finds,­celebrated­chefs­and­traditional­American­foodways.­Our­dinners­are­family-

style­affairs­that­deliver­really­good­food­with­a­little­history­on­the­side.­

CINCO DE MAYO DINNER: A NIGHT IN CAMPACHEWednesday, May 6th • 7pm • $60

Join the Roadhouse for a journey to the Mexican State of Campache. Located in the Yucatan Peninsula, Campeche has long been referred to as the lesser-known jewel of the peninsula, with its lush fish markets and intermingling of Spanish, Mayan and Mexican cultures.

Roadhouse Chef Bob Bennett, a longtime Roadie and student of Mexican culture, takes us on a stroll through the streets of Campeche with stories of Campechano culture, Mayan history and of course, food.

6TH ANNUAL BACON BALL AT THE ROADHOUSE Thursday, June 4th • 7-9pm • $75

A celebration of Southern Italian pork dishes featuring leading culinary light, innovative importer and cooking teacher Rolando Beramendi. This event is part of Camp Bacon 2015. For more info, see pages 2-5.

FISHERMAN’S FEAST: AMERICAN SEAFOOD FROM THE GULF OF MEXICOWednesday, May 20th • 7pm • $60

The Roadhouse has long had a passion for serving the best and freshest seafood we can find. And for us it doesn’t get much better than eating fresh fish from the Gulf of Mexico from Jimmy Galle and Gulfish. Gulfish focuses on the fishermen who catch fish to order, ship themselves and get the freshest seafood pos-sible from the water to the restaurant often within 18-24 hours. Knowing and supporting the fishermen is top priority for Jimmy, he can tell you the “name of the guy who caught it, the boat it came in on, what dock it came in on and when it came in.” No small feat for hundreds of pounds of fish he sees weekly.

Working with the fishermen, Chef Alex and Jimmy have created a menu highlighting the best the Gulf of Mexico has to offer. Shipped and prepared with 24 hours of leaving the water, this is a dinner seafood fans do not want to miss.

Map of Zingerman’s Community of Businesses

www.zingermans.com

Nes

wAnn Arbor, MI

N. M

ain St.

M-14

Fourth Ave.

Fuller St.

Depot St.

Beakes St.

Detro

it St

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Fuller St.

Kingsley St.

Catherine St.

Ann St.

E. Huron St.

Liberty St.

W. Huron St.

Scio Church Rd.

E. Stadium Blvd.

Eisenhower Pkwy.

Ellsworth Ellsworth

Plaza Dr.Airp

ort Blvd.

E. Stadium Blvd.

Packard St.

Washtenaw

Ave.

Jackson Ave.

N. M

aple Rd

.S. M

aple Rd

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Seventh St.

Ob

servatory Dr.

Dexter Ave.

Miller Ave.

W. Stadium Blvd.

I-94

I-94

E. Huron St.

Geddes Ave.

Washington St.

W. Lib

erty St.

Ann Arbor-S

aline Road

William St.

Maiden Lane

Plymouth Rd.Pontiac Trail

King

sley

Fifth Ave.

N. State St.

Glen

Ave.

Broadway Bridge

citY HalL

U of M Student

Union

U of M stadIum

briarwood malL

PioneerHigh School

uNiverSity of MichiganCentraL CamPus

FulLerPark

AmtrAkStation

Univerity ofMicHigaN HospItal

Exit 175

Exit 177

Exit 172

2501 Jackson Ave. • 734.663.FOOD

Map not To scalE

3711 Plaza Dr.734.277.1922

3728 Plaza Dr.734.277.1922

3723 Plaza Dr.734.929.6060

422 Detroit St. • 734.663.DELI

3711 Plaza Dr.734.277.1922

3756 Plaza Dr.

Zingerman’s Southside

3723 Plaza Dr.734.929.0500

&

8540 Island Lake Road Dexter, MI

734-619-8100

Varsity Dr.

Phoenix Dr.610 Phoenix Dr.

888.636.8162

Whether­we’re­pulling­a­shot­for­you­in­our­café­on­Plaza­Drive­or­sending­you­off­with­a­bag­of­fresh­roasted­beans,­our­passion­is­to­source,­roast­and­brew­great­coffee.­Our­classes­are­designed­for­the­coffee­novice­and­nerd­alike­and­aim­to­help­everyone­learn­about­everything­it­takes­

to­turn­a­great­bean­into­a­great­cup­of­coffee.­

BREWING METHODS CLASSFour Dates! May 10, May 17, June 7, June 211-3pm • $30Learn the keys to successful coffee brewing using a wide variety of brewing methods from filter drip to syphon pot. We will take a single coffee and brew it 6 to 8 different ways, each producing a unique taste. We’ll learn the proper pro-portions and technique for each and discuss the merits and differences of each style.

8540­Island­Lake­Road,­Dexter­•­734.619.8100­•­cornmanfarms.com

Farm­Tours,­Special­Dinners­and­ClassesYou­don’t­have­to­be­part­of­a­big­corporate­event­or­lavish­wedding­to­enjoy­Cornman­Farms­(although­we­certainly­host­those,­too!)­Throughout­the­year­we­host­numerous­tours,­dinners,­classes­and­more­that­allow­people­to­experience­our­unique­event­space­in­Dexter,­MI.­

FRESH FROM THE GARDEN: LUNCH AND TOUR WITH MOMSun, May 10 • 10:30am • $65A lovely luncheon awaits you, along with an introduction to what makes spring the most exciting season on the farm. We’ll visit our goats (many of whom will be brand-new mamas themselves!) and their babies, and learn a bit about goat milking and the breeds we raise here at Cornman Farms. We’ll also head into the gardens to discover what’s growing—herbs, greens, carrots and more! After a tour of our historic buildings and grounds, you’ll have a seat in our charming, sunny farmhouse for a family-style luncheon, prepared with love by Chef and Managing Partner Kieron Hales. Menu items will be inspired by his homeland of England with Radish Tea Sandwiches and Clotted Cream Strawberry Jam Scones, as well as “Little Ypsi Quiche” (made with Zingerman’s Creamery Little Ypsi cheese) and Cauliflower-Fried Steak with Herbed Pesto. Of course, there’ll be plenty of quality tea (and coffee) for you and Mom to enjoy!

COCKTAIL CLASS: A VERY VODKA EVENINGThursday, June 11 • 7-9:30pm • $65Vodka is the cocktail world’s proverbial black sheep but it’s high time we paid attention to this crisp and clean liquor: the original “neutral spirit.” Vodka is made for mixing. It is the sugar-cookie-dough of the bar world: a fantastic base that is pleasant on its own but really exists as a vehicle to showcase other ingredients and flavors. Join us as we mix three note-worthy cocktails: the Vesper, which is the original James Bond martini; the light, crisp, and tart Cosmopolitan; and the famous citrusy and spicy Moscow Mule.

Don’t forget

3723­Plaza­Drive­734.929.6060zingermanscoffee.com

We’ve­got­a­full­line-up­of­events­lined­up­all­across­the­Zingerman’s­Community.­See­page­2­for­details­and­to­book­your­spot!

#177

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ISSUE # 250 MAY-JUN 2015 ISSUE # 250 MAY-JUN 2015­12 ­13

Twice a year, I (and others from Zingerman’s) head to either New York City in the summer or San Francisco in the winter, to walk the aisles of the Fancy Food Show. It’s one of those parts of our work that sounds a bit more glamorous than it is. While it might seem marvelous to walk from booth to booth tasting free specialty food, the truth is a bit less magical. Not every-thing that’s available on the market is meant for us. By our standards—traditional and full flavored food—there are many things that just aren’t going to appear at Zingerman’s. Prob-ably 90 percent of the thousands of products on offer are not our “cup of tea.” Of the 10 percent that might work, only about 10 percent of those have a reasonable shot at showing up on our shelves. Imagine going to Michigan Stadium on a sold out football Saturday. Your mission is to find the thirty or forty people in the stands who would have the best odds of becom-ing good friends with you in the coming years. Remember, you have no technology to help you narrow it down. You just have to walk the aisles and do your work. Not every one of the thirty or forty prospects you find will really make it either. But, when you find a good one—either a product or a friend— you work to make it a meaningful relationship that will stay with you for the rest of your life.

Here are a few of my top picks—all are already here (or on their way!) for you to experience.

N’duja!Super­Spicy,­Spreadable,­­Calabrian­Style­SalamiOver the years we’ve done a pretty darned good job of getting the great foods of the world to Ann Arbor. But this is one of the ones that all my wishing and hoping couldn’t seem to make ap-pear. I’ve been wanting to make N’duja part of my regular eat-ing routine ever since I first encountered it in Calabria five or six years ago. I use the word “encounter” intentionally—eating N’duja is not an insignificant experience. If you eat some casu-ally at a party, I guarantee you’ll remember it. Like the Velvet Underground in its heyday, there’s nothing else like N’duja on the market. And also like the Velvets, N’duja isn’t for every-one. It’s anything but middle of the road and it’s not something for folks who aren’t up for eating on the edge of exceptional. Spicy, slightly sweet, buttery, powerfully porky, yet as smooth in texture as homemade strawberry jam. N’duja is, almost in-conceivably, both subtle and strong at the same time. And like the Velvets, if you like it, you’ll remember it and return to it regularly (as I have) for the rest of your life. I loved it when I first tried it, and I love it just as much six years later.

To be clear on the name, it’s pronounced “en-doo-yah.” It’s part of a subset of the Italian salami world that’s little known in the U.S. called “salami dal spalmare,” or “spreadable sa-lamis.” In Calabria, N’duja is every day fare. It shows up ev-erywhere there, but I’ve almost never seen it anywhere else. Until, now! It’s made by finely grinding pork fat and meat, sea-soning it with lots of spicy Calabrian chiles, and then aging the paste in a casing. If you don’t know Calabria, it’s remarkable for being one of the poorest of Italy’s provinces. It’s also the only region of Italy where almost everyone thrives on super spicy food. Chiles in Calabria are as commonplace as they are in Central America. The area around the city of Spilinga is the ancestral seat of N’duja. Peppers arrived there from the West-ern Hemisphere in the 16th century, around the same time as tomatoes. If you’re familiar with French charcuterie, you could probably best describe N’duja as a spicy, smooth-textured Ca-labrian pork rillettes. I’ve seen someone else say that it is to pork as Nutella is to chocolate. If you like it as much as I do, then it’s close to addictive. And if the Velvet Underground had been eating it, the song might have been titled “White Light, Red Heat.”

I’m super excited that this pork treat that I’ve been dreaming about for years is now available in the U.S. Although American import laws make it illegal to import N’duja from Calabria, it is okay to import Calabrian N’duja makers. Antonio Fiasche is one of those. He’s the fifth generation in his family to craft this special recipe on a regular basis, and his grandfather still lives in Calabria. In my hometown of Chicago, Antonio’s mak-ing some terrific N’duja. Just as good, or dare I say it, even

better than what I’ve had in Italy. Antonio uses only pork from old-school Berk-shire hogs, a proprietary blend of five different chil-es, and then ages his N’duja for months. At the Fancy Food Show we sampled a specially made forty-pound piece that was aged for over a year! Antonio’s N’duja re-ally is remarkable.

What do you do with N’duja? Almost anything. Let it first come to room temperature to soften and let the full flavor come out. I spread it on toast. Add a spoonful or two to an om-elet. Crumble a bit atop a pasta dish. But more often, I just eat it with bread and other antipasti— cheese, cured vegetables, some ol-ives. In Ireland we tasted a dish that used it in the broth for steamed mussels—deli-cious! My personal favor-ite experiment is a bit of a Calabrian-American hybrid: a Zingerman’s Roadhouse burger on a bun that’s been spread on one side with a generous amount of N’duja, on the other with a bit of mayo, and a small handful of fresh arugula leaves on top. It’s the Calabrian version of a burger with ba-con. Man, was it good!

Whatever you do with it, I can pretty much guarantee that you’ll get some powerfully good, memorable eating out of the deal. This one alone made the food show trip totally worth-while. If you like pork, you like spice and you like to eat, then N’duja might change your life.

Mustards from Domaine des Terre RougeSome­of­the­Best­Mustards­from­France­Right­Here­in­Ann­ArborThese aren’t exactly new—we’ve been carrying many of them for many years now. But sometimes while walking the show, I revisit foods that are already on our own shelves but which I’ve sort of lost touch with. Tast-ing them again at the show, surrounded by thousands of other products, can remind me just how good they are! And that’s what happened with these mustards. They have been—and still are— exceptional! I have no hesitation in saying that they’re among the most flavorful I’ve ever tasted. And that even after tasting them for fifteen years, I never ever tire of them.

In fact, when we first started getting these great mustards, I sent some out to a leading American mustard maker last year to see if they could reproduce it. She sent me back some that were close, but not quite the same. I politely asked them to try again. Finally after four months, she gave up, sending along a note that said, “That’s a really good mustard!”

What I did learn at the show this year was just why these mus-tards are so good. They’re actually a secondary product for the folks that make them. Their main line is making craft distillates for liquor producers. In other words they distill down the fla-vor essence of all types of herbs, plants, and spices, and then sell those to any number of well-known, very high-end liquor producers around the world. They also bottle their own, and last year in Paris they won four medals at the Concourse Gen-eral. As Alain Royer (who represents the Domaine here in the States) says, “Our work has nothing to do with any approach that involves artificial flavors or just buying flavors from the catalogue of a producer. We produce all our flavors from natu-ral ingredients.”

A small bit of background info: the name of the Domaine, Terre Rouge, comes from its red volcanic rocks near Correze in the central part of France. (Interestingly, it has a soil makeup re-markably similar to Nevada.) I also totally love the orb-shaped jars the mustard comes in.

More meaningfully, I learned form talking to Alain Royer that it’s the quality and complex flavor of these carefully made dis-tillates that give the Domaine des Terre Rouge mustards their marvelous flavor. My long time favorite has been the walnut mustard (using the distillate for walnut liqueur of course). I love it for vinaigrettes, with raw milk Swiss Gruyere or Comté on a grilled cheese, added to macaroni and cheese, or on a burger. Fantastic stuff. But it’s only one of many. There’s the delicious cognac mustard. And the mustard made with Piment D’Espelette (the red pepper of the French Basque country). With this mustard you get a great full flavored, doubly spicy sensation; the heat of the freshly ground brown mustard seed enhanced by the heat of the chiles. It’s superb with sausage and salami, very good in vinaigrettes, damned tasty on sandwiches or just about anything else. If you like mustard and you like a little spice it’s hard to imagine how you could go wrong with this one. Finally, there’s the Pastis mustard—mustard flavored with the classic anise liquor (there’s that distillate again!) of Provence in Southern France. If you like licorice or anise or fennel, you’ll love it! And their latest offering at the show this year? Absinthe Mustard. Also amazing.

And I don’t want to forget the one coarse-grained offering we’ve got from the folks at Terre Rouge. It’s a slightly sweet, rough-textured, mustard made with the must from the grapes after the harvest each fall. Violet Mustard is actually a very old combination—it has been eaten in the French grape growing regions for centuries. They make it each autumn by blending freshly pressed red grape juice with just-ground mustard seed so you get a naturally sweet-spicy combination that’s ideal for serving with meats of all sorts. The mustard has a coarse, caviar-like texture that makes eminently edible, even by the spoonful, and every bite brings a series of small flavor explo-sions to your palate. Serve with pate, with mountain cheeses of all sorts, with sausages, or in salad dressings. The beautiful deep purple color of the mustard looks great on the plate too. Comté cheese with any of the Domaine de Terre Rouge mus-tards, grilled on two thick slices of the 2-kilo Pain de Montagne is fantastic. Butter the outside of the bread (preferably with the really great Echiré butter from France) and grill in a hot skillet till golden brown, flip, repeat, and eat!

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Pistacchiosa from LazioSuper­Sicilian­Pistachio­andExtra­Virgin­Olive­Oil­SpreadI loved this stuff. It’s from a farmhouse and agriturismo just out-side of Rome on the road that goes to Rieti in the Sabina area. Rolando Beramendi, the amazing importer from whom we get the Rustichella pasta, Crudo olive oil, etc. found them about ninety days after they made the first spread four years ago This one is sexy, smooth paste of Sicilian pistachios blended with a

bit of really good extra virgin olive oil. You can use this stuff on just about anything—toast is my top pick, and pasta, but it’s also excellent with fish, chicken, or rice. Or you can flip the culi-nary coin and eat it with gelato, or yogurt, or some of that really amazing ricotta we get at the Creamery from Bellwether Farms in California.

Don’t miss their equally excellent offerings of chocolate and olive oil spread, and chocolate, hazelnut and olive oil, two the artisan offerings to help you leave that childhood attachment to Nutella behind!

Red Pepper and Tomato SauceThe­Full­Flavors­of­Northern­Greece­­Come­to­TownI confess I might have been influenced by the weather, but when there’s nary a good local tomato to be seen around these parts, I have an affinity for anything that smacks of summer. And I love this sauce from northern Greece. I mean seriously, it’s so fresh tasting, so lively, so bright, so simple and delicious that I could eat it almost every evening! It’s basically just good, ripe, height-of-summer tomatoes, lots of roasted red peppers, extra virgin oil, some garlic, and a bit of chopped golden pepper. Great with goat cheese or ricotta. Great on toast, with eggs, pasta, rice, orzo. Great with fish, pork, or chicken too. A little sweet, a small touch of spicy, really tomatoey, very peppery and very good. Man, I could eat it by the spoonful!

Cold Pressed Mustard Oil from AustraliaHuge fan of olive oil that I am, I was really happy to see—and taste—this delicious mustard oil from, of all places, Australia! It’s really delicious, healthy, great for all sorts of cooking and easy to use. And, I should say up front, spicy!

Although I certainly have long known of mustard oil, I’ve done almost no cooking with it. That changed when I got going on this very special stuff from Down Under. It’s cold-pressed, high in monounsaturated fat, and it tastes great. Long story short, I’ve been using it for pretty much everything you can think of. It’s great on salads with a touch of cider vinegar. And it’s good on pasta in place of olive oil. I’ve used it for cooking fried eggs, which then are particularly good for fried egg and bacon sand-wiches. I’ve used it to make mayonnaise, and drizzled it as finish-ing oil on to fish and meat. Try it as the cooking oil for making a grilled cheese. Like I said you can pretty much use it any way you would olive oil. One caveat I can offer is that it’s HOT, so use it in moderation.

While it’s new to us here at Zingerman’s, mustard seed oil has been used for cooking in many parts of the world for thousands of years now. It’s made, relatively straightforwardly, by crushing mustard seeds. This Australian oil is unique in that it passes FDA entrance requirements. For decades the mustard oil which is used in India for cooking on an everyday basis has been banned in the U.S. because of high percentage of naturally occurring erucic acid. (As ZingTrain Community Builder, Gauri Therga-onkar, who grew up in India said with a smile, “Please pay no at-tention to the fact that an entire culture has eaten this oil during most of their history on this planet with little demonstrated ill

I know, I know, we make these here in Ann Arbor. So yes, I understand that it seems sort of strange to put it on my list of Fancy Food Show finds. But you know how some-times you have to go away from home to appreciate what you already have? Well, this relatively new offering from the Creamery is one of those. While I was already enjoy-ing it here in Ann Arbor, it was when I tasted it out from our booth at the pre-show, artisan-only Mercantile show that I realized just how impressively good it really is.

The Mercantile show is much smaller than the Fancy Food show. Only about 300 vendors were part of it and pretty much all of them qualify for our full-flavored, traditional definition of quality. And attendance is also much smaller. It’s really just owners and managers from the country’s best specialty food shops—places like Bi-Rite in San Francisco, DiBruno Brothers in Philadelphia, Antonelli’s in Austin, the Pasta Shop in Oakland, etc.— who are in attendance. Working be-hind the table, sampling out cheese from the Creamery it was pretty amazing to watch the eyes of the country’s best cheese buyers as they tasted small bits of the Cab-bage Wrapped Manchester that we’ve taken to calling the Manistique. One after another, they paused while tast-ing, opened their eyes wide and then issued either an exclamation along the lines of “Wow!” or “Man, that’s amazing!” or asked a question like “You guys make that in Ann Arbor?”

Seriously—and I do NOT say this lightly at all—the new Manistique from the Creamery have been as good as any cheese I’ve tasted all year from France, England, Ireland, Italy, or America. Kudos to Aubrey, John, Stephanie, and everyone at the Creamery for all the years of work that have gone into making this cheese so special and so deli-cious. These babies are looking beautiful and they taste even better!

To start with, the Manchester cheese in its regular state has been fantastic all year. Having tasted it regularly for over ten years, this past six-month period is by far its best ever. It’s creamy in texture, full-flavored, and mellow at the same time. I love it. Curious as to what’s brought the cheese to these new heights, I asked Creamery managing

partner Aubrey Thomason for some background. “We tweaked the recipe every week for six years,” she told me. “Every week?” I asked. “Yep. Literally, ever week I changed something. The final tweak was changing to the Jersey milk that we’re now using. And then recipe was perfect. Now we’re continuing the tweaking but focusing on the aging. The different maturing techniques is what led to the Manistique.”

The cabbage wrapping of the Manistique takes this al-ready great cheese to even greater heights. The idea of wrapping cheese in leaves actually goes back centuries, perhaps millennia. Leaves were used to protect cheese as a kind of an additional, all-natural rind, or wrapping, which also added a bit of interesting flavor in the process. Throughout the Mediterranean, local leaves have been used; French banon in chestnut leaves or Spanish Valde-

on in maple leaves. This past year, the Creamery crew set to work to come up with a suitable

Michigan equivalent. While there any number of options to try, they fi-

nally settled on using fresh cabbage leaves. Why not right? Cabbage is, while not necessarily a glamour

vegetable, a big part of the hearty Michigan and Midwest-

ern diet. The green of the leaves looks great, and it turns out that af-

ter a quick blanching, the leaves make a great wrapping in which to mature the cheese.

The leaves allow a bit of air in, but also encourage the cheese to ripen. The cabbage adds a bit of character to the flavor and the paste is very spreadable and delicious. And the light green of the leaves looks really lovely when you put the whole cheese out on the table.

The name? As with most of our cheeses, we named it for a Michigan town—this one is way up north in the Upper Peninsula!

Be sure to give the Manistique a chance to come to room temperature before you serve. Both the texture and the flavor come through much more elegantly and lusciously when the cheese is at about 65°. And it’s delicious with sparkling wine, in particular the great ones on the Cream-ery shelves from our friends at Domaine Carneros.

Creamy Cow’s Milk Cheese Matured in Cabbage Leaves

Manistique

(and other assorted culinary adventures)

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effect.) This oil is made with mustard seed that’s been naturally (not GMO) bred to reduce the erucic acid content. And now we get to have this great cooking and eating oil available on our shelves!

Carefully Crafted Wine Vinegars from the DolomitesBeautifully made red and white wine vinegars from the north-east of Italy, artisan offerings from one of the most remarkable wineries in the Trento region. Fiorentino Pojer and Marco San-dri have owned the estate since the late ‘70s. Rather than mak-ing the sorts of international wine styles that were unremark-able but easy to sell, they set about recreating the traditional grape varietals and wines of the Dolomite region. Today they’re one of the trendsetters in the Italian wine world. These have already become my every day vinegars for salads!

High in the mountains on the steep Eastern side of the canyon-like valley of the Adige river in the Trento region, Pojer e Sandri is one of the most remarkable wineries of the Trento region.

The dynamic team of Fiorentino Pojer and Marco Sandri bought the estate in 1978, when Fiorentino, as the landowner

teamed up with Marco, who had just graduated from enological school. They set out to protect and revive the many local grapes of the area and produce wines which were almost forgotten. Their respect for the environment and traditions along with their outgoing personalities and hospitality soon set them in a class of their own. Today, they are widely respected as one of the most unique and important wineries in Italy.

Unlike most Italian wineries where vinegar is viewed as an er-ror or an aberration, Pojer and Sandri have placed great stock in theirs. Perhaps it’s the Germanic influence from the north. Either way they use their own top quality, well-aged wines and do natural conversion. It takes over a year for the wine to turn slowly into vinegar. And they age the vinegar in wood barrels. The white wine vinegar is made from old school grape variet-ies like Riesling, Traminer, Sauvignon, Kerner, Muller Thurgau and a Manzoni-Chardonnay cross while the red comes from Negrara Trentino, Groppello, Lagrein, as well as better-known grapes like Cabernet, Merlot and Pinot Noir.

Great addition to our vinegar selection from a really good, if little known, wine-making part of Italy. Ask for a taste next time you’re in!

Fondants from Pietro Romanengo in GenoaOn March 15, we celebrated our 33rd anniversary at Zinger-man’s. No small thing I know. But, seriously, our seemingly long run in business is a tiny fraction of what the still family-owned shop of Romanengo has accomplished on the Italian Riviera. The family got going in 1780. That’s right four years after the American colonies declared independence from England and nearly a decade before the French Revolution that followed. The firm was established originally as a spice shop, steadily ex-panding its work into candied fruits and confetti (aka, dragees in France), some of which were the new “revolutionary” style coming in from the other side of the border in southern France. Later they added chocolate making to their work.

I first visited their shop on Piazza Soziglia, near the city cen-ter some twenty years ago. It’s an amazing little spot, one that looks nothing like the Deli. While our building is old—dating to 1902—this one is nearly twice that. The shop was opened in 1814. We’re pretty down to earth, while they’re beautifully upmarket, circa the early 19th century! When you walk in you marvel at the polished marble, beautifully finished wood, crystal chan-deliers. To me it looks more like a cross between a jeweler, a high end antique shop, and a Viennese café. Suffice it to say, you won’t stumble on a shop like this in your local mall!

In the late 19th century, Pietro Romanengo, grandson of the founder, became a leading authority on candy work. His lead-ership at Romanengo and in the trade helped to make Genoa an internationally famous center for confectionary. They produced hundreds of thousands of pounds of candied citrus peel—a still local specialty—much of which was exported, even in the 19th century, to the U.S.

The fondants are hand-wrapped into white paper that’s tipped with an array of different colors.

The first of the Romenengo products to arrive on our shelves will be their sugar fondants. The fondants are not, I’m sure, their biggest selling item, but they’ve long been one of my favorites and they’re unlike anything else we have on our shelves. I loved them the first time I tasted them in Italy and I love them still now. They are a quintessential artisan sugared specialty that is impossible to mass produce. The complex process of making Fondants lies in the boil-ing of sugar at different temperatures for each product. Varying quantities of liquid sugar are added to the mix during the boiling process, producing sweets with different consistencies. The real fruits used by Romamengo in making fondants include strawberry, mint, orange, cle-mentine tangerines, apricot, raspberry, lemon, banana, pear, chocolate, and anise.”

Their texture is a bit like sweet, melting snow in your mouth. The Romanengo folks say, ”The final product is an array of rectangular white sugar cubes that melt in your mouth like cream.” They’re intense, yet gentle at the same time. Like leaning back to relax after a really long week.

The intensity is not an accident. Charlie Frank from the Zingerman’s Candy Manufactory could explain the process better than I, but fondant is made by creating a “supersaturation” of sugar and water; water will absorb twice as much

sugar at the boiling point as it will at room temperature. The word “fondant” in French means “melting” (related to “found-ry” which comes from the same root), appropriate, since that’s how they’re made and also since that’s what they’ll do when you pop one in your mouth. Every time I eat one I imagine Ital-ians in the know, sitting around sipping tea, worrying about war dragging on too long (the Napoleonic wars had been going for nearly 15 years when they were founded), hoping for world peace, enjoying one or two of these delicacies. Other than the technology they’d be playing with while conversing, not all that much has probably changed!

Irish Brown Bread Crackers from Sheridan’sCeltic­Comfort­Crackers­Eastern European Jews have rye bread. In the French country-side it’s pain au levain, or what we call Farm bread; in the city it’s become the baguette. In the southern part of the U.S., bis-cuits would be the bread of choice. All are what I would call soul-baking or comfort breads. Breads that bring the people who grew up on them back to basics, the safety of home, the good memories of childhood. In Ireland, the equivalent would be brown bread. It’s comforting, delicious, unique. I’ve eaten a lot of bread in a lot of places but I’ve never had anything like it. Irish brown bread—with butter, smoked salmon, cheese, or just on its own, gets me smiling. I’m not Irish but I’ve been there about ten times, including, most recently, a quick trip over this winter, so it wasn’t hard to add these great biscuits to my best new finds list. I love the place and I love brown bread, and now I love these, too.

On top of all that, they’re made by cheese-loving brothers, Seamus and Kevin Sheridan, whom I’ve known for a long time. They’ve opened their first shop in the lovely little town of Gal-way in the west of Ireland nearly twenty years ago. The biscuits are more recent. They date to years following the economic collapse of 2009. After what were probably the most pro-foundly positive years in modern Irish economic history, the world’s economic collapse led to what I’ve heard a rather large handful of Irish friends refer to as “the adjustment.” Looking for ways to make business ends meet, the brothers Sheridan had the thought to bake biscuits. It seemed a natural, as their shop is based around artisan cheese, some from Ireland and some from the rest of the world as well. While there are hap-pily today a lot of artisan cheese offerings, there’s a shortage of solidly good crackers—or what the Irish would call biscuits—to go with them.

“The brown bread was a natural,” Kevin Sheridan said. “We grew up helping me mum make it all the time. The biscuits were a natural.” They’re also delicious. It’s no accident; the only in-gredients are the same ones Mrs. Sheridan likely used in her brown bread—wholemeal wheat flour, buttermilk, butter and salt. And all four are from very fine sources. The wholemeal

MayOrtiz Sardines $9.99/jar (reg. price $14.99)

$5.27/tin (reg. price $7.99)

We're putting these exquisite Spanish sar-dines back on sale. These big and meaty pilchards are cleaned, cooked and packed by hand. Preserved with olive oil in a beautiful glass jar, they are packed upright in the traditional old-world style. Their mel-low, briny-sweet flavor will actually improve over the years, if you can wait that long!

JuneLes Mouette d’Arvor Vintage Sardines$9.99/tin (reg. price $14.99)

Much like certain wines, well tinned sardines only get better with age. These beautiful French pilchards are cooked and then preserved in extra virgin olive oil. Choose between several different vintages, all of which are rich, meaty and delicious in their own special way. Toasted bread topped with butter or olive oil and a sprinkling of sea salt is all that you’ll need!

May Andy W’s High FryerIt’s the Deli’s new fried chicken sandwich!

We’re coating a boneless Miller’s Amish chicken thigh with a thick and crispy coating, piled high with spicy pickles, Zingerman’s pimento cheese and lettuce. It’s made magical with buttery Bakehouse white bread. This sandwich packs a crunchy punch.

$17.99

JuneJPQ's Two Emcee'sRoast beef, melty Cabot cheddar, a few slices of red onion, and the Deli's smooth, two mustard caper spread on grilled rustic Italian bread. A power sandwich that's the delicious equivalent of wearing shorts with tall socks, and a fanny pack (hipster translation: super cool!).

$14.99

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flour comes from Walton’s Mill in Macroom—the same folks we’ve been getting that amazing stone ground Irish oatmeal from for decades. We actually get the same wholemeal flour to use in our Irish Brown Soda bread at the Bakehouse each March. The butter comes from the Bandon cooperative, and the salt is sea salt. All of that is carefully assembled and baked by an artisan biscuit maker, using the Sheridan’s specs and recipe, down in West Cork. No wonder they taste so good.

I love the Brown Bread crackers with all sorts of cheese, but they’re especially excellent with washed rind cheeses, fresh creamy cheeses, and blue cheeses. In fact, they’re darned de-licious with the Creamery’s new Manistique, or with the old school artisan Cream Cheese, or the fresh hand-ladled City Goats. Oh yeah, they are, like the Irish brown bread on which they’re based, beautiful with a good bit of butter. Kerrygold would be my pick—especially the sliver-foiled packaged one because it’s cultured, as was the case with all the old butters back in the day, which means it’s more flavorful and delicious. Want to go wild? Add some jam and or honey and have at it. If you’ve been to Ireland, and love it as much as I do, they’ll be a terrific taste of “home.” And if you’ve never been, maybe these will entice you to consider a visit to the Emerald Isle. I highly recommend it.

Armenian Coffee at the Coffee CompanyIs­the­Future­Unfolding­in­this­­Tiny­Cup­of­Coffee?As much as I’ve traveled over the years, I’ve never really been drawn to Turkish coffee. I like my coffee black, straight, no milk, no cream, and definitely no sugar. Everywhere in the world I’ve ever been served it, I’ve had to overcome my distaste for its very significant sweetness. But, of course, when we started to offer Armenian coffee at the Coffee Company this month, I knew I needed to try it. It’s pretty hard to speak about it without first-hand knowledge. And lo and behold, to my surprise I was wowed by it. Just so you know, I went back three or four times the same week to drink it again. And in the process, of course, I grew ever more intrigued with both the story and the coffee.

While the offering is new at the Coffee Company, Armenian cof-fee is anything but. It’s likely one of the earliest ways in which coffee was brewed. In fact, if the current upgrades on coffee quality have come to be called “third wave” coffee, this was probably “first wave.” From what I can tell from a bit of study, it sounds like it might have originated in Yemen (across the water from Ethiopia, the homeland of coffee) in the late 15th or early 16th century. An Ottoman governor stationed in Yemen fell in love with it and introduced it to Sultan Suleiman the Magnifi-cent who popularized coffee in Istanbul and beyond.

Of course most things in history have better and worse days and coffee didn’t stay on top for long. A century down the road, Sultan Murad IV outlawed it, accusing it of being “an indecent drink.” He felt so strongly that he beheaded all who drank it. Of course, in the long run as we know, the coffee won out. Today you can drink it here, or anywhere, without risk. You may catch a bit of a buzz, but you won’t lose your head!

Over the centuries, the brew method become ever more popu-lar in Asia Minor and throughout the Ottoman Empire. Depend-ing on where you’ve traveled or where your family is from, you might know it as Turkish, Greek, or Arabic coffee. It might also be called a Cypriot coffee, or a Bosnian coffee. All are authentic. Here at Zingerman’s, as Coffee Co. retail manager Anya Pomyka-la said, “we happen to have an Armenian managing partner, so the name is ‘Armenian coffee.’” In Armenian the word is pro-nounced “soorj.”

If you aren’t familiar with Armenian (or Turkish) coffee, let me get your mind moving in the right direction by telling you that it’s a very thick brew, sweetened with sugar, and sometimes (like ours), scented with cardamom. How thick? Very! One NPR report cited it as “so thick even a water buffalo wouldn’t sink in it.” Anya described it a bit more romantically, “It’s got this nice, almost brownie batter-like texture at the very bottom.” Some-one else said, “It’s got the texture of thick, European hot choco-late.” Imagine an espresso, but intensified by a factor of four.

I should mention that Espresso is actually relatively new, dat-ing only to the mid-20th century. In a way, I suppose, brewing Armenian (or Turkish or Arabic) coffee did for folks in centuries past what espresso now does, but long before there as any high end technology to put to work. In fact, I’ve started thinking of it as a Cardamom-scented, 16-century, Middle Eastern version of a Cubano. But since people in the Ottoman Empire were drinking coffee before anyone in Cuba had, maybe it ought to be framed the other way: a Cubano is a post-modern, hi-tech version of Turkish coffee.

As Anya explained, “This is a method of preparing coffee with no filtration. We’re using an electric burner to heat the coffee. The traditional way would be to brew it over coals and sand in a pot called an ibrik with coffee, water, and sugar. The coffee nev-er quite boils.” (If it does boil it will ruin the coffee.) “You heat it to create a top layer that’s a lot like a crema. It forms basically an emulsification, like on an espresso. There are three layers that form so you have to pour carefully to make sure it’s evenly distributed in all the cups. We add the cardamom and the sugar, measure it out, boil and then let it settle thirty seconds and then do it again, then settle and then do it again. We’re using the Épices de Cru Indian green cardamom that we’re grinding by hand. There’s about half a pod of cardamom per cup. It’s very potent. You get a surprising amount of aromatics. There’s a small touch of Demerara sugar. We use a little less sugar than others might to highlight the coffee.”

If you want the authentic Armenian experience here are the gradations of sweetness—no sugar is Shakar Ch’eh; a little sugar is keechma Shakar; semi-sweet is kisak’aghts’r; or you can have it sweet, k’aghts’r. Here at the Coffee Company, our version is in the semi-sweet category but we can always adjust it for you, as you like.

To make the Armenian brew we’re using the Indian coffee. “The dry earthiness of that coffee plays really well when you’re us-ing a super-amped up brewing method like this,” Anya added in. “The key is that it’s a super fine grind. Far finer than espresso. It’s about a fifteen second boil and then thirty seconds later you do it again. And then again for a third time.“ You can make it, of

course, with any variety of coffee. “Down the road we’ll prob-ably use varying coffees” Steve added. It’ll be another brew method to add to the Big Brew Board.

One important note before you start—don’t drink until the cup is empty! There’s a good bit of sediment—maybe a quarter inch deep—at the bottom. When the sediment is barely moving, it’s probably time to stop drinking. Please note though that you’re not really done yet. Those grounds at the bottom of the cup could prove to be very, very valuable—they’re traditionally used to tell the future. No, I don’t mean “coffee futures” in the context of the pound price of container loads of imported cof-fee futures. I mean, your future.

The technique is not new. “My aunt would drink her coffee,” Steve told me, “then she would turn it over, wait twenty minutes and then read our fortune. My aunt was always very dramatic. She’d look inside. Make long eye contact with you. Tilt the cup in many directions. Look back into the cup again. Swirl the cup all around. Of course she’d say it all in Armenian. She would go into this detailed discussion of your future, and so forth and so on.” Does it work? “A few years ago I was in Virginia with my aunt before she passed away and she told my fortune. She said the fortune included three other men. One who happened to be tall. And she said there’s gonna be some disagreement and ar-gument coming but as long as you hold your course your future will be good. This was like five years ago.”

Steve is engaged with the coffee crew to create a detailed train-ing program to pass on this ancient skill. “I will also talk with my daughter Bethany, since she learned this art when she spent several months in Armenia a few years ago. She is quite good at it. I also remember when I was growing up that my Aunt Lizzie used to get approached by many local Armenian women and asked to get together with her ‘for a cup of coffee.’ This was code for, ‘I would like to know what is in my future.’ I remember that in our larger group family sit downs she would say things like ‘and I had coffee with Mrs. so-and-so and tragedy will befall her, etc.’”

One other difference with espresso—while you can down a shot of the latter really within a minute or two of having it in hand, Armenian coffee is meant for slower consumption. Because it’s thicker, it cools more slowly. And it’s really meant to be swirled, smelled, held and admired before being sipped. Swirl some more, take in the aromas, talk a bit. Sip some more. You get the idea.

And, I should add, what’s taking this already excellent coffee to even greater heights is that we’re using some of THE best green cardamom around. You can read more about that on the next page!

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Part of our work with Épices de Cru has been to discover the wonderful plethora of peppercorns that are out there. Black pepper, it turns out, is like wine or cheese or any other agricultural product. There’s a huge range of sources, quality levels, crop years, and everything else. The better-

known Telicherry peppercorns from Wyanad will come later this year. But in

the meantime there are other really

w o n d e r f u l black pep-

percorns to celebrate and

use to season our food!

Speaking of the Carda-mom Hills, here’s a wild

offering—wild grown, black peppercorns, hand harvested

in the Periyar Tiger Preserve in the Cardamom Hills. Why “tribal

pepper?” Philippe de Vienne explained, “The Tribals, as they

are called In India (not in a pejorative way) are the indig-enous or first nations of India. They are essentially animists and live a semi-settled life. The government affords them a degree of protection—outsiders are not permitted without passes to the areas. When the Preserve was established the people where hunting tiger for the black market. They were encouraged to grow pepper in their villages using cuttings from wild vines that still grow in the surrounding jungle. So essentially when you eat tribal pepper you have the original taste and flavor of wild pepper. The ‘wildness’ explains its quick hot bite and rustic flavors.”

Marika de Vienne has high praise for it. “The peppercorn I LOVE is the tribal pepper. It grows on vines in a Tiger Pre-serve in India where it is picked by local villagers. So it’s literally semi-wild. There’s a heat to it that’s unlike any other black pepper I’ve ever had. It’s more like white pepper. It’s got the heat of white pepper with the flavor of black.” Her father added, “The cultivation is not extensive and pretty traditional. Vines are planted using live trees as standards among other crops in mixed garden plantations. Fertiliza-tion is with cow dug. Pest control is done using neem leaves, often mixed into the dung; essentially an organic product.”

At the same time, part of what’s making this Wild Tribal Pep-per so engaging to me right now is that it’s new, as in, “new crop,” just harvested a few months back. There’s a freshness and liveliness to its flavor and aroma that comes from being new-crop. It’s actually been air-shipped to Montreal for the de Viennes, then boxed and sent south over the border to us. It’s got a lot of deep, balanced, long-lasting pepper heat. High notes in the nose, low notes to underwrite those, and a really long slow lingering finish.

It strikes me that this pepper, without benefit of modern day breeding techniques, is about as close as we’re likely to get to the black peppercorns that were so prized in Europe in ancient times. Romans, you might remember ,traded pepper at the same price as gold. Or maybe it’s very close to the kind of pepper Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain were so inspired to find that they engaged a Genoese captain name of Cristo-foro Columbus to go in search of. I love the idea of those old flavors being available to us anew.

(reg. price $16)

$12/tin

(reg. price $15)

/tin$1125

GREEN CARDAMOM FROM INDIA VIA EPICES DE CRU

Wild Tribal Pepper from India

Cardamom, I should have known all along, is one of the most essential spices of Indian cooking. What we get from the de Vienne’s is exceptional! It’s an easy way to add amazing flavors to your food and to enliven your everyday cooking!

In terms of background, it’s good to know that cardamom is generally the world’s third most costly spice—only saffron and vanilla are higher up the price scale. Of course, per pod it still costs only pennies to put some into your dinner. Like the other two on the list it must still be harvested by hand. It comes from a tall bush, in the ginger family, that’s native to southwest India.

In addition to using it to season coffee, green cardamom is also great for brewing in tea. The seeds are often used for chewing, like a gum. Just crack the papery-pod open with your fingers and chew one of the small seeds inside. And the flavor stays with you! It’s also used, as so many spices were/are, for health reasons. Cardamom is said to cure digestive problems and also works as an antidote to snake and scorpi-on bites (a helpful tip to remember). Ancient Egyptians used it for cleaning their teeth. Greeks and Romans used it as a perfume. Vikings found it and brought it back to Scandina-via where it’s used extensively in holiday baked goods. Arab traders carried it through the Middle East and into southern Europe.

Most cardamom in the U.S. nowadays comes up from Cen-tral America. “Today Guatemala is the largest producer, but its cardamom does not have the complex and rich aroma of the best grades from Kerala,” Philippe de Vienne said. To be clear, cardamom is not native to Central America. It was introduced there by a German coffee planter Oscar Majus Kloeffer. Philippe de Vienne told me, “The trade in Guatema-la follow the same story as the rest of colonial agricultural products from Central America that I am sure you are famil-iar with. The price is essentially subsidized by the low wages paid to landless Mayan workers.” What we’re stocking from Épices de Cru is, of course, an entirely different story.

“We get our green cardamom from the Thekkady area in the Cardamom Hills of the Western Ghats, the original home of cardamom,” Philippe told me after returning from a very big trip to Asia. “The price for Indian cardamom is double that of Guatemalan. But its price is very much a reflection of its quality . . . and fairness! The Kerala district has had a

quite fair system of auction houses run by the Spice Board of India. It’s a situation that is actually only possible because most Indian cardamom is produced in the district, where forty years of elected socially-minded Communist govern-ments have shaped policy. The trade in Guatemala cannot say the same.

“We have visited those auctions houses a few times and it is always the highlight of a trip. The atmosphere is electric and the smell of hundreds of kilograms of cardamom over-whelms the senses. Cardamom is flung in trader’s bowls. They judge the quality by the sound it makes as they make it jump in their hand, the color of the pods and, of course, the smell. A seasoned trader takes only a second to judge and then the bidding begins. The system is as fair as can be. In the past the auctions were by raised hands; which led to traders cornering the market or cheating other traders by forcing prices up, narrowing the margin of others.

“Today the auctions are done electronically. Anyone can, for a small fee, become a trader and bid in the auctions. No one knows who is bidding and increases are only in 2 or 5 rupees increments. That makes it very hard to play the market. That how our friend Sudheer gets our cardamom. Prices can vary widely according to quality, supply and provenance. The system ensures fairness since numerous sellers and numer-ous buyers can participate, making for a level playing field.”

Having now had the Épices de Cru cardamom in hand, in my cooking, and in the Armenian coffee at Zingerman’s Coffee Company, I’ve noticed that every other one I’ve picked up pales in comparison. The de Vienne’s version is just much more aromatic, far more perfumed, livelier, more engaging. Which means its flavor is better, and you can use less in the process.

It is, of course, more work to produce. “Our friend Sudheer selects for us the most aromatic lots; usually of the more an-cient Cardamom varieties. While most buyers prefer green pods, we prefer a yellowish color that indicates full ripe-ness. The sound the pods make when you make them jump in your hand indicates the density, and therefore the full-ness. Each pod should contain 25 to 30 seeds. While the husk of the pods contains essential oils, it is the seeds that have the highest concentration. Pods are often dyed green, as the general perception is that green is better—that’s a holdover

from the days when cardamom was either bleached with peroxide or improperly dried in the sun. Today heated car-damom drying sheds are available, ensuring a green color. We prefer the less aesthetically pleasing riper yellowish-green pods (impossible to cheat) to the possibly-dyed pis-tachio green.

“Cardamom has a very intense flavor and is usually used in small quantities to flavor food often with other spices. It is so powerful that it can stand up to coffee or other strong fla-vor and it provides a refreshing element. Cardamom is the vanilla of India and most desserts are laced with cardamom from humble and delicious homemade rice and milk pud-ding to the most expensive gold leaf covered almond and ghee sweets found in exclusive shops.”

On top of all that, the current crop year sounds like one of the best ever. “2014 will go down in history as one of the great years of cardamom,” the de Viennes re-port. “2014 for cardamom is like 1970 for Château Lafitte. We’re so excited about this year’s cardamom we can barely contain ourselves. In our wild disorientation we succumb to the scent. We have become pod people.” Wow!

The uses are pretty much endless. Use the green cardamom in curries, dals, or carrot soups. Ground and sprinkled onto rice or salads. In scones or coffee cakes. Great in rice pud-ding. Add a bit to jams or preserves. The de Viennes suggest a cardamom-scented café au lait which sounds great. They also have an (easy) recipe for a tisane made with green car-damom, saffron and Ceylon cinnamon all simmered for five minutes or so in hot water to bring out their flavors.

Don’t throw away the husks. “The whole pods are used ground to a powder as the husk contains essential oils. Or they are often used whole, slightly cracked open in long simmering dishes and rice preparations. Cardamom is rarely toasted as this is seen as changing its bright, fresh flavor in an unfavorable way.”

ISSUE # 250 MAY-JUN 2015 ISSUE # 250 MAY-JUN 2015­16 ­17

As most of you know, Zingerman’s Coffee Company is always on the lookout for great coffees. Last February, a few of us visited La Unión, Honduras, and we are excited to share why we were there and what we did.

If you haven’t heard of La Unión, don’t blame your lack of attentiveness in elementary school geography class: it’s one of the smallest municipalities in the department of Lempira in western Honduras. And travel to La Unión is a challenge. The 1300 mile flight from Atlanta, GA to the international airport in Honduras takes about as long as the 80-mile drive from the airport through the mountains to La Unión.

Why La Unión? Our friends at Aldea Development, founded by University of Michigan graduates in 2009, have been working with the community since 2010. Aldea began as a microfinance or-ganization (their former name was Unión MicroFinanza) and has since expanded their activities to include technical training for farmers, research, community development, and green coffee purchasing. We visited Aldea to get a firsthand view of what they do and the role they play in the community of La Unión. We also wanted to meet Pablo Paz, a coffee producer in the area, whom we purchased coffee from last year.

Harvest season in Honduras runs from January through April. We visited in mid-February and so witnessed the whirlwind of activity that accompanies the season. Coffee cherries are still picked by hand in Honduras—as they are almost everywhere coffee is produced—and one morning we had the opportunity to try our hands at picking. It takes a discerning eye to select cherries that are adequately ripe. Pick too soon, and your coffee might end up tasting underdeveloped; pick too late, and it could develop a host of unpleasant flavors during its fermentation stage of pro-cessing. We did a pretty good job picking out the ripe cherries, but our speed left something to be desired. It took us about twice as long as a skilled picker to fill a basket.

It is important that coffee cherries are processed within hours of being picked. In Honduras, almost all coffees are processed using the washed method. The site where this washing takes place is known as a beneficio in Spanish. At the beneficio, the whole coffee cherry is stripped of its fruit, fermented, and rinsed with plenty of fresh water. After a first round of sorting, the beans are dried on raised beds, sometimes inside of a greenhouse-like construction known as a solar dryer.

After drying, coffee goes through another round of processing to remove its protective parch-ment layer (a step known as milling) and is sorted once again. And then there’s the barge ride half way around the globe to a port in the U.S., where the beans are warehoused until they travel (by truck) to the back door of our roastery in Ann Arbor, MI. At which point we roast, pack-age, deliver, grind, brew, and drink them with help from our wholesale customers and you, our guests! It takes a lot of work from a lot of folks to make your morning brew a reality. It sounds a bit grandiose, but a great cup of coffee is an achievement, a testament to the power of coopera-tive efforts that link people from all over the world.

The highlight of our trip was meeting Pablo Paz, a producer in one of the villages nestled in the mountains around La Unión. Pablo comes from a family of growers who have produced quality coffee for decades, long before many folks in the specialty coffee world were paying a premium for high quality beans or taking trips to remote areas of the world to source rare and distinctive micro-lots. We were inspired by Pablo’s commitment to quality, purchased some of his coffee last year, and our friends at Aldea were gracious enough to introduce us on this trip.

Coffee plays an important role in Pablo’s life on multiple levels. No doubt, it is his livelihood. But coffee is also a source of pride and a means of connecting to his village and to his history. And yet, Pablo has seen the final product of his efforts, a bag of roasted coffee, on only a few occa-sions. When we met Pablo, we presented him with a sample of his coffee, brewed it, and drank a cup together. He liked it. And for a few minutes, the world felt exceptionally small.

We’ll be featuring Pablo Paz’s coffee as a Roaster’s Pick for June & July of 2015. We look forward to sharing it with you and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Matthew BodaryZingerman’s Coffee Co. Dude

& Zingerman’s Food Tour Guides

For over 30 years, Zingerman’s has brought the best and most flavorful foods of the world home to America. Now, Zingerman’s can take you to the source! To have an artisan food maker invite you into their life, share their passion and traditions, then feed you the food you only read about in culinary journals… this is something few people get to experience in their lifetime.

We go behind the scenes in beautiful regions of the world that have really great traditional food. We visit producers of artisanal foods in their homes and workshops. They share their stories and teach us about the amazing foods that they make, and then feed us!

We keep our group sizes small – only up to 15 guests depending on the tour. Your travel experience will deposit you home with an understanding of the historical, cultural, and food uniqueness of the locale, your head full of the images of the people and places you have visited, where you’ve learned about the food and eaten your fill.

2015 Tour Schedule

Sourcing Coffee

in Honduras

Log­on­for­more­information­about­all­of­our­tours­and­to­sign­up­for­our­e-news.­Call­or­email­any­time­or­find­us­on­Facebook.­­

We'd­love­to­hear­from­you!

HungaryMay­18-28,­2015

Traverse City/ Leelanau Peninsula, MI

May­29-31,­2015

TuscanyOctober­3-12,­2015

SpainApril­16­-­26,­2016

Available at Zingerman’s Coffee Co., Delicatessen and Roadhouse

MAYKenya Othaya CooperativeA beautiful coffee processed at the Gichichi wet mill. Silky body and bursting with fruit flavors that remind us of black currant.

JUNEHonduras Pablo PazPablo Paz grows coffee in the mountains surrounding the municipality of La Unión, Honduras. We selected this lot when we visited him in February and love it for its citrus brightness and cocoa-like body.

www.zingermansfoodtours.com • 888-316-2736 foodtours@zingermans.com

ISSUE # 250 MAY-JUN 2015 ISSUE # 250 MAY-JUN 2015­18 ­19

We’ve been enjoying our cheeses with great American beers and wines (many from Michigan!) for the last year. We would like to share our favorites with you on a weekly basis at our Thursday Night Pairing Party!

We’ll be serving samples and talking cheese, beer and wine, and helping you find just the right mar-riage of our favorite food and drink.

THURSDAY NIGHT PAIRING PARTY

Since we started making gelato nearly 10 years ago, we’ve received hundreds of suggestions from our guests on flavor ideas; some great ideas and some very creative ideas and several have even made it into our case. Now we’re offering you the opportunity to have your friends/ relatives embrace their inner gelati-cian, to create the next “Moose Tracks.”

You’ll be able to choose from traditional ingre-dients, like our handmade chocolate chips, peanuts roasted with Michigan butter and salt, or peppermint candy from Hammond candy company. We’re also offering some ingredients that you’re

not so familiar with, such as candied bacon, strawberries in balsamic vinegar syrup or even caramelized Irish soda bread. We will be updating the list of flavors regularly, so the creative opportuni-ties are nearly endless.

cInCo de

MayA

CongratsJohn!

GO BLUE!

For $175, you get a personalized gift certificate entitling the recipient to ten 12-ounce containers of gelato and personalized labels that will arrive on their doorstep. Shipping included.

Get­yours­at­­www.zingermanscreamery.com!

DIY GELATO!

3-6pm every Thursday in our cheese shop at 3723 Plaza Drive

mayLIPTAUER: A HUNGARIAN TREAT!MILK: CowRENNET: Animal­RennetINGREDIENTS: Pasteurized­Cow’s­Milk,­Garlic,­Capers,­­Hot­&­Sweet­Farmstead­Paprika,­Caraway,­Anchovies

If you’re not familiar with it—and most people aren’t—Liptauer cheese (pronounced “lip-tower”) is a long-standing Hungarian tradition. In Hungary it’s more frequently known by the name Körözött, but we’ve been calling it Liptauer for so long we’ve decided to leave the name alone. Like most homestyle food traditions you’ll come across, there seem to be about six thousand recipes for this spicy cheese spread, and most of them are very good in their own different ways. We don’t know that the one we’ve been making is the perfect version, but we’ve been selling it for a long time, and it has a lot of loyal fans so we’ll keep on keeping on—call it Körözött, or call it Liptauer, this stuff is pretty darned, slightly spicily, good!

A while back we had the great fortune of meeting some folks from the Hodi family paprika farm in Hungary. The ingredient that gives Liptauer its signature zip is really good paprika, and all paprikas (as is the case with pretty much everything else in the food world) are not created equal. The Hodi family has been planting, harvesting, and drying paprika in small batches for generations, and the complexity of flavor in both their hot and sweet versions of this quintessentially Hungarian spice is downright astounding. The moment we tasted it we knew we had to start using it, and the improvement in our resulting Liptauer has been phenomenal.

To make it, we start with our very fresh Farm Cheese from Zingerman’s Creamery, spice it up with fresh garlic, both hot and sweet paprika from Hodi, salt-packed capers, toasted cara-way and just a touch of anchovy. It’s moderately spicy and exceptionally flavorful—there’s a huge burst of flavor in every bite! We’ve been told that in Hungary it was often served in casinos and bars which makes sense—it’s definitely the sort of stuff that goes great with good salami and good beer. Liptauer is great on rye bread from the Bakehouse, on bagels, used as hors d’oeuvres, or as the base for spicy finger sandwiches. It’s an excellent picnic food, great on a roast beef sandwich, and it makes the most incredible deviled eggs.

On­sale­at­Zingerman’s­Creamery­and­Zingerman’s­Deli­­throughout­May­at­$6.99­for­a­6-ounce­container­(reg.­$7.99)

juneTHE LINCOLN LOGMILK: Pasteurized­GoatRENNET: Animal­Rennet

The Lincoln Log is one of the very first traditionally mold-ripened cheeses we started mak-ing here at Zingerman’s Creamery, and it’s always been one of our favorites. This bûcheron-inspired, dense-yet-fluffy goat cheese was one of our most requested cheeses in the early days of the Creamery, and we think we’ve done this French classic some justice.

So what’s so great about it? To begin with, we’re lucky to be able to source some truly incredible milk from carefully selected small goat dairies in Michigan. Over the years we’ve developed some great relationships with passionate farmers dedicated to treating their animals with the utmost care. That care *directly* translates into higher quality, much more full-flavored goat’s milk. After receiving the milk, we pasteurize it as gently as possible, pre-serving as much of its delicate and balanced flavor as possible. After we form them and put them in our carefully climate-controlled aging room, the Logs develop a nice bloomy white rind that envelops a dense, velvety rich paste which embodies some hints of citrus and a bit of mushroom in the finish.

Mold-ripened goat cheeses have been brought into the States from France for decades now, but we think we have one clear advantage on our Gallic peers here at the Creamery—loca-tion. While mold-ripened goat cheeses can last for several weeks in great condition, they’re usually making it across the pond at about that age, which means you’re tasting them at the very end of their lifespan. This style of cheese is absolutely dynamite in its first month or so of life, and that’s exactly the age you’ll be tasting when you get our Lincoln Logs from the Creamery or Zingerman’s Deli.

One great way to serve the Lincoln Log is to slice some in 1/4 inch pieces, add some piquillo peppers, and drizzle with some good olive oil. Stick these under the broiler for about fifteen seconds and you’ve got a great, quick appetizer. The warming enhances the goat flavor and it’s very good on a crusty baguette. The Logs are also great when crumbled into a field green salad or on homemade pizza.

On­sale­at­Zingerman’s­Creamery­and­Zingerman’s­Deli­­throughout­June­at­$26.99/lb­(reg.­$31.99/lb)

Celebrate the last day of school at our Gelato Sundae Bar on Plaza DriveFriday, June 12 • 3723 Plaza Drive We’ll have our case full of our most popular gelati including Roadhouse Vanilla, Dark Chocolate and Dulce de Leche as well as limited time summer flavors like Luciano’s Lemon, Ginger and a variety of fresh fruit sor-bets. You can top your sundae with everything from Coop’s Hot Fudge to butter-roasted Virginia peanuts to house made marshmallows from Zingerman’s Candy and much, much more all for only $5.

Time for a Summer Gelato

Party!

Luciano’s LemonNamed for Luciano Ferrari, the Italian gelato expert who taught me my craft, our lemon gelato uses lemon curd made next door at Zingerman’s Bakehouse sweetened with demerara sugar from Mauritius.

Ginger GelatoMario Batali told People magazine that our Ginger gelato is “exhilarating, like a dive into a cool lake.” Ground ginger root flavors the base and candied ginger gives it an extra kick, perfect on a hot summer day.

Limited Time

Summer Gelato Flavors

School’s Out!

Josh Miner, Zingerman’s Gelato Maker

Zingerman’s CreameryWholesale Manager

ISSUE # 250 MAY-JUN 2015 ISSUE # 250 MAY-JUN 2015­18 ­19

Bakeshop—3711 Plaza Dr. • 761.2095 Deli—422 Detroit St. • 663.3354 (DELI)

Roadshow—2501 Jackson Rd. • 663.3663 (FOOD)

Call Ahead To Order

Peppered­Bacon­­

Farm­Bread­­May 1-2

MayJewish­Rye­Loaf­$4.50/ea. (reg. $6.99)This rye has plenty of rye flour (believe it or not, most “rye bread” sold in America has hardly any rye flour), a natural sour starter (not the usual canned shortcut), and lots of time. No wonder Saveur magazine called it “America’s best rye.”

juneRustic­­Italian­Round­­$4.50/ea. (reg. $6.29)One of our best selling breads for its ver-satility. It has a beautiful white crumb and a golden brown crust. All it needs is some sweet butter.

MayHunka­­Burnin’­Love­Chocolate­CakeOur dense buttermilk chocolate cake covered in rich Belgian chocolate butter cream. Customers have been known to fall in love with it.

20% OFFwhole cakes and slices at Zingerman’s Bakehouse and Deli

Available at Zingerman’s Bakehouse, Delicatessen and Roadhouse

May june

PogácsaThe Iconic Hungarian Roll

Amy­Emberling,­Bakehouse­co-managing­partner,­baker­&­Hungarian­traveler

One of the last iconic items we wanted to make during our adventure into Hungarian baking is really great Pogácsa (say poh-gotcha). What are they? I’d say that they’re the Hungarian version of a dinner roll but much more complicated in flavor and texture. They’re origins are Turkish. They were introduced to Hungary when the Ottoman Turks ruled the territory for about 150 years. It’s possible to go to Turkey today and to see this roll in its even more original form.

Pogácsa will strike you as a mix between a roll and a biscuit and maybe a scone. They’re flaky and layered like a biscuit yet their dough is yeasted like a roll. If you visit Hungary you’ll find them in almost every bak-

ery and you might be served them at breakfast, lunch and dinner. Hun-

garians enjoy pogácsa in both savory and sweet

versions. We are making two very

different sa-vory versions: pork cracklin’

and a vegetar-ian with fresh dill. Both start

with a yeasted dough, which then goes through a lamination or layering process similar to one used when making croissant. For the dill we use butter as the laminate and for the pork we use lard and pork cracklins. We learned the method from Mrs. Elizabeth Krajcz, a fantastic local cook and baker of Hungarian nationality who has her own catering business and teaches Hungarian cooking lessons. Thank you Elizabeth!

Here at the Bakehouse we’re making our own cracklins by patiently rendering chopped skin of pork belly for several hours until it is brown, crispy and full of flavor. Then it’s put through a meat grinder, mixed with salt, pepper and a little lard. This mixture is spread on the dough (contains wheat flour, sour cream, eggs, yeast, sugar and a bit of rum) and folded, then this process is repeated several times. The result is a supremely meaty flavor in every single bite. If you’re into pork or bacon, do yourself a favor and try one. Warm it up if you can. Maybe try them with your morning eggs, a bowl of creamy soup, or alongside a roast chicken and mashed potatoes.

I had dill pogácsa on my last trip to Hungary in the Fall of 2014. It’s freshness and pretty speckled appearance struck me so strongly that it’s been on my list to recre-ate them ever since. The first batch we made at the bakery was received with great enthusiasm. They’re light and buttery and full of fresh dill flavor.

Let us know what you think of them. Pogácsa are avail-able everyday at the Bakehouse. Need a bunch? Call a couple days ahead and we’ll bake some just for you.

We­have­made­some­great­specialty­breads­over­the­years­that­

developed­their­own­small­followings,­so­we­bring­them­back­

for­a­weekend­here­and­there­just­for­fun.­­If­you’re­looking­

for­a­little­adventure­check­out­this­calendar.

Scallion­­Walnut­Bread­­

May 29-30

Chocolate­­Dipped­­

Palmiers­­May 8

Cranberry­Pecan­Bread

May 8-9

Loomis­Bread Cheshire cheese

& red pepper

May 15-16

Potato­Dill­­Bread­­

May 22-23

Blueberry­­Buckle­­

May 22-25

Pumpernickel­Raisin­Bread

June 5-6

Chernushka­Rye­Bread­June 12-13

Bacon­Pecan­Sandy­Cookies­

June 18-21

Peppered­Bacon­Farm­Bread­June 20-21

20% OFFwhole cakes and slices at Zingerman’s Bakehouse and Deli

juneMississippi­­Mud­Pie­An intense brownie-like chocolate cake covered in rich dark choco-late ganache, toasted meringue and a drizzle of chocolate sauce. This cake is best enjoyed at room temperature or even a little warm. Your patience will be rewarded.