01/29/2025 -- Crafting Constructive Frameworks
I want to be honest here: I am devastated and demoralized, too … My heart breaks for the many human beings on the sharp edges of all that is breaking. We’re called to take what is harmful seriously and to care and protect, actively, as much as to calm. — Krista Tippett
Figuring Out How to Craft Constructive Frameworks
Putting those frameworks to work to help work through hard times
Last week I wrote about the concern shared by sociologist Kim Lane Scheppele and Brookings Institution fellow Norman Eisen in the New York Times that we could well be sleepwalking our way into autocracy. As I said then, and will say many times again, I certainly hope we are not. Whether it’s real, or metaphorical in the way Scheppele and Eisen alluded, whether it’s in companies, the country, our personal lives, or any challenge with which we are confronted, most everyone knows that sleepwalking is not desirable. In the metaphorical context, it’s as author Henry Miller once wrote, “Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate, or despise, serves to defeat us in the end.”
This week, for many people I know, the challenge has been pretty much the opposite—after watching current events, even casually, they can’t sleep. Anxiety is keeping them awake. They toss and turn, unable to tune out what they see and hear in the news. In his perhaps appropriately titled for the moment but actually published back in the summer of 1970, Insomnia or the Devil At Large, Henry Miller wonders to himself, “You ask yourself if it might not be possible to make something of your anguish.”
Anguish is, at times, to be honest, how I too have felt as I continued to peek out of the corner of my mental eye at news feeds over the last few days, all the while trying to stay appropriately focused on the work that I have at hand right here. I’m not, I know, alone in this struggle. Seeking a bit of solace I figured I’d phone a good friend. As the conversation commenced, I asked how she was. “Fine,” she answered with a bit of flat energy. She paused then came back with frustration. “No. I’m not fine. I go back and forth between wanting to scream and wanting to cry.”
I can relate. No disrespect to anyone who’s not feeling stressed right now—we each experience the world in our own unique ways, and we are all, always, impacted differently by different things. That said, every human being has hard times. I have friends who, as I write, are dealing with close relatives who have cancer, kids struggling in school, the implications of supporting aging parents. Whatever type of hard times we’re confronted with, I have learned the hard way that neither sleepwalking nor not-sleeping is helpful. I, for one, am working to stay as centered and grounded as I can, through conversation, caring connection, and consistent reflection. And working to figure out how to constructively and effectively go forward as we make our way through the history that we have unfolding around us—history of which we ourselves, consciously or not, are clearly a part. As Henry Miller says in the 1975 documentary, Asleep and Awake, we’re on “a voyage of ideas.”
What follows is my attempt to make something of the anguish I’m experiencing, to steer clear of sleepwalking while still sleeping soundly at night. It’s shared in an effort to rough frame the beginnings of a way to work that might help me turn fear and a frequent desire to flee into something that can help me and maybe you find a constructive way forward. Now is the time to do it. As Henry Miller observes, “Life moves on, whether we act as cowards or heroes. … Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such.”
I’d like to think this is one of those golden moments—a very good time to get going. To help find a positive path through our present-day challenges, as I shared last week, I have been drawing, pretty much daily, on creative business writer Carol Sanford ’s concept of frameworks. As adapted from her inspiring writing, frameworks are intellectual constructs that cause us to take pause and give meaningful consideration to the implications, ethics, and influence on the ecosystems that will be impacted by whatever it is we decide to do. Frameworks, in this context, are constructs for decision-making; they give guidance, but we need to think for ourselves within them to arrive at the answer that’s right for us. The 5 Steps to Handing a Customer Complaint I wrote about a few weeks back would be a wonderful example. Our Visioning work would be another. They get us going in good directions, but they don’t give automatic answers—those need to come from the person who is using them!
As I wrote last week, when we work with them well, effective frameworks increase the odds that everyone in the organization will:
The 30 or so frameworks we already use here in the ZCoB (see last week’s list or email me and I’ll send) are certainly a great start. I realize though that in the spirit of self-development, there’s one that we’re missing. With that sixth characteristic of a good framework in mind, it would be this:
How do we teach everyone we work with to design a framework for themselves?
Being given a good framework to use—as anyone who starts working here this week will do by being taught (over time) the dozens of them we use every day—is a step in the right direction. People benefit in a big way. And all the more so as we try to avoid both getting stuck in anguish and also stay alert as we make our forward. Understanding how to do this, I can see now, is actually a critical life skill.
Fifteen years ago last week, Carol Sanford published a piece detailing the comparative value of using the kind of checklists we are all well familiar with, or, alternatively, opting to put in place and practice with frameworks. Both, Sanford says, have merit, but they accomplish different things and are of value in different places. Mismatching them might well make things worse. Sanford suggests that
Checklists are for pattern following; systemic frameworks are for pattern generating. … When you need innovation, relevance to a present moment or person and when uniqueness is important to offer, none of which can be handled by repeating a pattern, then use a systemic framework. … a Systemic Framework makes possible [what] checklists cannot.
This does not seem to be a time for passively following pre-existing patterns. I doubt I am the only one who has been wondering over the course of the last week something like, “How do we lead our organizations effectively through a time where someone else is leading the country of which we are a part in ways that are antithetical to so many of our deeply held values?” While we can, and here at least will, actively learn from the past, what is playing out in front of us is a whole new situation. Figuring out what to do, and when to do it, is not a no-brainer. Checklists are easy to see, easy to implement, and in the right setting, hugely helpful. There is, however, no checklist that can, on its own, create a healthy organization. That is all the truer as we try to find a way forward in a context we have never before encountered. On the contrary, to do the latter, as Sanford says, we need innovation and relevance to the moment that honors the uniqueness of the situation at hand. And the more effectively we can teach everyone who’s interested in learning how to do that for themselves, the better their lives, and our organizations, are likely to be.
Even if the current moment is not catching you in the same sort of way it has tripped so many of us up here in the ZCoB, you can almost certainly reframe the question above for yourself in ways that will be equally relevant. How does one manage their way through the sort of hard times in which much of the way you’ve lived your life seems, suddenly, to swing around and upside down? The answer I’m going with is what Carol Sanford suggests—find a good framework, or, for that matter, a series of positive frameworks, and use them well. Or, in the context of what I’m writing here, come up with frameworks of your own design that will help you and those around you work your way through hard times of any kind. Done diligently, and with dignity, they might well help us to emerge from the other side of our struggles in good shape, ever truer to ourselves, showing up in the world in the kind of positive and caring way in which we are committed.
While we can't dictate what others are doing around us, Carol Sanford reminds me regularly in her writing that positive change starts in our own heads—the frameworks we work with change the way we interact with the world, and in the process, just might quietly and constructively change the world. Being able to design our own frameworks would be even better still. Henry Miller was well known for creating his construct of 11 rules of writing, They were, as writer Steven Pressfield reminds us, created by Miller, for Miller—it was a framework of his own design that helped him write dozens of books and articles.
My point here is that each of us can learn to create comparable frameworks for ourselves. Doing so will not make all our problems disappear in a day, but it will help us get through more effectively. Sanford writes,
Waking up and developing millions of people to the systemic benefits that can flow from thinking better about how they play their chosen daily roles in society. We make a better world by teaching ordinary people practices for shifting their thinking processes and enabling themselves to show up as parents, employees, citizens, and neighbors in completely new ways.
For me, frameworks provide a structure that can help me understand all of the different dimensions and complexities of whatever I’m working on. Instead of losing myself in the details, I’m able to hold a dynamic image in my mind of the relationships among different, sometimes competing ideas. This allows me to work with the details, in a fluid way, without ever losing my place in the big picture. It is to share these benefits that I offer the frameworks in this book. There are lots of interesting ideas and details to get lost in, but there is always an organizing structure to help you place them in context.
I am realizing now that nearly everyone who is getting to greatness will have created some kind of comparable frameworks for themselves. They don’t just follow others’ lead—like Henry Miller, they make their own way.
Without productive frameworks, I can see now that people fall into familiar and all too often wholly unhelpful patterns. We react, we flail, more often than not, in the long run at least, we fail. Reactivity rarely leads to thoughtful decisions. Feeling uncentered and uncertain, many will look for leaders who tell them what to do, who will suggest that their problems originate elsewhere, that it’s others who need to change or go away altogether. Effective frameworks can help reframe all of that, and then some.
Frameworks won’t win you headlines, but they do work. Speaking of winning, it’s much as Philadelphia Eagles All-Pro center Cam Jurgens said after his team beat Washington Sunday evening, “Emotions don't win games. Talk doesn't win games. Execution does. They had a lot of damn emotion, and they were talking a lot. And we executed and we're going to the Super Bowl.” The Eagles, it seems, steered clear of drama and stuck, one might say, to the football version of a framework, aka, their playbook.
Better frameworks, in sports or simple self-management, guide us to get to better answers and make more creative inquiries. In an article entitled “Systems Frameworks Differentiated,” Sanford warns, “If we do not consciously use frameworks, we will unconsciously use unshared mental models.” Used well, Sanford says, frameworks
Without effective frameworks, Sanford says, the odds are high that we will become
… mechanical adherents to patterns of thinking that are repetitive. Our thoughts do not come from a new process, nor as a result, do we rarely have new ideas, but regurgitated and recycled thoughts we have had for decades, maybe even a lifetime. Even though we think we are choosing a thought, we are spewing the same old thoughts.
Here at Zingerman’s, we are an organization whose work, in pretty much every way, every day, is guided by the effective use of frameworks. In the process, as I wrote last week, we are helping everyone here who is willing to engage with the experience to use their intellectual and emotional skills and to learn to think for themselves. In a setting of this sort, the leader’s role becomes more and more to ask which “recipe” is right for the situation at hand. Which, I realize now, I do rather regularly.
Our frameworks, I can see now in hindsight, are a big part of what helped us get through the pandemic. And they will, again, I’m confident, help keep us going in the right direction in the days, weeks, and months to come. As Henry Miller once wrote, “The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware.” Sure enough, in an organization where frameworks become the norm, people become accustomed to asking themselves, “How should we be thinking about this?” before they actually start trying to come up with answers.
Reflecting further, it’s become clear to me that while being given a great framework is a good thing, teaching people to design a framework for themselves would be even better still. It’s an approach that’s based, Carol Sanford says, on “believing humans can develop and change, even becoming someone quite different.” If, as I wrote last week, frameworks “teach a person to fish” rather than the typical command and control approach to following orders that merely “brings them a fish.” then knowing how to create a helpful and appropriate framework of your own design is like learning how to build the boat that will carry fisherfolk out to sea. Framework design may not be a quick skill to learn, but it makes an almost magical difference.
Not all leaders, I know, will want to fill their day in this way. Frameworks of this sort—the kind that encourages everyone in organizations to think freely and independently for themselves—are frowned upon in many more hierarchically-minded companies. Journalist Stephanie Ruhle shared her perspective last week on why so many BIG business leaders are landing as they have of late on national affairs: “There are a lot of business leaders right now that are saying ‘I'm done ruling by committee. I'm the boss. I'm gonna get to decide.’” It’s scary, but at the same time, her statement made me smile. As has so often been the case, our work here in the ZCoB is going completely against the current of the big business world.
What then, I’ve been wondering, is a framework for figuring out an effective framework? I’ll offer two different, though not conflicting, suggestions. The first we could call “Six Characteristics of a Constructive Framework.” I’m still working on it but … for the moment, here you go. Try it out and tell me what you learn! An effective framework in our world at work (or, for that matter, anywhere you want to use it), will:
An alternative approach to effective framework design is to do it through the lens of dignity. Dignity has, as you likely well know, been front of mind for me for the last few years, ever since Russia invaded Ukraine in the third week of February 2022. And even more meaningfully so since the pamphlet “A Revolution of Dignity in the Twenty-First Century Workplace” came back from the printer last spring. In the pamphlet, I detailed six elements of dignity. I have been working to practice each of them, all day, every day, ever since. I fall short regularly, of course, but when I do, the framework gives me something to fall back on.
In this sense, it strikes me—ask again in a year or so and I’ll answer with far more certainty—that the six elements of dignity also offer a master framework, a recipe to work with that allows anyone to create constructive and effective frameworks of their own. As Carol Sanford shows over and over again in her writing, people who are becoming themselves, people who are engaging with their essence, stop seeking out authoritarians who will take charge and tell them what to do. Those who can help design and use? effective frameworks, by contrast, are far more likely to reflect, collaborate, and create.
To test the two frameworks, I tried crosschecking each against the other; best I can tell, both passed the test. Try either or both for yourself—I’m curious to hear what you come up with, so email me any time.
The shifts this commitment to creating and using frameworks like this can lead to are significant. Carol Sanford says that when we do this work well, we can
Create a society that works effectively … For society to work effectively each of us must cultivate a strong sense of personal responsibility of the impact of our own actions on the world. We must learn to feel our connection to all other people and understand that our lives are interdependent. …
Second, to achieve full human potential … Policy, governance and economic structures and systems can be evolved only if we develop people with the capacity to be whole by achieving potential. …
Third, to accept our instrumental role in regenerating ecosystems. … which rests on working societies and development of the full potential of every living person.
All three, I can see, are supported by designing and using healthy frameworks in our workplaces. People can better become themselves, learn to think caringly and creatively, do better work, and help make sounder societies. When all this works well, I imagine each of us can arrive at a place where we feel centered, honored, and engaged with emerging essence. Where we know ourselves, and have found and/or created frameworks that help us move effectively forward, no matter what is happening around us. In hard times, dealing with anguish, pain, and uncertainty, singing, so to speak, the blues, well-designed and diligently practiced frameworks can help us hold course when others cannot.
I’m going to close with a story from an unlikely source. It’s about the blues musician, Son House. Born in the middle of March 1902, historian Jeff Droke says that House “helped lay out the framework for the music that would become known as The Delta Blues.” That framework served him well. Son House stayed true to the roots of the blues but found his own unique way to play slide guitar (using a copper ring or pipe to play with) and became the remarkable blues musician he was.
As effective frameworks are wont to do, for Son House, the blues offered a deep dive into context and culture. Those who are looking only for superficial solutions don’t get it. “White folks,” House said, “hear the blues come out, but they don’t know how it got there.” For him, the blues were never formulaic; they were a framework for soulful, creative expression of anguish and struggle. In the context of what I’m writing here, I consider this quote from House to be an early allusion to one of the big benefits of using a good framework, and perhaps a good warning for what we see and hear happening around us today: “Folks talk too fast, and don't understand what they talkin’ about.”
While his life was never easy, Son House seems to have used the framework of the blues to hold course. As House famously said, “The blues is not a plaything like some people think they are.” Rather, they are a philosophical framework expressed in a magical, musical form. Dick Waterman, who would become House’s manager later in life, said that House’s music was always
… built solidly within the framework that the song allows, without involving either stale clichés on the one hand or mere flash on the other—for all their thunder! Son House also had an uncanny sense of how to best accompany his voice with the slide guitar—driving the vocal forward or giving it an aching poignancy or eerie desperation.
The framework that he had himself created was a big part of what made that music possible for Son House. The blues were all about embracing pain and anguish and then sharing that hurt constructively with the world. Instead of sleepwalking, Son House had the courage to sing.
Great as he was, by the time he was 60, having struggled to make a living from his music as a Black performer in the era of segregation, Son House had given up his guitar and was?working as a railroad porter and dining car chef in Rochester, New York. Happily, Son House’s story did not end there. You can, it turns out, come back even when the present and the future both look rather grim. In the summer of 1964, three young blues fans, having traveled halfway across the county and back again, went to the apartment building where they’d been told Son House might be living. Sure enough, he was there. Having found House, the blues community set out to support him. A young guitarist named Alan Wilson also came to see House. He played some of House’s old recordings for him and in the process, brought him back to the blues framework that House had helped to create so many years earlier.
Recentering within himself, Son House, the musician, made his way back. Five years later Son House made the trip here to Ann Arbor where, on the first weekend of August in 1969, he joined a host of other great musicians to play at the first-ever Ann Arbor Blues Festival . Though the event got far less attention than Woodstock—which was held two weeks hence—many musical historians have said the Blues Fest was actually far more important. It was held at what was then called Fuller Field, which locals now know as Huron High School. Son House closed the second day of the Festival on Saturday evening, then played a second set on Sunday, right after Mississippi Fred McDowell and before the Festival’s final act, T-Bone Walker. House continued to perform almost up until his death in Detroit in the fall of 1988. In a sense, he lived out his own wise words: “A man’s mind, you know it has a lot to do with him; you can knock yourself out with it but you can do what you think you can do and what you’re determined to do.” Good frameworks help make that happen.
Son House, Henry Miller, and Carol Sanford have all passed on, but each of them, in their time on the planet, found frameworks to guide them through hard times, stayed focused on their dreams, and did their work ever more meaningfully for many decades. None were sleepwalking, none of them gave up or succumbed to their own anguish. Each was making art well into their 80s. Each found ways to stay true to their values in the face of adversity. None of the three, to my knowledge, ever met the others personally, but in their own uniquely creative ways, their worldviews seem to come together at what, in a blues-centric way, we could call the crossroads. Each, over the course of their long and impactful lives, developed frameworks for themselves that played a big part in making them who we now know them to be.
The 3rd on Henry Miller’s list of writing tips seems a sound thought to keep in mind as we work to move through the challenges we face in the moment: “Don’t be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.”
Writing in The Atlantic last week, Executive Editor Adrienne LaFrance advised that “Capitulation Is contagious. When fear spreads in a society, powerful people who know better are often the first to show their weakness.” Frameworks can help us keep from falling into that unsavory scenario. While the news may be mostly negative, we can design and use frameworks that help keep us going in the right direction no matter what others may appear to be doing around us. As LaFrance lays out, “For every powerful person who capitulates, there are among us many more who … are willing to act on their principles.”
Frameworks can help the latter become a reality. When we use them well, they make real Henry Miller’s framing of life: “One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.”
I hope, from the heart, that this sort of thinking can help anyone who is interested in making that happen. Get some sleep, stay centered, play some blues, start making frameworks, and keep making good things happen.
P.S. Thinking of frameworks, Gareth Higgins and I will share some of our insight and experiences at ZingTrain on March 6 and 7 in the two-day seminar, Reframing Your Leadership Stories and Beliefs. We will work through a pair of powerfully impactful frameworks—Gareth’s work with “The Seventh Story” and my own decade-long study of beliefs. This work changed my life, and it just might change yours. Hope to see you there!
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P.P.S. The previous week, Princeton poet and Zingerman’s alum, Michael Dickman will offer a whole set of insights that could be incredibly helpful to any of us looking for ways to navigate the world. Michael and I have been in a mind-opening conversation about a Poetic Approach to Leadership. His book event at the Roadhouse on Tuesday, February 25 will share all that plus a host of other poetic insights from this nationally known and wonderfully wise poet. We all need all the help we can get right now, and poetry can help us be better leaders, live better lives, and experience the world in far more interesting ways. I smile now thinking about this line from poet Nikki Giovanni: “Poets have always had important roles to share in public life. Unlike politicians, we tell the truth.”
Bring the Magic of Chettinad Curry Blend into Your Kitchen
Iconic flavors from a little-known region of India
If you’re into ennui, if you’re fascinated by historical fiction, and if you love to cook and eat amazing food, then this curry could well be for you! Like most of our spices, it comes to us courtesy of the spice-trekking de Vienne family up in Montreal. As always, they’ve delivered us something special and especially excellent.
The city of Chettinad in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu has one of the subcontinent’s most prestigious cuisines. The region also has one of the most interesting histories. While Chettinad is inland, the Chettiar people trace their origins back to the east coast of India. Savvy traders, the Chettiars worked the waterways all over the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia. Story has it that centuries ago, the entire tribe picked up and moved inland after a terrific typhoon tore apart their original homeland. They brought their cooking traditions with them and also their trading wealth. In Chettinad, they used their financial resources to build beautiful mansions, many of which still stand but are now abandoned. The ghosts of economic greatness past probably still walk the halls of those once grand homes and dine at their majestic tables, but the money they paid for construction has long since passed on. The mansions remain majestic, but many are empty, sad shrines to an earlier era of economic wealth.
While the riches of the Chettinad past have mostly eroded, the culinary and cultural richness that came with them continue on apace. This curry blend is lovely for both its aromas and flavors. It’s made with a mix of chilis, dried coriander, cumin seed, fennel seed, black pepper, cassia, turmeric, red ginger, cardamom, clove, mace, and star anise. It’s complex, and also compelling; just a touch of heat but mostly it’s about depth of flavor. The most famous dish to make with it would be a Chettinad Chicken Curry—grind a good bit of the curry mix and some sea salt, and then marinate pieces of fresh chicken with the spices and some chopped fresh garlic. Sauté a good amount of thinly sliced onion and/or shallots until lightly browned. Add the chicken pieces and brown them. Add some diced tomato and cook a bit to soften. Add the spice mix and then add some broth. Simmer until the sauce reduces and the chicken is cooked through and tender. Add some coconut milk and a bit of fresh chopped cilantro. Serve with rice and enjoy!
Of course, you can also use this curry mix with most anything else you like—fish, pork, prawns. It’s not very hot, but its very full flavor is pretty much delicious with any other ingredients! Substitute peeled, hard-boiled eggs for the chicken above and you’ll have an excellent egg curry. Great on potatoes or cauliflower (or both together) too! For a taste of a region of India that’s little known in North America other than by the Indian community, pick up this terrific blend!
Cooperatively Grown Super Smooth Brew from Chiapas
Sustainably grown Mexican coffee takes the cake!
Of all the coffee-producing countries on the planet, Mexico has historically gotten maybe some of the least attention. Like many things in the world, it’s time to reverse those historical trends and go in a healthier direction. If you want a super smooth, sweet, delicious, sustainably grown in a cooperative context, mouth-wateringly memorable cup of coffee make the move to choose this Mexican Chiapas next time you’re in. Seriously, it’s remarkable in a wide range of ways.
Coffee first came to Mexico in the late 18th century, around the time of the American Revolution. It was of course a colonial crop; most of the work was done by Indigenous peoples while the wealth went to a small number of Europeans. German planters increased the amount of acreage under coffee significantly, but at the time most, sadly, was grown in unsustainable mono-cropped settings. Early 20th-century land reforms, the Mexican Revolution, the Zapatista uprisings helped to shift focus back toward indigenous farmers and more equitably organized and collaboratively grown coffee in the region. The now well-known café de olla (coffee prepared in a clay pot with piloncillo brown sugar and cinnamon), is said to date from the years of the Zapatista Revolution from 1910-17. Give some thought to preparing some at home. You don’t need a clay pot to make it and it is a wonderful way to serve coffee when company is coming over in large numbers.
The high-quality Chiapas coffee we’re getting comes from a coop of small producers—nearly 900 of them—that is called Community Context. The coop was first founded in the fall of 2015, on November 18th, the anniversary of the Mexican Revolution. The farms can all be found close to the town of La Concordia in Chiapas. They are growing nearly 1000 hectares, most at about an altitude of 1500 meters above sea level. It’s a washed coffee, meaning that the fruit pulp is actively rinsed off with water. The process enhances the coffee’s light, clean, clean complex flavor. The flavor is sweet, full, hinting of maybe nutmeg and mace, and, as Steve Mangigian , the Coffee Company’s managing partner says, very cinnamony. While it was really good coming out of the batch-brew urn, it was really amazing as an AeroPress and super tasty in a Siphon brew. My favorite of all though was the espresso—in that form, the Chiapas coffee’s sweetness came through beautifully. Lovely light finish, and lots of complexity! Sustainably produced in its ecosystem and eminently sippable at the same time.
True North Bread from the Bakehouse
True wheat, fresh milling, marvelous flavor!
In the spirit of art—and craft—making a meaningful difference over time, the commitment to this bread by everyone at the Bakehouse over the last ten years or so is helping to encourage Michigan grain growers to go back to old varieties, to explore organic farming, to restore a healthier, less erratic way of working together that energizes instead of exhausts. It’s become one of my favorites, especially when I grab a particularly dark-crusted loaf not long after it comes out of the ovens at the Bakehouse in the late afternoon.
In many ways, the True North is an effort to go back to what the best artisan breads might have tasted like had they been baked in a local farmhouse kitchen a century ago. This naturally-leavened whole grain bread is pretty much “pure Michigan”—only the sea salt is imported (from Sicily). It’s terrific today in 2025, but an American bread aficionado in 1875 would almost certainly have sung its praises too.
The True North is made from wheat we get from Janie's Mill in Illinois. Their stone-ground milling process leaves 80% of the wheat kernel—the bran, endosperm, and germ in the flour for great flavor, texture, and nutrition. Frank Carollo, now retired managing partner at the Bakehouse, says, “It’s the most wheaty-tasting bread we bake. All Michigan hard red spring wheat—milled in Traverse City—is now grown in Eaton Rapids, Michigan.
True North bread is terrific for toast and it’s great for a grilled cheese. I’ve also been using it to make one of the best club sandwiches you’ll have: Smoked chicken from those terrific pit-smoked chickens from the Roadhouse, on toasted True North, spread with a good bit of mayo, pile on some nice large pieces of the smoked chicken, and add some lettuce and tomato. Great too with some good bacon. And/or avocado. Don't forget to add sea salt and fresh pepper to the whole thing! Super good. The True North bread is also a great pairing with the Emmental Reserve I wrote about a few weeks ago, maybe even better still if you spread the bread with a bit of the Vermont Creamery Cultured Butter.
Co-managing partner Amy Emberling conveyed her enthusiasm for the True North the other day: “It’s my go-to bread! Mild amount of sour, great moisture in the crumb, elevated flavor from the 80% extraction flour.” The loaves with the darker crusts are, without question, my favorites—the Maillard effect caramelizes the natural sugars in the grain and makes for I believe the most balanced, complex, and compelling flavors. If you haven’t yet tried the True North, now could well be the time to swing by and get a sample!
PS: If you’re baking at home, the recipe for True North is in the wonderful Zingerman’s Bakehouse cookbook.
Wowza Bars from the Candy Manufactory
20 years of eliciting wows from candy bar lovers
This year will go down in history for any number of events, but few, I’m guessing will take note that it’s the twentieth anniversary of this special artisan candy bar! The Wowza? was the third candy bar we created, following in the confectionery footsteps of the original Zzang!? and Cashew Cow, the second of the now six artisan candy bars to come online.
This quietly compelling handcrafted bar from the Candy Manufactory is in fact pretty darned fabulous. You can find Wowza bars at the Candy Store, the Deli, Roadhouse, and Bakehouse, and, if you’re like a lot of candy lovers around town, at your house pretty regularly too. We’re happy to ship you some anywhere in the U.S. as well. If you’re one of the many folks who’s exceptionally fond of the combination of dark chocolate and fruit, you’ll want to find a way to work one of these Wowza bars into your day!
The bars begin with a raspberry dark chocolate ganache made with fresh local cream and also with the seedless red raspberry preserves from Clearbrook Farm out in Oregon. On the inside, you’ll find this creamy-on-the-tongue, smooth raspberry nougat that gets gently whipped by the Candy Manufactory crew into what they like to call “fluffy, gooey gloriousness.” It gets a layer of raspberry preserves and then the whole thing is enrobed with more dark chocolate.
Like all the bars from the Candy Manufactory, the Wowzas offer us a chance to experience what fresh candy is all about—when you’re eating something that wasn’t made twelve or fifteen months earlier, you really can taste the difference!!
I discovered the other morning that the Wowza is the favorite of Grace Singleton , long-time co-managing partner at the Deli. Here’s what she has to say about it:
The Wowza has that exceptional thick coating of dark chocolate that encases layers of marshmallow and raspberry. The sugar will crystallize just a little where the layers meet, providing a slightly crunchy texture, and the fruit flavor with the fluffy filling is such a great contrast with the dark chocolate shell. The raspberry flavor is bold and bright and makes me smile.
Other Things on My Mind
Listening
Art Bouman is a remarkable African Nova Scotian musician. His new album Simple Songs for Trying Times, was released last week. A caring creative 21st-century artist working beautifully in the tradition of Son House, but his own musical stamp shows up through the new record. In the context of frameworks, the African Nova Scotia Affairs dept of the provincial government says,
For Art the inspiration for a creative project or piece of writing comes out of this desire to understand and connect with what may seem different. He hopes that the viewer can walk away, seeing a perspective that they have either not fully understood or ever thought about.
The title of Bouman's new album?alone tells the story—if you’re singing the blues these days, and even if you’re doing fine and just like to listen to “country blues” like this, check out Bouman’s beautiful new record!
Reading
The book Mongolia Dub Journey by Amastra, Dubzaine, and Prasonik just came out last month. Like all of their work, it is a remarkable, one-of-a-kind collection of progressive thinking, musical frameworks, anarchist philosophy, and beautiful photos. It will not make the New York Times bestseller list, but I wish it would—the book is an amazing collection of alternative voices, constructive, conversation-starting ideas, incredible photos, poems, and more. All of which we need now more than ever, as we work through whatever the world is presenting us with.
Photo credits: Sean Carter /Zingerman's Delicatessen, Corynn Coscia /Zingerman's Bakehouse
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- Ari
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