People are increasingly interested in understanding what the future will bring. … They want to act so that the future will have the quality they desire, rather than react to trends they deem negative or destructive.

—Ron Lippitt and Jon Van Till
 

A New Year’s Invitation
to Vision Out a Positive Picture of 2023

Insights about visioning
from an Indigenous Canadian architect

Early 20th-century poet and pacifist Edith Lovejoy Pierce (who lived in Evanston, Illinois—not far from where I went to high school), commenting on the first few days of a new calendar year, wrote, “We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.” With Pierce’s poetic charge in mind, I was reminded last week that, although there’s never a bad time to write a vision, the start of a new calendar year could be, for some folks, an inspiration to get going. 

If you’ve been considering the concept, you could decide to carve out a small window of alone time this week and proactively put pen to paper (or type it out if that’s your preference) as Pierce has encouraged us to do. In about the same time as it takes to come up with a list of (infrequently kept) New Year’s resolutions, you could kick 2023 off by crafting a vision. I am not exaggerating when I say that an investment of 30 to 60 minutes would likely give you a great first draft of a creative, inspiring, and compelling story of your future. It might be a vision for yourself for the year to come; the beginnings of a vision for your organization, your family, a non-profit you’re a part of; or a personal long-term vision for your life. As I’ve learned repeatedly over the years, the downside is nearly nil. The only risk, really, is that you might gain great clarity on what you, in your heart, really would like your life to be like.

I’ve shared the details of how to write a vision extensively in the various books and pamphlets I’ve written over the years. There are four essays on visioning in Part 1, one each in Parts 3 and 4, and a mess of new material in the relatively recently released “The Story of Visioning at Zingerman’s: Four Visions, Forty Years, and a Positive Look Towards the Future.” We’ve also put together a Visioning Pamphlet Bundle that includes all the relevant writing. ZingTrain teaches a terrific two-day seminar on the subject and there’s also a two-hour online class coming up soon as well. The actual how-to for vision writing is in Secret #9. If you know visioning well already, you’re likely already onboard with the concept. If you’ve never experienced it, perhaps what follows will intrigue, or maybe inspire, you. I’m not big on hyperbole, but I’ve learned over the years that … in a very practical, day-to-day, down-to-earth way ... visioning changes everything. 

If, as I believe, a big part of our responsiblity as leaders is to help everyone in our organization to get to greatness—which I’ve written about in the work on the revolution of dignity and also in the details of our long-time approach to Servant Leadership—then a big part of our work is to get more of the folks around us to take time out to write a vision of their own. Over the years I’ve come to see part of my own vocation much as architect Douglas Cardinal sees his: “My job is to bring people’s visions into reality. You work with people, and you help bring their vision into reality. It’s not about my vision. It’s about the people I serve.” Writing this essay is, for me, one more small piece of helping to make that happen. If you want to give a great gift to someone you care about, sharing the knowledge of how to write a vision, and the encouragement to sit down and do one, could be the best gift ever! 

Few Americans outside his field will probably have heard of Douglas Cardinal. I stumbled on his work last year while reading the inspiring and insightful book, Indigenous & Black WisDub: A Soundbook and Soundtrack for Critical and Creative Resistance by Ebilitoh and Dubzaine. (They have a wealth of wonderful new work—both musical and written—out as well. I’ve ordered it all. I encourage you to do the same!) I looked Douglas Cardinal up for the first time last year, and I’ve been looking at and learning from his work ever since. 

Cardinal is a fascinating man, often described as a “visionary indigenous Canadian architect,” and a long-time practitioner of what he calls “organic architecture.” Born in 1934 in Calgary in western Canada, both of Cardinal’s parents were Metis, a mixed heritage of native Blackfoot people and European ancestry. As others of similar backgrounds experienced in Canada, Cardinal had a rough childhood ride in an era he describes as being rife with “apartheid divides” between its Native and European immigrant populations. “In many cases,” he says, “if you’re mixed you don’t even belong in either society. I grew up in a very racist society. … You’re ridiculed and humiliated every day.” University of Toronto architect Larry Richards, former dean of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, writes that “Cardinal has existed, for better or worse, in this kind of marginalized realm. I think Douglas Cardinal is, by both life circumstances and choice, an outsider, and that this explains a lot about him.” 

After growing up in Calgary, Cardinal went further west in Canada to attend architecture school at the University of British Columbia, but was gently booted for refusing to conform to the commonly accepted design norms of the era. He transferred to the University of Texas in Austin (“... as far from Canada as I could get without having to speak Spanish”) where he earned his degree in 1963. Larry Richards describes him as being, “notoriously uncompromising. … He just wants to make beautiful buildings. He wants to be the artist’s architect.” While in Austin, Cardinal was also energized by the Civil Rights work of the ‘60s. Now, nearing 90, Cardinal remains very active in advocating for Aboriginal rights, including leading the work to repeal the Indian Act of Canada (passed in 1876) and getting the (then) “Cleveland Indians” to change their team name and logo. As an architect, Cardinal is best known for his design of the Canadian Museum of History on the outskirts of Ottawa, and the National Museum of the American Indian on the Mall in Washington, D.C. A few years ago, the Huffington Post honored the Museum of History as one of the ten most beautiful buildings in the world!

Cardinal has clearly pushed the bounds of architectural orthodoxy. He’s also a terrific storyteller. To add to his impact, when he speaks he holds a black feather, explaining, “Elders told me to take it with me and remind me that I have to speak from my heart.” He speaks gently, but with great passion as he shares his beliefs and experiences. A few years ago, McGill University student Nelly Wat wrote,

I entered a packed lecture hall in Macdonald Harrington, eager to see the architect whose work had initially drawn me towards architecture at a young age. … That night, Douglas Cardinal challenged and upended the axioms and conventions on which I had built up my knowledge of architecture. 

Last week I wrote a bunch about the power and importance of Natural Law #4—“People do their best work when they’re part of a really great organization.” Looking back up to the beginning of the list, Natural Law #1 says, “An inspiring, strategically sound vision leads the way to greatness (especially if you write it down!).” As I shared in “The Story of Visioning,” we learned the process from Stas’ Kazmierski, an organizational change expert, here in Ann Arbor, who had been taught by Ron Lippitt, a pioneering social psychologist. Seeing so many parallels between what we learned about visioning from Ron and Stas’, and what Douglas Cardinal has come up with in a totally different part of the work world, is an inspiring thing to witness. Cardinal and Lippitt were born within a few years of each other (Lippitt was four years younger) but they never crossed paths, and they worked in wholly different professions. And yet, this statement from Douglas Cardinal could easily be used to describe the collaborative way we do organizational visioning here at Zingerman’s:

Bringing together all the stakeholders of a project, and through consensus developing a vision that speaks to their very core, not only connects the people developing the vision, but it creates a vision that enrolls all the people necessary to bring that vision into reality.

Stas’ taught us 30 years ago to see vision, metaphorically, as the inspirational, purpose-driven “cathedral” we are coming together to build. Rather than just having a “job” where one does work that’s seemingly unrelated to anything other than getting paid, the image of “building together” is a way to show, and tell, how we are all working to collaboratively construct something far greater than each of us can do on our own. With that in mind, architectural design seems an appropriate area of study from which we might learn. In “The Story of Visioning,” I drew a lot from the creative work of the Austrian-born architect and author Christopher Alexander. Born two years after Douglas Cardinal, Alexander was far better known, in great part for his books: A Timeless Way of Building and A Pattern Language. Alexander passed away last March at the age of 85, but his compatriot in independent design thinking, Douglas Cardinal, carries on. The creative thinking of both men offers insight to anyone who’s considering writing a vision.

Vision has been an integral component of Cardinal’s approach for over half a century now, in ways that remarkably parallel what we do and teach here at Zingerman’s. On his website, it states:

Douglas Cardinal is one of the visionaries of a new world; a world where beauty, balance and harmony thrive, where client, architect, and stakeholder build together with a common vision.

As an architect, Douglas Cardinal has created a practice where he brings clients’ visions into reality. Douglas believes we humans have a responsibility to our gift of creativity, and that with our wills connected, we can create anything. To make this happen, Douglas Cardinal’s unique architectural process starts with a Vision Session. … his buildings are designed with a soul, which is found in the intentions and the deepest hopes and desires of all stakeholders. … The architect gives shape to and coordinates the intricacies of the clients' visions for a building. … There is no end to our capability to create that which is envisioned.

His work, which draws deeply on Indigenous wisdom and Cardinal’s own creative intuition, can act as an inspiration for anyone who’s interested in engaging with visioning. As we start the new year of 2023, I am looking to Cardinal’s nearly 90 years of life experience to guide my own continued learning on the subject. Here are eight lessons about visioning that have been inspiringly reinforced by studying his work: 

1. Work in harmony with our natural environment. So much of the Industrial Revolution has been based on imposing man-made plans, all too often inappropriately and inelegantly, on the planet. What’s actually appropriate for a setting quickly becomes a distant second to what can be appropriated; later, we all pay the price. Douglas Cardinal, by contrast, made his career by designing with nature in mind. Cardinal’s upbringing, trapping and fishing with his father in the wilds of western Canada, clearly had a big, positive impact: “I still remember how important it was to work in harmony with nature, and understand nature and be a part of nature.” He has long been a leader in work with sustainability and ecological design. The website “Unceded: Voices of the Land” says, 

Douglas Cardinal’s life is dedicated to creating beautiful, thriving, and harmoniously built environments. [His] architecture springs from his observation of nature and its understanding that everything works seamlessly together. … His architecture springs from his observation of Nature and its understanding that everything works seamlessly together.

While some experience this alignment with the ecosystem as limiting, Cardinal sees it as an inviting way to create. Nature, he says, “has an infinite variety of solutions.” He’s always thought of himself “as an organic architect that emphasized the beauty and vitality and richness of nature.” The inside of the Canadian Museum of History is modeled after the way the Ottawa River runs through the capital city. In the spirit of what I wrote last week about Natural Law #4, Cardinal makes the point that “You can shape your environment, but in turn it shapes you.” We are all producing, and at the same time, products of the place in which we are actively present. Writing a vision is a wonderful way to actively get clear on what kind of future we want for our ecosystem. 

2. Live artfully. In the spirit of “The Art of Business” pamphlet, I feel deeply aligned with Douglas Cardinal’s way of creating:

Architecture to me is a form of art, inspired by forces of nature, respecting the environment and people that the architect is serving. I see architecture as art because I want it to uplift peoples’ spirits. When you walk into it you should feel a part of it and it should uplift your spirit, like all art does. 

This is also how I’ve come to experience visioning. It’s a way to put our art and beauty out into the world, first by writing the words from the heart, then actively sharing them with others who will be impacted, and then by doing the work it takes to turn them into a reality. Cardinal says, “There is so much ugliness in what we’ve designed in the modern world. …We have the responsibility of making something better. … It has to be beautiful.”

3. Own our lives. This is the phrase spoken by my late friend Daphne Zepos (see the Epilogue of Part 3 for much more on Daphne, loss, life, and friendship). It’s a way to advocate for authenticity, to become the unique creative personality we were born to be. The concept is also, very clearly, what Douglas Cardinal’s life and work have been about. Cardinal explains, “In indigenous thinking, art is always there. The artist’s job is to bring it out. …The building is already in there. It just happens to be in the future … you just have to unconceal it.” You can feel the difference when we’re acting authentically, as opposed to trying to live the life others—our parents, our professors, our peers—have designed for us. Cardinal says, “When you put your heart and soul into what you’re doing, the space emanates that. … People feel it when they go into the building.” 

You can feel it, too, in Cardinal’s personal presence. In the spirit of much of what I wrote a few weeks ago about vocation, Cardinal, now 88 years old, says, “I’m still having a good time. I still want to change the world.” 

4. Don't get stuck in the boxes of others’ designs. Visioning, as Douglas Cardinal clearly has done for decades, is one of the best ways I’ve ever learned to leave the little boxes behind and create a meaningful life of our own. We can write our story as we want. It’s our life—we can do it in the way that works for us and the world around us.

Cardinal was once kicked out of architecture school for not wanting to straighten out the curved lines he was then—and now—using as he drew out his designs. Seventy years later, Cardinal’s “signature style of harmonious curvilinear forms” is evident in all his buildings. Check out his first big commission, the incredible St. Mary’s Church on the outskirts of Red Deer, Alberta, that he created back in 1968. Of the more common Western way of designing buildings with straight lines, Cardinal says: 

Today’s “box” buildings have a demeaning effect. … they come not from creativity, but from a preconceived idea. They say they have to be functional, but they’re not functional because we human beings are much more complex creatures than to be shoved in a box. … The only place for people in boxes is when you put them in the ground. 

5. Focus on purpose more than polish. A vision, I’ve learned over the years, is not about fancily packaged Powerpoint slides. Instead, it’s a heartfelt description of our dreams, a blend of the inspiring and the strategically sound. Anishnawbe Health board president Jacques Huot, who once hired Cardinal to design a new clinic, shared that “When Douglas presented his concept, it was … a shaky, hand-drafted, hand-sketched thing … but you could really feel it, you could really sense it.” A great vision can be super simple in its language. Spirit matters more than style points, so the focus is getting our dreams down on paper, not getting the grammar right as we write. I encourage folks to start with the letters D-R-A-F-T at the top. Passion is far more important in this work than winning a Pulitzer Prize.

6. The vision is “what the future will look like,” not a detailed action plan. Visioning is about getting clear on where we’re going before we start mapping out our road map. In Douglas Cardinal’s line of work, a vision could be akin to architectural drawings. Figuring out how we actually go about “building” what we’ve envisioned, we teach and Cardinal affirms, can be figured out later:

I design from the inside out, open to all possibilities. If you make a real commitment, the right people will show up to make it happen. The universe shifts a bit because you create the possibilities to occur. Human beings are incredibly creative and they can almost always find solutions.

This way of working often leads us to creative innovations. In Cardinal’s case, it guided him to become one of the first in his field to use computers for design. When he took the plans for St. Mary’s Catholic Church to mathematicians in the late ’60s, they told him it would take seven experts a hundred years to figure out all the calculations needed to actually construct the curved walls Cardinal had designed. Undeterred, Cardinal found a computer in Chicago. It was, as Cardinal says, the size of a refrigerator, and it cost $250,000. He spent the money, and the church was built, on time and under budget.

7. Inclusive visioning is most effective. As per what we teach and do at Zingerman’s, Cardinal advocates for involving people from many levels of a project in the vision. He says, “Top down doesn’t work well.” As we do here, he actively works to gather input from a wide circle. “We try to help people understand we want you to improve the vision through feedback.” ​​He also draws on diversity: “When you work with different people and different cultures, you learn so much. We have so much creativity in each of our cultures. It’s wonderful to learn from different people!”

8. Create positive legacy. In Anishinaabe tradition, Cardinal reminds us, “You affect people for seven generations. Every decision you make … you affect the future, seven generations. I think the Indigenous culture teaches you responsibility.” When we reach our vision for Zingerman’s for 2032, we will be hitting the half-century mark in an industry in which something like 80-plus percent go under in the first 18 months. With the succession work that we are actively engaged in (stay tuned for more on perpetual trusts early in the new year), I hope that we are setting things up for the following 50 years, too.

Douglas Cardinal clearly has a long-term vision of himself as an architect and designer. As he says, “Working with people is a spiritual journey. Knowing that we shape our environments and our environments shape us … What kind of environment do we want to create? … A building should be nurturing and protect the people within.” And this, I believe, is exactly what we want our organizational visions to do. 

Shifting focus for a minute from Canada down to North Carolina … Joseph Decosimo is an amazing musician—playing, picking, and singing traditional Appalachian tunes and his own modern versions of the same. Like Douglas Cardinal’s work, Decosimo pulls from the past to make for a creative present and positive future. Joseph explains the vision behind the way he’s put together his new album: “When the old ballad singers sang, they believed in the worlds that they sang about. You can feel it.” The fourth cut on the album is entitled “Trouble”:

It’s trouble, trouble. There’s trouble everywhere.

Trouble, trouble. There’s trouble everywhere. 

Trouble, trouble, there’s trouble all around.

But Lord, Lord, trouble can’t last always.

I am so glad that trouble can’t last always.

I am so glad that trouble won’t last always.

Aren’t you so glad that trouble can’t last always?

Writing a vision won’t make all our troubles disappear in a day. But it is a positive start—a start that’s loaded with possibility, and that brings with it a wealth of practical benefits. You can see the proof of concept in the designs that Douglas Cardinal has done, in the work of so many who have learned the process here at Zingerman’s and put it to work in their own worlds, and, I hope, also here in the ZCoB itself. As our amazing Canadian spice merchant Philippe de Vienne says: “If the circle of your vision is wide enough, anything is possible.”

Ron Lippitt, the man whose pioneering work at the Institute of Social Research (a few miles from where I’m sitting right now) provided the insight that has made our approach to visioning what it is, was born in 1938—a few years after Douglas Cardinal came into the world in Calgary. In the summer of 1981, six months before Paul and I opened the Deli’s doors for the first time, Lippitt and Jon van Till wrote in the article “Can We Achieve a Collaborative Community?”:

Collaboration begins with a dream or a vision or a fantasy or an idea—about how the world would be better … Without that vision, nurtured and articulated by someone somewhere in an organizational world of action, no collaboration will emerge. … If the vision can be communicated, and then shared, the collaborative venture has been successfully initiated.

What we can create using it can change the world, slowly, from the ground up, in ways that are aligned with so many of Douglas Cardinal’s creative, organic, and thoughtful approaches. Two years ago next month we rolled out our 2032 Vision for Zingerman’s. Time will tell what we achieve. But I believe, as Cardinal says,

This will be that magnificent platform in which people will launch better-found futures … We’re going to build the most beautiful building. It is going to be a place of enormous celebration of the most amazing community of people.

Thank you for being part of that community. Happy New Year to all! Here’s to good things to come in 2023!

Want to learn more about our approach to Visioning? ZingTrain’s Annual Seminar Sale is still on, through January 6.  Buy now, learn later, change lives! 

If you want to gift everyone around you a pamphlet on visioning, email us for pricing on quantity purchases. 

PS. If you’re intrigued and/or inspired by visioning, don’t miss the link to the film clip in the piece on Shawn Askonosie’s chocolate below!

Stas’ Pierogi Plate
at the Roadhouse

Polish comfort food in honor of the man
who taught us to vision

When I think about vision, as I wrote in “The Story of Visioning,” I think about Stas’ (pronounced “Stosh”) Kazmierski. Which is (along with the fact they’re terrific) why I’m thinking and writing about the delicious Polish pierogi that are on the specials list at the Roadhouse this week. 

Polish settlers started arriving in the North American colonies in the late 16th century. Two of the early immigrants—Casimir Pulaski and Tadeusz Kościuszko—led Revolutionary War armies. Michigan has the third largest Polish population in the U.S. (after Illinois and New York), so it’s only fitting that we fit this terrific platter onto the specials list. “Pierogi” in Polish refers to just what it is—a stuffed dumpling. (It’s linguistically connected to the Russian “pirozhki.”) Pierogi is plural—one would be a pierog. The linguistic root in old Slavic is “piru,” which means “feast,” and that’s exactly how I think of this platter. The pierogi we serve at the Roadhouse are handcrafted by a third-generation family business in Hamtramck, the center of Polish life in Michigan. While they make a series of different fillings, we chose a classic—the potato. It’s got a lovely texture and a terrific flavor. We lightly pan-cook the pierogi in butter so the dough on the outside gets golden brown, which makes it a perfect foil for the soft, creamy potato filling. 

We serve the potato pierogi up with a pile of naturally cured local sauerkraut, a good bit of slow-cooked caramelized onions, and plenty of sour cream. It’s a terrific lunch or dinner. Additionally, it’s a great meatless meal—ideal for vegetarians. Of course, it also happens to be delicious if we cook them for you in bacon fat and then top them with a bit of chopped Nueske’s applewood smoked bacon. If you want to skip the sauerkraut and onions, they’re great with jam too. And I’ll add that many groups have been ordering a plate of pierogi to share as an appetizer. 

The platter is named, poignantly, for Stas’, whose family was Polish. Stas’ passed away in the spring of 2017 at the too-young age of 71. Without Stas’, our organization wouldn’t be remotely what it is. And it makes me smile through the sadness of Stas’ loss to know that we can put something on the menu that honors him and his positive memory every time someone orders it! I have a vision of this plate making regular appearances on the Roadhouse menu, both because it tastes so terrific, and because it will serve as a culinary tribute to Stas’ Polish roots.

Shawn Askinosie’s Gingerbread
Dark Chocolate Bar

A taste of Christmas, past and present

When I think of places where the visioning work has been put most powerfully to work in the world, one of the first examples that comes to mind is the story of the work that Shawn Askinosie has done with the cacao growers at the Mababu Coop in Tanzania. Shawn and his daughter Lawren write about how they’ve done this work in their terrific book, Meaningful Work, and I’ve referenced what they’ve done regularly over the years in my own writing as well. This week they released this touching two-minute video about the visioning work that’s been taking place in Tanzania over the last ten years. If you’re like me, it will lead to some very lovely tears. 

When I think about Shawn this time of year, I think about his limited edition Gingerbread Bar. I know it’s designed to appeal to holiday tastes, but I’d happily eat it all year round! It’s one of the best examples of spicing high-quality chocolate I’ve experienced. Spices and European Christmas celebrations have been intertwined for centuries. Ginger has been used in Asian cuisines for ages, and came to Rome in the 1st century AD. It fell out of favor when the Roman Empire receded, then reappeared about a thousand years later. Within a few centuries, it was second only to black pepper in popularity. The Pfeffernüsse I wrote about a few weeks ago are a great example of the latter. (Buy a few boxes ASAP before we stop baking them for the year!)

The chocolate bar itself is made from the super high-quality Trinatario cacao Shawn and crew get from the Mababu coop in Tanzania. It’s a delicious 66% dark chocolate, with lovely creamy cocoa-y notes to it. In its “straight” form, the Tanzania has been one of my favorite chocolate bars for years. In the Gingerbread Bar, the dark chocolate is spiced up with ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and clove. Shawn says, 

This chocolate bar reminds me of my mom and the Holidays. Most of us have early chocolate memories which often influence our likes and dislikes later in life. For me, the aroma in my house as a child during Holidays seemed to be allspice and gingerbread cookies. So I like this bar a lot. It reminds of a time when life was, or seemed to be, carefree and the only thing I had to worry about was whether or not I would get Hot Wheels cars from Santa. 

Great on its own, it’s got an amazing, rich, deep, almost fudgy texture. The spices are important, but they don’t dominate the chocolate. Eat a bit with some Bakehouse Graham Cracker, or nibble a little while you sip a shot of Espresso Blend #1. You can find the Askinosie Gingerbread bar at the Candy Store and the Deli. Supply is limited—you don’t want to miss out.

Sensational Sumac
from Jordan

Kamā gets us world-class sumac

The beautifully aromatic Za’atar spice blend we get from Jumana Jacir and her team at Kamā working at the artisan workshop in the capital of Jordan were one of the big hits of the Best of 2022 tastings we did a few weeks ago at the Deli! The response to the Za’atar was so enthusiastic (we sold out quickly—more is coming) that I got thinking to say something about the Kamā Sumac as well.

I first heard about sumac years ago listening to local musician Dick Siegel sing his amazing song, “When the Sumac is on Fire!” It’s a wonderful song by one of Ann Arbor’s longtime musical greats. I put it on the other day while I was eating a bit of this terrific newly-sourced sumac we have at the Deli from Jordan! Used widely throughout the Middle East and Asia, sumac is lemony, earthy, and subtly sweet. Sumac’s flavor is so unique it’s hard to categorize, but it adds complexity and quality to most any dish in which it's used. Tammie, it turns out, is a huge fan: “It changes everything you use it on. There’s nothing like it. It’s lemony and bright. I love it!”

Kamā (means “desert true” in Arabic) products exist in part because of the vision of Jumana Jacir, founder and owner. Jacir has a degree in design from Concordia University in Montreal, but decided to head back home to Jordan to start a business through which she could empower disenfranchised women in Jordan. Everything from the story to the package to the product inside the jar is beautiful. Delicious and authentic, it is very much aligned in spirit and practice with Douglas Cardinal’s work. Jacir says:

Kamā is about reclaiming the narrative not being spoken for. We at Kamā are forever seekers of our homes’ delights. Our hearts yearn to immortalise Arab and Levantine flavours, while our hands constantly innovate, refine and redefine our culinary narratives. What some might call the local community, we call family, and family always supports one another with moments of wonder and experiences to share. Our land’s heritage is our fortune, and we treasure it by bringing together our food cultures through a passion for crafting things—and crafting them beautifully.

Sumac, if you don't know it, is native to the Middle East. The bright red berries of the bush are dried and ground into a spice blend in many cultures. Kamā deseeds, sun-dries, and grinds them to make what you and I buy. Kamā’s Sumac is made of 100-percent pure sumac berries, without any other additives or fillers. (The sumac is also a key ingredient in their Za’atar.) Use generously on roast chicken or vegetables, or sprinkle on your salad. Great for roasted potatoes, carrots or onions. In Jordan, folks will commonly toss a bit atop hummus and baba ghanoush. Really, you can sprinkle Sumac on almost anything—salads, bean soups, feta cheese, and more. Sumac is also said to have a host of health benefits—positive impact on blood pressure, high in anti-inflammatories and antioxidants. Terrific for avocado toast, especially if you put a fried egg on top! A bit of it sprinkled onto slices of that Tunisian Olive Oil Cake I wrote about last week is lovely, both to look at and to eat. 

The Kamā Sumac is super tasty on a plate of that Bellwether yogurt at the Cream Top Shop. Made from the milk of Jersey cows it’s exceptionally rich and flavorful. (We’re going through a quart container or two a week at our house.) Put a good bit of the yogurt onto a plate, make an indentation in the middle, pour on a bit of the Moulin de Mahjoub olive oil from Tunisia, and then as much sumac as you like. Scoop it up with warm bread! Wonderful for breakfast, as a snack, or with supper!

Five Easy Appetizers
for Your Entertaining

Great tastes made with two ingredients
in under two minutes

If you’re having folks over to watch football or celebrate the New Year, are making something for someone special, or just want to treat yourself to some great flavors, here are five appetizers you can put together in minutes and eat with your fingers:

Anchovies and potato chips—an awesome bar snack that shows up around the Mediterranean. Made with those amazing Zingerman’s Tellicherry Black Pepper Potato Chips and some of the outstanding anchovies from the Ortiz family in the Basque country. If you like anchovies like I do, you’ll be very happy to have these. Lay an anchovy (at room temperature) on a chip, eat, and enjoy!

Rancho Meladuco dates with ’Nduja—the spicy spreadable Calabrian-style sausage made for us in Chicago by Tony Fiasche and friends at Tempesta with pork from heritage hogs and Calabrian chiles. Pit the date, spread on a bit of ‘Nduja. The spicy richness of the pork is a beautiful foil to the rich sweetness of the dates. The dates from Rancho Meladuco in California are beyond world-class. If you’re not eating meat, skip the ‘Nduja and use the Georgia Grinders Almond Butter! 

Bakehouse bruschetta—It’s a simple formula: Good bread + good olive oil = one world-class treat! Buy Bakehouse bread of your choice; cut into thick slices. Toast until golden brown. Pour on a bunch of really good oil. The Paesano and the Marqués de Valdueza oil from western Spain would be wonderful, but really so would any of the Bakehouse breads and amazing oils at the Deli. 

Creamery Cream Cheese with the spread of your choice—The handmade Cream Cheese is so good! All you have to do is top it with whatever is to your taste. If you like spicy, the Mahjoub family’s beyond-belief-good traditional harissa would be great. We have our long-time ZCoBber Tara Stowe’s new handmade Blueberry Chutney on the shelves at the Cream Top Shop which would be marvelous. The American Spoon Pepper Jelly is lovely this way! 

Olive oil and honey—Put some great honey in the center of a plate. I think this works best with a thick, creamy one—that newly arrived, excellent orange blossom honey from the folks at Miele Thun would be marvelous. Then pour some good olive oil around it. I guess the third “ingredient” is warm bread, preferably to my taste, the Paesano. Scoop up honey and oil on the bread—a sweet and savory to start your year!

Other Things on My Mind
 

Eating

Cornman Farms is doing a special New Year’s Day Bangers & Mash pop-up. “The star of the show,” the Cornman crew says, “is our homemade pork and apple sausage, served alongside mashed potatoes and our rich onion gravy.” Order online, then swing by from 11 am - 6 pm this coming Sunday.

If you’re thinking of some last-minute catering, consider Miss Kim—Ji Hye’s amazing regional Korean cooking will wow everyone and give you a chance to start the New Year off with something especially special. Reach out to misskim@zingermans.com.
 

Listening

I wrote about Ann Arbor’s own Lily Talmers’ debut album earlier this year. And now, Lily, who I’ve since learned is a lifelong ZCoB fan, has a terrific new record, It’s Unkind to Call You My Killer, out. AND she’s playing a live show at The Ark on Sunday evening January 8.  Maybe I’ll see you there? 

In case you were worried, or wondering, you can change your vision when the time is right for you to do so. It could be what Edgar Schein (see Secret #34, “Schein On, You Crazy Diamond”) called “the changing stage.” The Basque band Etxegiña seems to have gone through it. For years they played heavy metal. Their new release, El Olivo y el Olvido (which the band translates to “the olive grower and the oblivion”) is an amazing bit of acoustic jazz. Throughout they have stayed true to themselves—anarchism is a theme that runs through all their work—but they are working towards a new presentation of the art of their heart. Beautiful drawing of an old olive tree on the cover. 

If you want a bit of music from one of Douglas Cardinal’s Canadian Ojibwe contemporaries, check out the work of folk singer Willie Dunn, who has been called “the Canadian Bob Dylan” (though my anarchistic orientation makes me want to invert that and declare that “Bob Dylan is the American Willie Dunn.”) This anthology of Dunn’s work was one of my favorites of last year!
 

Reading

Satish Kumar’s beautiful Elegant Simplicity.

We’re featured in a new book, Communicate with Courage: Taking Risks to Overcome the Four Hidden Challenges, by consultant and leadership coach Michelle Gladieux.