Michigan Foods Club

When will the first installment ship?

Whenever you’d like! Want to plan ahead and cross off an item on your gifting to-do list? You can choose a preferred arrival date in the future when you checkout online or when you give us a call. Otherwise, the first installment will ship on our next available ship date.

When will the rest of the installments ship?

After the first installment, the remaining club shipments will arrive every four weeks. If you’d like to change the delivery for any reason – maybe the recipients are traveling or maybe you want the shipments to occur every other month – we can make it happen! Just reach out to us and we’ll be glad to help.

How easy is it to change the address for one or more shipments?

Super easy! You can call, email, text or chat and let us know about the update. As long as it hasn’t shipped, we can change the address with a few simple clicks.

When am I charged for the club?

You’ll be charged the full amount for the club before the first installment ships out.

What if I want to print a card to give to my recipient before the first shipment arrives?

We have just what you’re looking for:

• Bacon club card
• Bakery club card
• Bread club card
• Cheese club card
• Cheese pairing club card
• Coffee cake club card
• Coffee club card
• Cured meats club card
• Dabbler club card
• Food explorer’s club card
• Jewish Deli club card
• Kid-Parent collaboration club card
• Meat & cheese club card
• Michigan foods club card
• Olive oil club card
• Pastry club card
• Reuben sandwich club card
• Snack club card
• Zingerman’s Classics club card

We ship thousands of loaves every year to bread lovers nationwide.

Our artisan bread is baked down the road from us at Zingerman’s Bakehouse. We ship bread using two business day service – nothing slower. Our bread doesn’t have any preservatives, so we use expedited shipping to help ensure it arrives in great condition.

The bread will last on the counter for a few days in its Zingerman’s bread bag.

It does not need to be refrigerated – in fact, we recommend you avoid the fridge! Refrigeration will wreak havoc on the texture.

If you want to keep the bread for more than a few days your best bet is to freeze it.

Double bag the loaf—or part of it—in plastic and freeze for up to three months.

All of our full-flavored breads are completely baked all the way so reheating is not necessary. 

You can eat the bread right out of the bag (ripping pieces or cutting slices – no judgment here). If it seems a little hard or dry, that’s because the thick, crisp crust is meant to protect the bread. Just like the rind on a natural cheese, real bread has very real crust to protect the inside of the loaf from drying out.

We only suggest that the bread will give you the “just out of the oven” experience… if you reheat it in the oven.

For a warm crackly crust and a soft, chewy crumb, we suggest putting your loaf (whole, half, or part) in a 350 degree oven for approximately 15-20 minutes. If you’re pulling bread out of the freezer, let it defrost for about 30 minutes before throwing it in the oven.

All of our Zingerman’s Bakehouse pastries and coffee cakes are baked with full-flavored ingredients, but without preservatives. The good news is we’ve done the hard work of tasting and testing to ensure that they can be enjoyed for weeks to come.

If enjoying soon, keep them at room temperature.

Each baked good will have an “eat or freeze by” sticker that is about two weeks from when the package ships out. If enjoying the treats within a week or so of delivery, they can be kept at room temperature in the packaging they arrived in or in a plastic bag. Avoid the refrigerator, it can ruin the texture.

If enjoying later, keep them in the freezer.

For longer term storage, all of our baked goods freeze well for up to three months. They can be stored in the freezer in their original packaging or, if they’ve been opened, double wrapped in plastic bags. 

After the freezer, it is best to allow frozen pastries and coffee cakes to defrost slowly at room temperature in the packaging. That’s all–though with some pastries like scones, a little warm up in an oven will make them extra delicious. 

American Spoon jarred its first preserves in Petoskey, Michigan in 1982. At the time, if you wanted high-quality preserves you had to look to Europe. “We wanted to reintroduce America to the amazing foods being made right here.” Said Noah Marshall-Rashid, son of Justin Rashid, founder of the company.

Like Zingerman’s (we started in 1982, too), American Spoon decided to stay relatively small. They had opportunities to become a large-scale producer distributing preserves to grocery store chains across the country. Instead they focused on flavor, not finance. “We think of ourselves as craft-makers,” Noah continued. “We don’t let efficiency get in the way of the taste. Slow cooking in small batches is still the way we do things because it makes the best tasting preserves.”

Climate counts

“Michigan’s distinct micro-climate yields the most flavorful fruit in America,” says Noah. “The short growing season and lots of sunlight leads to an incredible development of sugar and flavors in the fruit. That means our preserves taste different (better) than preserves made in other parts of the country.” Our changing seasons also mean that each fruit is only available for a few short weeks. Strawberries are around for about three weeks; peaches have maybe four weeks. Throughout the summer and fall, there’s a steady stream of new, luscious fruits to preserve.

Hedging farmer risk

Farmers don’t like to take risks. They wouldn’t choose to plant some varieties—like Early Glow Strawberries, which are small, fickle, but oh so delicious—unless American Spoon was there to buy the harvest. “We invest heavily in our relationships with growers and foragers that we enjoy and admire.” Noah continued. “Our success is tied to their success.”

Limited productions, like Wild Thimbleberry Preserves, are only possible because of dedicated foragers. The fruits take a tremendous amount of work to gather during very short harvests, but because American Spoon is there to buy the fruit, it’s worth it for the foragers. Without relationships like that, we might never get to taste some of these exquisite fruits in a jar.

Big enough, small enough

The size of American Spoon is an asset in the increasingly competitive artisan preserves market. “We can produce more jars than most artisan jam makers and that gives us some financial freedom,” Noah explained. “We can find something exceptional that we love, develop a unique recipe and only make it for a short period of time and not worry about its sales,” Noah continued. “Seasonal releases are not just okay, they make you a more interesting company. Customers come back for the next special release. You’re more than just a jam maker, you’re introducing people to something new all the time.” That’s a freedom most start-ups can’t afford.