Culinary Drama with Kerosene
Door County, Wisconsin

Nickname:
Cape Cod of the Midwest

Locale:
North of the Tension Line

Geography:
Lake Michigan peninsula with 300 miles of shoreline,
5 state parks, 19 county parks, 11 lighthouses, 53 beaches,
2 islands

Best reason to go:
Vacation

Favorite local fare:
Whitefish cooked over a kerosene-inspired wood fire

“Cauldron” and “Inferno” are words seldom found in cookbooks. But vacations have a way of turning the commonplace into entertainment, and both terms are part of the Door County, Wisconsin recipe for an event called a Fish Boil. Should you ever find yourself up there North of the Tension Line, consider including one on the itinerary.

The tradition began as necessity among the Scandinavian settlers of northernmost Wisconsin more than a century ago. They didn’t have much, but they had woodstoves, water and fresh fish. Boiled fish was an easy, accessible meal for lumberjacks and fisherman – not people you want to hang around with when they’re hungry.

The recipe remains largely intact today. And the action still takes place outdoors.

Ingredients

Lake Michigan Whitefish, preferably caught the same day

Small red potatoes

Sweet Spanish onions

Salt to taste (say, a pound)

20 gallons of water

The Boil Master – don’t look for that title on a Cordon Bleu application – cooks for a while, chatting up the crowd to build anticipation.

And then, as the kids like to say, BOOM! He tosses a coffee can full of kerosene onto the wood fire, causing a conflagration that’ll curl nose hairs at 30 yards. Car alarms sound.  Birds fall from the sky.

Perhaps that overstates the culinary denouement, but the truth is, we have seen teenagers pocket their smartphones and look up.

More than just theater is at work here. The heat of the fireball suddenly streaking skyward causes a fourth of the water in the cauldron to evaporate and boil over, shedding the fatty oils on the surface and yielding tender, flaky fish.

And then it’s time to eat. Season to taste. Replace hat on head. It’s summertime in the Midwest. Enjoy.

Nelsen’s Hall Bitter’s Pub & Restaurant
The oldest continuously running saloon in Wisconsin.

At the northern tip of Door County you can drive onto a car ferry, cross Death’s Door and join the club.

SIdebar: The Bitter’s Club, at Nelsen’s Hall. It claims thousands of members worldwide: people who have stepped up to the elegant, 1850s-era bar in the place and downed a shot glass of Angostura Bitters.

The story goes that during Prohibition, Tom Nelsen obtained a pharmacist’s license so as to legally dispense 90 proof Angostura bitters as a stomach tonic. Desperate times, desperate measures, as they say.

Should you go, send us a photo of your membership card.

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Photo credit: LearningLark / Foter.com / CC BY

The post The Wisconsin Fish Boil appeared first on The Lands' End Blog.

(Karl Vollmer was a writer and curmudgeon in residence at Lands’ End for many years. A legend in advertising, he had been Gary Comer’s mentor, and with art partner Sam Fink created the original Lands’ End advertising campaign. But his primary interest was food, and imagining what his next meal might be. He was often disappointed by what he was served – not surprising, when you read about the mouthwatering fare he enjoyed as a boy, in his grandma’s kitchen.)

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The post Where Are The Foods Of Yesteryear? appeared first on The Lands' End Blog.

Captain Bert recalls, “The tow line was about to break, putting us in peril once again. We needed a sea anchor. Then I saw it: our “Windrift” bag, a Lands’ End® Canvas Tote. We never go to the boat without it. We tied a dock line through the bag’s handles and hurled it aft.

“As soon as it hit the water, it helped slow the boat. Soon the official tow boat was on the scene. It was a long, rough ride through the rest of the inlet, but we made it. I was concerned the bag would give way… but to my surprise, not a stitch was out of place. I can honestly say the quality of the construction of our Lands’ End Tote played a big role in our avoiding damage to our boat and possible injury to our crew. Thank you for making such a fine product.”

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The post The Canvas Tote That Anchored A Boat appeared first on The Lands' End Blog.

Anyone who has ever tried to schedule a meeting with more than five people  knows that perfect attendance can be next to impossible. However, we found a way to make the impossible possible. The secret: CUPCAKES!

One Sweet Anniversary Party

As part of the company’s 50-year anniversary, employees celebrated with a company-wide cupcake competition. Nearly 60 employees brought in cupcakes and more than 400 employees voted on the best tasting, most beautiful and most unusual. In addition to attendance being super sweet, this was one meeting where everyone showed up right on time!

Super Sweet Décor

The atrium of Lands’ End could not have been more beautiful, with tables upon tables of colorful and creative cupcakes – and no two cupcakes were even close to being alike. From Stuffed Blue Velvet to Nautical Key Lime to oodles of other mini cake creations, the entire company shared a sugar-fueled afternoon thanks to some extremely talented employees.

Sweet Taste of Victory At Our Dodgeville Headquarters

Best Tasting: Alex C., Women’s Merchant
Cupcake: Live, Laugh, Love Lemons!
Her Secret: It’s an old family recipe we promised not to tell

Best Decorated: Calvin K., Business Outfitters Support Specialist
Cupcake: Strawberry Margarita
His Secret: Always bake your cupcakes about 10 degrees below what the recipe says! It keeps them moist.
Here’s how to make Calvin’s cupcakes.

Most Original: Laura P., Men’s Merchant
Cupcake: Sailor’s Salted Caramel Chocolate
Her secret: Lots of sour cream for the cake part, lots of butter for everything else.

Here’s how to make Laura’s cupcakes.

Remember folks – you found it here first.

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The post A Sweet Way To Celebrate 50 Years appeared first on The Lands' End Blog.

Lands’ End has been doing business for 50 years. Malcolm Scollay Low has been shopping with us for 49.

That makes him the longest-serving Lands’ End customer we know of. Remarkable, but less remarkable than the man himself, as we realized when he told us his story.

“The first thing I bought from you was a Barient halyard winch for my new Bermuda 40 sailboat in the spring of 1964,” says Malcolm. “I had seen a terrible accident at sea – a man’s hand had slipped when he was raising a sail with a winch, and it had smashed him in the face. I didn’t want that to happen to me, or anyone on my crew, so I bought the best winch there was.”

Who sold it to him? An affable, crewcut young man named Gary Comer, who had started Lands’ End a year earlier.

“Gary was a wonderful fellow,” says Malcolm. “We got to be friends. A few years later, he was coming out to Boston near where I lived for a Star Boat race, and I invited him and his wife to stay with us. He arrived in an enormous Cadillac towing his Star Boat. He opened the trunk, and there was a large commercial sewing machine inside. He was prepared to recut his sails if he needed to.”

Malcolm doesn’t remember how Gary did in his race – he was frantically preparing for one of his own. It was a race from Bermuda to Copenhagen, to celebrate the 100^th anniversary of the Royal Danish Yacht Club.

“Mine was one of the two smallest boats in the race, with a crew of seven,” recalls Malcolm. “I was unprepared for the rigors of the race. It took us 27 days to reach Copenhagen! We had to go all the way up to 60 north looking for wind, into Arctic waters – it blew and snowed, terrible weather. But even so, at one point or another, every one of my crew came up to me individually and asked if once the race was over, we could re-provision and sail all the way back to Bermuda!

Malcolm’s boat ended up finishing the race dead last, but only because it spent 20 hours waiting with another boat whose rudder had broken, until someone could rescue them.

“I had promised my crew that I’d get them all to the party that the king was throwing, once we reached Copenhagen,” says Malcolm, “but we were all too seaspun to attend.”

Malcolm never saw Gary Comer again, but they corresponded off and on over the years, and called each other from time to time.

“Gary did a wonderful thing,” says Malcolm. “He went into the clothing business, and made clothes that were very seaman-like – very well-made, very well-priced. As only Gary could have done. So I’ve continued to shop with Lands’ End.”

Malcolm, we’re honored to have you as our customer, and hope your voyage with us continues for many more years.

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To the dogs! At least that is what my Girl Scout Troop in Madison, Wisconsin decided to do with it. The idea actually originated from a co-worker (and dog lover!) in the women’s division who realized the stretchy and durable swim fabric would make a great tug toy for her canine friends.

When Erin, the swim merchant, told me about Anna’s design, I immediately went into Girl Scout Leader mode and thought my girls would love to do that. And what great timing as our visit to the Dane County Humane Society in Madison was just a week away (and May is also National Pet Month). As the girls arrived at the troop meeting, they found hundreds of colorful strips strewn across the table. Of course, they all asked what we were going to do with those.

“We’re making dog toys to donate to the Humane Society.”

Instant smiles. After a quick demonstration, the girls got right to work. Strips were flying as the bright colors and patterns were woven together. Each combination more fun than the next. At final count, the girls had created 40 dog toys! And although they’ll never meet the recipients of their unique gifts or receive any gratitude firsthand (or paw in this case), the fun they had was thanks enough.

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The post So Where Does Extra Swim Fabric Go? appeared first on The Lands' End Blog.

The trees are in bloom, and lunch is al fresco today.

The post It’s Snowing Spring At Lands’ End appeared first on The Lands' End Blog.

“Gabby sporting her Lands’ End Squall Jacket while walking to the beach in Norway.”

Not long ago we received an email from a Lands’ End fan named Jack Viorel. He wanted to share some pictures of his daughter loving her Lands’ End Squall jacket. In his email, Jack also mentioned he runs a small surf school called Indo Jax Surf School.

As big fans of all things aquatic, we wanted to see what Jack was up to. While “surfing” around his website, we were inspired on many levels. And especially at Jack’s motto.

“We are nothing if we don’t give back!”

Well said.

“Jack and Gabby enjoying a balmy Northern Norway afternoon on the Arctic Ocean.”

Last year, Jack and his daughter, Gabby, traveled the world (all 4 oceans!) providing free surf camps for children in need (or with special needs). They worked with orphaned children in India, blind children in Wrightsville, NC., autistic children in Northern Cali, and refugees in Northern Norway – to name a few.

And yesterday we received another email from Jack and Gabby. They recently returned from their 4^th trip to India.

“We surfed with nearly 100 orphan girls this year from 4 orphanages on both the west and east coasts of India.”

It sounds like the 2013 surf season is officially here for Jack and Gabby and we look forward to hearing more about their coastal endeavors throughout the next few months.

Here’s to a long, fun, beach season for everyone, everywhere in the creative, generous, inspired, endlessly fascinating Lands’ End family.

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The post Surf’s Up For Kids Around The World appeared first on The Lands' End Blog.

We learned that in England, a sweater is called a jumper. And that in Japan, customers are crazy for embroidery – over 60% of the polo shirts we send out have a gymnast, dolphin, flag or other insignia on the chest.

But what happened in Germany tops everything. It had to do with our unequivocal guarantee – Guaranteed. Period.® – which is the very foundation of the way we do business.

You see, our founder Gary Comer didn’t believe in fine print. He believed in doing business in a fair and open-handed way, and doing whatever it took to provide 100% satisfaction. Like offering a guarantee with absolutely no limits.

So naturally, when we mailed out our first catalogs in Germany, they contained our Guaranteed. Period promise of satisfaction, inviting our new German customers to return anything at any time, for any reason, if they were not completely satisfied with what they’d ordered from us.

Well, much to our surprise, the bratwurst hit the fan. A group of 1600 German merchants called The Association Against Unfair Competition sued Lands’ End, claiming that our unconditional guarantee violating a German law that banned retailers from offering gifts to lure customers.

It wasn’t just neighborhood merchants fuming and sputtering. “There are a lot of huge companies who are hiding behind this association,” said Frank Kriegl, at the time our marketing director in Germany.

Lands’ End refused to back down. In fact, we launched an advertising campaign to win supporters to our just cause. Ganz Deutschland ist eine Servicewueste? asked one ad. Is all of Germany a service wasteland?
Alas, the merchant association won their suit when the German Supreme Court ruled that our promise was indeed a violation of German law. But still, we wouldn’t back down.

Phil Young, our European managing director, stressed that the ban would not affect how we treated our German customers. “This antiquated law will no longer allow us to communicate our guarantee to our German custom-ers,” said Phil, “but regardless of this, every single product we sell in Germany will be backed by our guarantee.”

We began running cheeky ads elsewhere in Europe, with headlines like:
“Introducing a guarantee so good the Germans banned it.” In Germany, we just blacked out the “guarantee” part of our ads, stirring up even more interest in the whole brouhaha. And in 1999, we launched the German version of our web site, which couldn’t mention the guarantee, but linked to a separate site that did. German customers began rallying to our cause.

The Association Against Unfair Competition was clearly on the wrong side of the fight, especially as the age of internet shopping picked up steam. Eventually, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s government revoked the antiquated 1932 law prohibiting discounts, rebates and lifetime guarantees.

Just like that, the great Guaranteed. Period. controversy in Germany was kaput. We began telling our complete and unexpurgated Lands’ End story again. And our business has been growing in Deutschland ever since.

The customer is always right, as Gary Comer might say.

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The post Guaranteed. Period? Das Ist Verboten! appeared first on The Lands' End Blog.

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