 There must be some baking happening on a different floor. Hi. So I was actually asked to introduce Martin tonight, so be very brief. My name is Pat Baking Instructor and we work for the Institute, and I have some fabulous students with me tonight. So I was lucky enough to get to know Martin when he was doing some preparation for your competition with Kudomo. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's how I first... Maybe even see Jeff too. Maybe you're here for Italy too. Yes, I knew of you, but now I know him, and it's been really wonderful. You know, Martin has been incredibly generous to my students. We've had some tours at King Arthur, and just his knowledge and passion for bread and the craft has been inspirational, to say the least. Every time he talks about it, I'm like, man, I got up my game. But when I heard he had a book coming out and then he was going to be here at Bear Pond, it was a must save on my calendar, and I'm just so happy that the book is here. I definitely want to take a look at it and do some bread this weekend, and I'm just looking forward to hearing about whatever it is you're going to be talking about tonight. So a nice warm welcome. Thanks for having me. And thanks to Bear Pond for hosting the event, which is important and good. The book came out in, technically I guess it was Halloween, but it really came out in November. And since then I've been in a lot of bookstores and a lot of libraries. And what an honor that is. And I'm serious, like what an honor that is to me. Bookstores and libraries are great examples for all of us, right? If you think about the diversity of opinion on the shelves, if you think about the populations that they serve, high and low, east and west, you know, north and south, it's all out there. It's all down there on the shelves. What a good example that is for all of us, I think. And so what an honor to be in a bookstore for me. So thank you for having me. It's kind of a weird book. I set out to write it and I didn't have a plan. I had a contract, but I had no plan. I didn't have a proposal when I got the contract. I kind of fell into it in a way based on some conversations that I had, which led to more conversations. And the next thing you know, I was sitting in an office in New York City. And you better hold on to that beer because that's a really good beer. Oh, no, no, no. Really? Seriously? Seriously? No, one time. Stay focused. Stay focused. I've got some beer from Alchemist over here. I can't do anything. Sorry, sorry, I got sidetracked. So I had some conversations. The next thing I was in an office in New York City with my agent and having a conversation with a publisher and passionate conversation. I think when I talk about bread and when I talk about craft, I get those are things that are important to me. I think they're important to all of us, whether we realize it or not. But they're important and had a conversation and then we went to two other publishers that day and we got a book deal. Boom, it was pretty easy. I hate to tell that story to authors because they want to like punch me in the face. So, you know, sometimes you hit the lottery, right? Be careful of lightning and all that stuff. Careful what you wish for in terms of luck. But so I was fortunate to sort of begin this journey of trying to figure out what it was that I had to say, even though I already had a contract. I had a sense of what I wanted to talk about, but I didn't know how I was going to say it. And so I went to a friend who was one of the sort of wise-asses who said, yeah, you should write a book. And I said, great, so I got this contract. Now what the heck do I do? And she said, well, start writing. I said, okay, that's good advice. I guess I didn't know how to write. I'd had some writing courses in high school which someone told me the other day didn't count. And I had one in college, my background's in classical music. I went to Oberlin Conservatory and sang for a while. So she said, well, start writing. And so I started trying to figure out what the heck to write. And within like maybe a few hours I kind of knew. I was like, oh, okay, I guess I'm going to write a story about things that mean something to me and what are the things that mean to me? Home is something that means something to me. Heritage, craft, lineage, these are the things that are important to me. So I wrote this story which I thought at the time was like this creative thing. I thought I had like an original idea for about two minutes. And then I realized, oh, crap, this story that I thought was such a good idea is like the same story that's been told since the beginning of written history and maybe before, even oral history preceding it. And that is a person, all of us, right? You begin in a place. You leave and sort of transformed, right? You experience the metamorphosis and then you try and come back home and it's not where you left it and all those problems and good things, too, right? So I sort of tried to follow the path of the Odyssey, I guess, a little bit. So the book, and I won't read too much, I promise. I think it's like, I think I usually say it seven minutes and it's maybe closer to eight or something like that. So I'm going to read a little bit from the beginning and then we can see if anybody has any questions. So I'll read a little bit. My name is Martin Rainey Phillip. Martin is for Martin Chamberlain of Shortsville, New York. A cooper who made barrels and drained them with equal skill. Dead of cirrhosis 1919. Rainey for Thomas Rainey, who left countless Scotch-Irish Rainies in the gray skies of County Armagh, Northern Ireland for work as a bleach reformer in the toxic woolen mills of Central Falls, Rhode Island. Dead of influenza 1944. And Phillip from George Rainey Phillip of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. A journeyman stone cutter who traded Scottish granite for Vermont granite and worked himself to death in Berry, Vermont. Dead of exhaustion 1915. He's actually buried in Rock of Ages. My father grew up in Morefield. To gain a name is an easy thing. A mouth-long chain of consonants and vowels cut and stamped with a sharp pen stroke one can carve on a family tree for eternity. Census documents hold forests of these trees and branches and you can climb around in them moving past a spot of ink here, a correction there, the antique curling scripts counting lives and livelihoods as they wind through centuries of occupations and births. There once was a time when lives were linked to tangible trades and physical connections. The crush of a hammer between arm and stone, palms on spinning bobbins of cotton warp, fingers dragging across fresh sawn staves and a cupridge of baker's arms bent at the do-troth pulling and kneading. Once we lived at the intersection of our hands and our materials and if men's names make paternal ladders with lineage and crests and junior and senior, what of the women? Francis Harriet Chamberlain, Occupation Blank, Carolyn Raimi Harris, Occupation Blank, Cora Isabel King, Occupation Blank. While men passed down names and direct lines, matriarchs lived in round forms moving from knitting circles to mixing bowls, a wrap of arms around a child. Through these connected embracing forms they have sewn, baked, tended and grown those parts of us which shape rather than name. My grandmother, Carolyn Harris, or OMA as we called her was a quilter. Her quilting frame, her foundation, hand-cut and smooth by years of use was constructed by her long deceased son. In cold months the frame was assembled in the living room equidistant from bed and board where she worked. Her face bent close to the frame. This quiet play of hands and material, whether in a bowl of flour, a bucket of bulbs or quietly pulling a needle and thread at the dimming of day was her connection. Her even song of fingers and heart, her handcraft was the outward representation of her soul craft. OMA passed this connection to my mother, Francis Phillip, through will or environment and what emerged in mama was an entirely alternate form. Where OMA was precise and traditional and classical, my mother blew everything to the moon scattering scrap quilts from colorful bikinis along the way. If OMA was control and adherence, delicate angel food cake for every birthday, mama was hollering Chinese fire drill at a stoplight with a car full of kids. I'm thankful for the contrast, for mama's ability to improvise, to roll with it, to encourage a baking adventure to never land even in the face of an empty pantry. And I miss OMA, the precision, the formality, the pecan pie with a splash of whiskey, blonde brownies spiked with black walnuts, orange glazed angel food cake adorned with fresh flowers, treats held in soul's memory. These two distinct lines, the men handing names and a connection to trade, and the women living through example, nurturing with linens, layouts and food, made their way to my lap as I, attempting to cross stitch, sewed my pants to a cloth napkin on the couch next to my mother. Heritage is stamped, willingly or not, within and without. There are jewels and there are scars. On my arm the faded white of two holes where I was impaled running in a thicket. The sticks entering my arm and later yanked out under running water by my brother. Despite decades of fresh skin and new memories, the scars still look back at me, bearing witness to a time and place where stick-punchered arm. And so it is with craft and lineage and hearts and names. Today I reach down through grass and dirt to grasp the roots of this lineage. My wife Julia and I left New York City to bring our family back to Vermont where the first Phillips settled when they came from Scotland. We live at the confluence of rivers and rusty train tracks in a railroad town and it is here that I give daily embrace to handcraft, trade and round forms, milling flour on circular stones, mixing doughs and baking bread at King Arthur Flower for my family and communities of happy eaters which encircle us. Today is my day to be counted, to climb and take a place on the family tree, to lay down my roots or make the last journey. It is a good day as I'm proud of my listing. I'm in the right line. I'm in the right place to receive and also give. I'm a baker and flourishing. My path to this good place hasn't been straight. I've been lost. I've moved from roots, heritage and home before heading back again and this journey, all of it, began with dropped biscuits. I grew up in the creases of the Ozark Mountains learning to speak with soft mouth and even tones to the night calls of Whipper Will and Chuck Will's widow. I was the third of six children. We were a mixture of old ways and hippy new ways. We had fox fire books on the shelf, country in the garden and cures which favored hair tying for scalp wounds, garlic pills for blood clots, and cider vinegar for everything else. Our diet had no meat, preservatives, food coloring, additives, white sugar, anything else multi-syllabic on the label. When we could afford it, we had a bull quarter with the co-op for tubs of tofu, bags of oats and pinto beans, buckets of black strapped molasses and bags of brewers yeast. Those days were not gentle imprints. They were not glancing marks from casual use. They were dense and patina, weathered paint on hardwood boards and their impressions remained 40 years on. I see steam vents rising from oatmeal in a house with frost on inside windows. Cornmeal crusted sunfish fried in cast iron twisted inside out with tails pulled through mouths and my mother's ragged drop biscuits flecked with whole wheat flour. They were not lofty. They were not light. They weren't brushed with butter or made with lard. They were simple. They were cheap and they were dinner. Flour in the bowl flour in the bowl, baking powder enough to cover the small dip between her palms heart and lifelines and a thimble of salt. In my mind's eye mama was near the stove framed by a greasy fox pelt in cast iron corn-pone pans hanging on a brick chimney. She hand mixed the dry and then made a well filled it with water and floated enough oil on top to cover the liquid surface. Stir, stir, scoop drop bacon serve with honey or brews yeast gravy biscuits for dinner folk medicine made with the eye's measurement. We all have these memories recollections which when summoned can transport us. Food traditions have a way of leaving marks indelible ink the width of which yanks us whirling and swirling to lands beyond and long gone. But could I recreate these biscuits with my own palms? Why in some attempt to go back use these warm forms as a means of travel to an old house in Arkansas? What is it about biscuits that brings weight beyond the measure of ingredients? Over my years as a baker I've given innumerable those to friends, family and strangers. And while each loaf carries something and was passed in earnest I cannot say there's a more tender act than the sharing of biscuits. This simple mix of flour milk, butter, salt and leavening when eaten warm from the oven contains me. My heritage, my home my upbringing, all that I am. And they have changed as I have. When I make them today I fuss some perhaps as oh my wood, gently incorporating layers of cold butter and folding before cutting into small rounds. When no one's looking I might even make them without measuring anything as mama would. Fairing baking, moisture in the butter expands pushing upward before setting and transitioning toasting to golden. Small hands can break them separating tops from bottoms easily. Each half, fairing butter or jam or simply riding sidecar to a bowl of beans. I don't know what the old home would feel like today, but I do know that my heart is here in this very moment when I make biscuits. So that's some words from the beginning of the book. Thank you all for sitting and listening. I'm happy to talk all kinds of things. Writing, baking juggling. Decide to write a book. It's funny because so I went to King Arthur to work with a guy named Jeffrey Hellman who I was a mentor and Jeffrey wrote a book that was very successful and has been translated into five languages or six languages now. People would say to me, well, you're kind of Jeffrey's right-hand guy now and you're going to write a book. I got nothing to say. What would I write about? I don't think I could write about baking. I felt like he had kind of said what needed to be said in some ways. But as a process and as part of that, I'd done just like a little bit of writing. I'd written these very short little things to describe some breads that I was making and it was really cool. I really enjoyed it. And then I also did some drawing for it and I had to get someone to take pictures and so we sort of made this thing and I thought this would be fun. I would do this. If someone wanted me to do this, I would try and do this. I felt like I finally had something where I could put words together that hopefully would be meaningful or inspiring on some level. So here I am. Worked out. I got lucky, I think. How long did it take? I wrote it in just over a year and I was kind of writing on weekends. And then I basically I wrote the sort of what I call like the narrative portion just over a year and was working on the recipes all the time and then they gave me a little bit more time to sort of wrap up the recipes and get everything tested and make sure that I knew what a volumetric measure of flour weighed and some of those things and then get all the recipes proved. But about a year, about a year of weekends probably six months of weekends and then the rest of the year just not coming up for air ever between work and kids and everybody else. So your book is lovely. Thank you. Thank you for writing it. We got it for my 19-year-old for Christmas and before he went back to school we got to have ciabatta, brioche, bagels and three or four more which is good so we're the investment. Wow. In the book. So, but he has a couple questions. He's in school. So he wanted to understand how you got into finance in the first place and how you got from finance to bread baking because he felt like you elided that and wanted to know more. Yeah, good question. You answer whatever you still come to mind. I'll make him brief because... That was his question. I'll try and read brief because I feel like I... Everybody takes a winding path. Yeah, no, it's definitely a winding path. So we moved to New York City because New York City is where you have to be if you're a professional. If you want to sing professionally in classical music you kind of need to be in New York City because it's like the clearing house for auditions both nationally and internationally and if you want to have artist representation like management, you kind of have to be there and be available for auditions, right? And so we moved to New York City and my wife's also a singer and we're both just gutting it out and I fell into doing some computer work at an investment bank which was first on just a temporary basis and I was working at night and it was challenging and I like a challenge and so I don't know it's like I blinked and all of a sudden I had like employees across the U.S. working for me and you know so I don't know how it happened but a lot of time in Excel but it wasn't well aligned with me I think I liked the challenge of it but it just wasn't well aligned with me and so I started looking for things that did align and I think when I went to conservatory I left my banjo at home it should have been a little bit of a warning sign like don't go too far away from those things that resonate literally and figuratively, right? And so I kind of when I realized I was under water a little bit there were some points and I think one of them was 9-11 I think that was a really good warning sign for me because it was sort of before and after event and I think different generations had those events, you know where were you when or what were these things that were pivotal at a national level and that was something that at least from my generation was pivotal it was a measuring stick to me in a certain way that said you know, here's what you're doing and is this the life you want is this what you dreamed of? What happens if you get, someone asked me the question I was important last night and someone asked me kind of a similar question like what led to the change and I said death you know, like mortality like we got to kind of take advantage of this so I was looking for things that had resonance my parents, I grew up with my parents making all of our bread I was in California singing a charity benefit for an AIDS organization and I was at a homestay, my wife was with me and the guy who lived at the house was making bagels, like really good bagels and he had this book, Daniel Leder's book The Bread Alone Cookbook and I opened it up and had these pictures of bread in it that were just bread, you know it was like bread I hadn't seen and I just went down this rabbit hole it was like I've got to be closer to that however it is, get out of my way like clawing and scratching running with like gate mod and you know giving that and I ran after it and then that's all it took that big carrot out in front of me does that help? I covered both ends of that right how I got in and how I got out sure I did a good job did you grow up playing the banjo? I did a little bit my mother did a few things with great intuition and one of them was like 16th birthday gave me a banjo not a nice one like that but a banjo it just I don't know I think that it was good for me to get back to that it's the soundtrack of my youth when I kind of tried to turn my ship around going in a good direction again it was one of the things I went back to and so I wrote a book basically so that I can go around and play banjo yeah it's working so what's next? you've done the hacking art there you've written a book you're playing the banjo so it's something about another proposal trying to I'm working on a proposal for a book that's kind of like a little bit of an obvious choice like a farm to table book with a friend of mine who's an incredible career changing farmer so I think we're kind of trying to work on something bigger than I want to do and I'll tell you what it is I think that we've got to get back to talking this is my little soap box I think that we have to get back to talking and not just the people we truck around with virtually or physically but I think we've got to get back to talking even to the people we don't necessarily agree with and so I'm trying to figure out a way that I can use bread and baking and connection to reach across and get outside of my silo and get uncomfortable and go back to Arkansas and spend time in a blue state and talk to people and figure out what the hell is going on because we've got to get back to treating people with respect to humanity and I feel like we're broken right now and I want to move the bar on that and I want to use food to do that because we all need food food is our most human connection food is where community began we've got the shape of a fire and people are round a fire handing food and I don't care who you are and where you come from and whatever let's share some food and that's because it's our most common space food is our most common space it's what we all share you know, seconds of oxygen what do we share what do we have great commonalities so I'm trying to find some space to work on that and get that project going Baker maker road show we call it the road show in my house we call it the road show we've got to get the road show going but I want to ride around on a bicycle on a bike with people I don't know in the rural south we'll see, scary though it scares the hell out of me because I'm going to get upset you know you have questions? baking, writing clicking what's your opinion on the I've been doing the no need no need, yeah it's so easy, right? I beg all my bread now guess how many breads in this book are needed one really? and it's not because I think it's like the no need method I didn't do that purposefully I like to follow a different way of making bread which is what we call kind of like folding folding, right folding sounds weird in terms of bread making but the reason that we need and the reason that we fold is to develop strength within the dough environment strength is what helps us build the bread skyscraper instead of the bread flying carpet, you know what I'm saying so strength, gluten is what gives us that structural integrity to build the nice bread skyscraper and so, needing is one way to do that in the professional environment we use mixers, specific mixers spiral mixers to form strength within the dough environment but we can also get strength via a process that we refer to as folding and folding is basically when you add flour and water together you have kind of a chaotic environment there's not a lot of organization it's like if you're knitting a sweater and you start by taking a skein of yarn and you put it in the blender for a couple minutes you get all these tiny pieces, right that's kind of what's in the flour bag before it's hydrated, right and you still have this kind of unorganized network via kneading or developing in a spiral mixer or folding, we knit together this environment, essentially building these long strands of yarn with which we can knit a beautiful sweater or scarf like you have, right so so folding is the way that we can develop strength within the dough environment no need method like the Jim Leahy Mark Bittman method that became popular develops dough using hydration and time also so it's a viable way to develop strength in that environment and I think it's a great like gateway drug to serious baking you know, because it's like you can kind of do it, you mix it together it's got a small quantity of yeast it has good fermentation flavor because it's left out at room temperature for 12 to 14, 16 or more hours depending on whether or not you remember it right to my palette, I kind of I tried it a few times and then I moved away from it a little bit because I felt like there was an excess of certain flavors each time I would try it and so I wanted to have a little bit more control over the fermentation and so I think that you know, I have all the breads in the book have bulk fermentation we call bulk fermentation which is the period of time after the mix and before the shape, right period of time but it's more control than I think but I do think that that no need method can be really good for making a good basic bread and I think it's a great way to see like ooh am I interested in this and do I want to get a little bit more science about it or am I making bread that everybody's eating so why complicated if it ain't broke right dang keep them coming so yeah but I think it's a totally viable method and one of many to you know that you can use to make great bread for sure to answer it did I opine and frame it sort of somewhat I mean it's very accessible super accessible yeah and are you baking in a Dutch oven is that how you do it yeah I mean that's a great way to bake at home if you haven't tried that that's a really good way to bake at home it's a good way to make a nice crusty loaf without too much fuss you know one of the challenges in the home environment is to get the steam down and you know sort of make this mockery of the masonry oven that we have at King Arthur and at Red Hen also nice big ovens with lots of thermal mass and you're baking right on the hearth you know so you get radiant heat you get convection you get conduction you know all these different kinds of heat that combine to make crusty bread so you can sort of make your own miniature masonry oven via the use of a Dutch oven or a cloche or you know there are a lot of different hacks for sort of making that yeah with the lid on because during baking you know a loaf will lose 10 to 15% of its moisture and so it actually weighs less when it comes out of the oven than when it went in so if you bake inside a pot that moisture is sort of self steaming and if you're baking in a moist environment it's like when you put the bread in the oven it's like putting like a shirt on that's one size too small and then you know you go to the gym and you work out and it's like you're ripping out of the shirt now that's kind of what happens in the dough environment and that when the yeasts begin to heat up to a certain point maybe 96 degrees their activity increases and increases gas production increases loaf volume increases oven spring happens if you do that in a moist environment even further rather than sort of feeling straight jacked because what happens is the exterior will dry and then the loaf is sort of constricted but if it's in a moist environment like inside your pot with the lid on for the first two thirds only of baking you get nice expansion it self steams take the lid off leave it in the pan to finish we'll pop it out and let it finish just on the rack in the oven and it's a great way to mimic the professional oven in the home environment if you're making right now and I guarantee you I've never made that bread before because the quality I think will probably be significant and better yeah please so the flip of that if you don't have a lot of time don't have the time for the fermentation what suggestions for developing flavor quickly so do you want to do it quickly or do you want to do it without a lot of active time you know what I'm saying quickly so it's like I give him a five and I want bread at six darn it yeah you know it's hard in the analogy that I always use and I always wonder I think it's okay to make but tell me if it's not I always say you can't take nine women and make a baby in one month you know what I mean it's a linear you know you can't compress it necessarily I would do that what I would do would be to make things like crackers and you know what you can make with 100% whole wheat flour and you can roll them through tons of healthy seeds and they bake up really quickly and you can have them with dinner or I make things like roti which is a whole wheat non-whole wheat version of non which can be ready relatively quickly remember that in addition to fermentation like fermentation is also digestibility you can do this to some degree as it relates to the bread environment so not only are you increasing flavor but you're increasing digestibility phytic acid breaks down there's some good nutritional benefits to like having that longer process but what I would encourage you to do is to think about so bread making happens over a long period of time but with little active work it's kind of like it needs a check-in here's your fresh water here's your gruel I'll see you at 5 o'clock and we'll see how things are going it takes a little planning and I understand that that's like I can be a pain in the butt I totally get that so I would say if you want to do it quickly I think the best thing to do is to go grab a loaf of bread that way and then spend your time making a delicious meal loaf of bread, you know what I'm saying because there really is no shortcut for fermentation it just takes time but if you can sort of look at your process you can set a pre-ferment the night before in the morning you can get up and you can do a quick mix if you let it ferment in a cool place you can use thermal factors to slow down the rate of fermentation that sounds a little bit complicated but the activity is slower in colder environments so there's some ways to do some massaging but I would say that's like bread 201 as opposed to like the first thing you want to try because it's a little bit more like juggling knives than but give it a shot see how it goes your mistakes I made a lot of the no need normal routine takes days I think there's nothing wrong with doing that method there's nothing wrong with that method and I think that you probably get great flavor and you found ways to add grains and whole grain content that is also a way to add flavor so I don't think your bread making process is broken sounds like you're making it one straight up Walter Sands beginning to end I put some breads in the book and there are lots of breads out there that are like a 90 minute bulk you know and then you've got the rice too sorry that's pretty fast though yeah it's pretty fast it's an afternoon you know I used to my mom made a lot of bread and I remember coming home and it's like down the counter kind of thing you know it's like I don't know no one died do your kids bake with you they do some baking my middle child has her own cupcake business called the perfect cupcake but I'm trying to steer her away from it a little bit just because it's like sugar sugar sugar you know but the cupcakes are fun it's fun to watch her play with flavor and think about flavor and that's really fun but she got an order around Christmas for a bridal shower from 96 12 years old she's sort of looking at me and I'm going I'm not going to help you but somehow I'm on the hook for the ingredient cost we've got to talk business plan here but she's got her business cards and her tote bag and she's got containers so it's fun it's important making is fun right yeah any questions about King Arthur but if you get their catalog everything is a box oh the mixes yeah there are a lot of mixes and yeah we're trying to find our way to better communication and contact with serious home bakers so I actually spent all of last week with eight people in the conference room developing a prototype for a resource that would be like a really high premier resource for high end bakers who are serious about baking with natural leavens and all of that so a lot of what you see of the mixes but then dig in a little bit and you'll see some flowers and grain blends and things like that that are helpful but there are a lot of people who are trying to figure out baking and for a lot of people the easy way to begin is to go into a mix and there's a whole line called the central goodness where they've really tried to get a very short the shortest possible ingredient list into a mix but it's still a big portion of what people want and so we're trying to move the bar on that by influencing content and reaching people who are really interested in scratch baking it's hard the classes are fun I just took a class a couple of weeks ago and last year I took one and the classes are not targeted to their product they're really targeted to understanding the science of what's going on and having a real hands on experience with someone supporting you as far as your space and all of that and so it's not just like not that so it was too bad a bread but I learned a lot about the temperature of things and how the gluten works and all of that stuff so that I got a broader understanding because I had a lot of baking with yeast so that was what I was looking for and I certainly came away with a lot of that and when you come away what you have is successful and I've taken a Filo class too which sounds complicated but the class is not but I would definitely try one of the classes they take three or four hours depending on what it is and you really do come away with a beautiful product a lot of information and it's really well organized they're really well organized they get the timing down not to promote anybody have any other questions? you can play something on some banjo yeah I'd love to play for sure I'm just going to put a few books up there and let you know you're welcome to purchase the book the registers are downstairs I'm sure he'll sign them I can't believe that this man can bake bread write books and play the banjo he's got to have some hobbies thank you I'll play an old tune in banjo it's like the weather in Vermont if you don't like it just wait this banjo is made in North Carolina in Asheville and all the woods from right around Asheville it's walnut with this nice little piece of persimmon and all the hardware is made in the U.S. so I finally so it feels nice to play that