- [Announcer] Funding for Compass is provided in part by the Otto Bremer Trust, the McKnight Foundation, and members of Pioneer PBS.

Thank you.

- Hi, I'm Amanda Anderson.

Welcome to the June edition of Compass, the regional public affairs show on Pioneer PBS.

Thanks to everyone who has been tuning in to our monthly broadcasts.

The reason why we've moved to monthly rather than weekly broadcast episodes is so we can be a little more timely with our stories and responsive to what our audience, you, would like covered.

We update our social media regularly with videos as they're completed.

Most times, our stories are posted online before they air here.

We encourage audience interaction and feedback, so have your devices at the ready so you can comment and tell us what you think of each story as you watch.

First, when Michele Huggins started Doughp Creations, she wanted to focus on local.

She bakes healthy sourdough bread using local grains and donates some of it to the local food shelf.

- [Michele] Can you imagine standing in like a field of grass and your wheat and then like eating a piece of bread, like that's so awesome to the city girl.

(calming piano music) - [Amanda] Michele has maintained a love for cooking since she was little.

So after she moved to Granite Falls about seven years ago, whenever she got a craving for a particular dish that wasn't readily available, she found herself in the kitchen, whipping up meals from scratch.

Getting into baking, though, that was more of a slow boil.

- With cooking, it's a dash of this here, and a little sprinkle of that there.

And you taste along the way.

But when you start a loaf of bread, you know, you're not just gonna eat your starter and you're probably not just gonna have a spoonful of flour.

So I was just kind of anti-baking a lot and like, oh, if you use an extra teaspoon of this you could ruin the whole recipe.

And I was just really put off by that.

But I'm finding kind of just on my journey in life that I need a balance of structure and a little like wiggle room.

- [Amanda] After noticing the bread she was eating had more preservatives than flavor, she decided to give baking a chance.

Her company, Doughp Creations, is equal parts hip hop, freshness, and love.

- I don't really have like a bread journey, like I don't have a founder story.

Like this found me.

I did the best with what I had here.

And I was interested in using local food.

I was interested in family, and I was interested in small business.

- [Amanda] "You start out right, you end up right," as Michele says frequently.

And of course, good bread starts with good grain.

Luke Peterson runs A-Frame Farm, a certified organic farm in Madison.

Wanting to address climate change and also keep wealth in local communities, Luke started reaching out to local grain buyers about five, six years ago.

Michele is a regular customer, and Luke thinks that her business model is- - What I think everybody wished the world would be like.

I think it was like that at one time, I think we can get back to it, and I think we have to get back to it.

If you look at the way we buy and sell things right now, it doesn't necessarily consist of the buyer and the seller looking at each other in the eye and making a deal, which brings us back to the transparency part where we both know what we're getting when we work with each other.

Of the grain that I sell to Michele, like I keep saying it's fresh but I feel like that's really important considering the different techniques that are used for storing grain or where the grain comes from or how far has it traveled and how long has it been since it's been harvested.

Michele is probably one of the most unique customers that I have just because of how conscious she is about where she sources her grain from the varieties that she sources and the freshness that goes along with each loaf that she makes.

So she will come right to the farm and pick up a bag of our wheat berries.

(upbeat music) - All right, so this is how I start the process.

These are wheat berries.

This is a hard red winter wheat from A-Frame Farm, it's called Redeemer.

We were standing in the field where this grain was grown, so that's exciting.

- [Amanda] To maintain maximum freshness, she mills her own flour.

- So I just start the machine, and I have it on fine.

I pour in the grains.

Also, it sounds a little different with the different grains that you grind.

So like I said, this is like a hard winter wheat, So it's like the machine's working a little bit harder to mill it, I also have like a soft white wheat and it goes through a little more smoothly in the mill, so I feel like that's kind of interesting and adds to the sound of making your bread.

- [Amanda] Michele poured a couple of different grains through her Nutra mill, and to the untrained ear, mine, they sounded very similar, but maybe you can tell the difference.

So that was the hard red winter wheat.

Next, feast your ears on a soft white wheat.

- Does that sound a little softer to you?

All right.

- Next, she makes her Doughp dough.

- So I'm gonna start with my starter.

I put a rubber band on here to make sure that it's risen.

I fed the starter sometime this morning and this is how much it's grown.

- [Amanda] Michele prefers to start with her starter to avoid waste.

- This starter has been going for years for when I first started it.

You just keep feeding it and it grows.

That sounds kind of gross for food, but that's what it is.

(Michele laughs) - [Amanda] She does the float test.

- So if you pour your starter into water and it floats on top, it's living the dream.

- [Amanda] Next, she adds her milled wheat.

For this batch, Michele uses a combo of Redeemer wheat from A-Frame Farm and hard red winter wheat from Askegaard Organic Farm in Moorhead.

For this batch, she adds some bread flours, so we'll really be able to see the slap and fold process later.

- And for this, you're not trained to whip it.

You're just trying to pull it together and incorporate the wet into the dry ingredients.

That's another reason why I like this dough whisk, I feel like if I came in here with my hand it would like smush things and you don't want to start building gluten strands now.

This is just to incorporate everything while it's on what's called auto lease.

So with each stage of manipulating your flour, you want to let it rest so that it can adjust to what you just did to it.

You know, it's kind of like, "Simon says do this, Simon says do that," and then you kind of get discombobulated, right?

That's how you lose the game.

But if you're able to rest, it's easier to follow directions.

I've never said that before.

It's kind of cool.

- [Amanda] So, this first stage is done.

The dough then sits inside of her proofer for 30 minutes.

Michele describes a proofer as a heat box.

- The starter thrives on having like a warm environment.

So through each stage, I like to just keep it in a proofer so that it doesn't have to slow down and speed up again.

You keep it at constant temperature, then you know that it's constantly thriving.

- [Amanda] After 30 minutes, salt, more water, and back to the proofer.

Next, it's the most action packed part of breadmaking, aside from the actual eating of the bread, the slap and fold process.

Michele's method is to turn on some hip hop, (hip hop music) remove any and all jewelry, get into the slap and fold position, so wide stance, elbows out, and work with the dough.

She uses the dough's weight to help it knead itself.

This process works out some of the stickiness, develops gluten strands, and incorporates air.

- I think this is fine.

Sometimes I do it harder, if I'm mad.

(she laughs) - [Amanda] After the initial slapping, she'll let it sit, let it rest.

Then two more rounds of a slightly gentler stretching and folding.

And it'll sit in the proofer for several hours to rise.

- And I like to use a bigger container to let it live, like spread your roots, like let it go.

I have some smaller ones that I'll make, one little thing.

Also, you see the size of this, so when I make my Neighbor Loaves, I am, so I have to have like a smaller one too so that I can fit multiple ones in there, otherwise it would take me days.

Well, it takes me days already, but more days.

- [Amanda] So while the bread is resting, let's talk about Neighbor Loaves.

Michele briefly mentioned it.

- I'm part of the AGC, which is the Artisan Green Collaborative, and they provide a program called Neighbor Loaves, in which artists and bread makers, whether they're cottage bread makers like myself who bake from home or larger bakeries, donate to their local food shelf or place in need in their community.

- [Amanda] People can sponsor these bakes, pay bakers to bake bread that they donate.

Michele says that she feels she can provide at least a dozen loaves, whether she's sponsored or not.

Ray Martin arrives early every Wednesday morning to prep the shelves.

- And here comes my bread lady, brings me 12 loaves of bread, homemade sourdough bread.

- [Michele] I feel like this grain is important enough that people need to know.

It's healthier than some of the other products that we have on the shelf, but it makes me feel good and I know that it's needed.

- [Amanda] The Granite Falls Food Shelf is open from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM on Wednesday and serves Yellow Medicine and Chippewa counties.

But before the bread gets to the point of eating or donating, it has to be baked.

The baking stage has two rounds.

The first is 45 to 60 minutes of covered baking and looks a little like- - Boom!

So you see like it's got some oven spring but it doesn't have a lot of color yet.

So you take the lid off and let it brown a little bit more and you can see where I scored it.

I feel like that's just my trademark design now, not on purpose, it looks like a cactus a little bit.

So we'll just push that back in the oven.

- [Amanda] After another 45 to 60 minutes, the bread is done.

(calming piano music) Michele is also part of Bakers Against Racism.

She said that over the past year, especially with the heightened awareness around police brutality towards people of color, she's felt the need to bake for a bigger cause.

- I was holding a lot of negativity and negative energy and just like what can I do and what can I do from here?

So I just started finding fulfillment in my heart by giving back to my community, knowing my neighbors.

I identify with dough and I identify with bread.

I think that, it's like me, it takes time.

It's temperamental and it's misunderstood.

But once you digest it, you realize the awesome benefits that it has to offer.

I think that that's me here and as people get to know me, I think I'm cool.

Hang out with me.

(sentimental music) - Michele is based in Granite Falls, but anyone can order her homemade sourdough on her Etsy page.

Just search for Doughp Creations.

Next, Compass recently partnered with the Inclusion Network.

Learn more about their mission in this first video because we'll be hearing from them again.

This was produced and edited by the Inclusion Network.

(mellow guitar music) - Hi my name is Josette Ciceron, you can call me Jo.

I am a member of the Alexandria community and I've been here for about five years.

The Inclusion Network essentially became my home, it gave me a safe space to be myself, to be amplified, and to be able to share my story and say the things that I like to say.

- So the major ways Inclusion Network has been able to shift the conversations around inclusion and equity are through one of the biggest projects that we have done, Voices Talk Show.

- We didn't come here on our own accord.

We were literally ripped away from our land, stripped of our identities.

And once we went through all these things you went from slavery to, the Black Codes and all those other laws that just kept the system going, the system that we still today.

- I said, "I feel like as a Native American person, I'm kind of in the background."

People don't really, Native Americans aren't in the media, it's really just blacks and whites, so I kind of feel like I'm just like back here in the shadows, like no one really thinks about me.

- So I know, I know, and I see the pain.

I see that look in our eyes when I see them across from the Walmart or online somewhere.

I know what that feels like to feel so lonely.

And I can tell you, while it might not look like that in a 97, 98% white community, but there are doers here, and we're that Inclusion Network has the ability to give you a voice, has the ability to give you community that is welcoming and inclusive.

- Adding to that, you know, we have diversity training resources.

We've got a lot of like-minded leaders that are going to challenge the status quo and also bring conversation forefront.

So if you want to have that tough conversation work with your white fragility, you're welcome to Inclusion Network, to grow with us.

- The other way Inclusion Network has been able to expand our work is through the Speakers Bureau, our educational piece within the Inclusion Network where we actually focus on training, businesses, organizations in Alexandria community.

- So we kind of see it then that where we've got some of these, this is somebody else's perspective, we could go on and on, right?

But the visual of course is that there are some things that are more obvious.

Here we say behaviors, race, language, action, actions, gender, and style.

There are some that are underneath that we may not, first of all see, physical abilities like experiences, religion, culture, sexual orientation, thoughts, perspectives, values, age.

- Hi, my name is Scott Kent.

I'm a member of the Alexandria Police Department here in Alexandria, Minnesota.

And why did I become a member?

Out of compassion for our community, the empathy that I'd maybe not always exhibiting, I needed to listen to what our community is saying.

The Inclusion network is the place where I'm hearing voices that I may not be exposed to in different parts of the community, or in my realm of work.

- Hi, I'm Debra Ladoux, currently Chair in the Inclusion Network.

I've been with the group for about 14 years now.

One of the reasons I got involved cause I have a lot of diversity in my family, both racial, religious.

When you're younger and you hear negative comments, you don't really think a lot about it but as you get older it's like, "Hey, you're talking about my family now."

- So, one of our goals for Inclusion Network is to create critical thinking mass.

And for that we need volunteers, we need Board of Members, to hop in on our board and bring your ideas and bring your expertise so that we can develop a safe place for BIPOCs and for our white allies to build a better community.

- I remember coming in Alexandria 14 years ago and made to feel very welcomed here.

But I also observed over the years that not everybody was made to feel so welcomed.

If you came from a different race, religion, orientation, or had a different skin color, you are not always welcome with open arms.

That's where the Inclusion Network came in.

It became an opportunity for me to learn about my own biases, assumptions, prejudices, to get in touch with my own white privilege.

- So Deb, as a part of Inclusion Network team and a Chair, what is your goal moving forward?

- If we wanna be a vibrant, welcoming community we have to include everybody.

Everybody needs a voice at the table.

Everybody has a unique perspective and that's what it takes to make a community grow and be healthy.

(upbeat bright music) - You can learn more about the Inclusion Network and Voices Talk Show online @inclusionnetwork.org.

Next, in 2018 a creative community design-build process began at a vacant building on main street in Granite Falls.

Learn about the collaboration between the Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership and the Department of Public Transformation to re-imagine and renovate old vacant buildings.

This video was edited by Pioneer PBS's Esmeralda Ziemer.

- My name is Miranda Moen.

I am an architectural designer working with architect James Arentson of the Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership, collaborating with artists, Ashley Hanson of the Department of Public Transformation on The YES House Project where we're utilizing the creative community design-build process.

- So the next step of the process with the Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership is working on the creative community design build of two buildings in the Southwest region.

One of them is in Granite Falls here at The YES House and the second one is the Polis building in St. James.

So we have hired a team of incredible artists from across the country called The Homeboat Collective and they are pulling up on our shore to start this process of this creative community engagement series.

- The county and the city started to take real notice, recognizing they have a bit of a hazard developing right in the middle of this block downtown.

And then there was the question about what to do and how to approach this challenge because it couldn't be left alone anymore.

- I would explain the creative community design-build process as gathering people in a room, designers asking questions, and involving builders and trades people because those are the people that you need to make beautiful things happen.

- [Ashley] So the idea with this is to involve as many people as possible in the actual design process so that we can get ideas in from as many different community members to inform the actual built drawings of how we're going to create this space.

- There's no textbook for this.

You build it from the ground up and you source the solutions from the people, and when the community at large speaks to the outcome as a repair and not a demolition, the council is obliged to carry that forward as much as they can at a reasonable price.

It was definitely a surprise to look at public bid numbers received and realized that through negotiating with the demolition contractor, we could achieve a much more affordable outcome but still repair the building.

People from outside of the community can actually be really helpful because they don't see the building every day and they haven't watched it evolve or in some cases deteriorate over time.

So to come from the outside and say, "Here's some ideas, what do you think?"

The natural questions about how do we accomplish these goals will come.

Community development corporations can be a resource for finding funds, artists, arts councils.

We can all play an active role.

- During this engagement process, I wanna be as open as possible to hearing all of these ideas and knowing, you know what's realistic and what are things that me and my eventual staff are going to be interested in doing to keep with the mission and the heart of this place, but still open and invite so many of those ideas that we could never come up with on our own.

I'm action oriented and I want things to move very quickly.

I read a sign the other day that said, "If you want to move quickly, go alone.

And if you want to move far, go together."

And just reminding myself of that over and over.

It's like we are bringing a lot of people with us on this journey.

It's gonna be slow.

It has to be intentional.

It's not about me.

It's not about moving quickly.

It's about letting the process emerge as it needs to.

Five years from now, we will have rotating artists living in the apartment upstairs.

We'll have ongoing yoga classes, dance classes, meetings, events, things happening in the space all of the time.

There'll be a completely full calendar.

We'll have concert series.

We will have creative open collective, you know ideation sessions for future projects to happen in Granite Falls.

And we will have a coworking space so that people in my generation that maybe work remotely or wanna live in a small town, but don't really think about these kinds of spaces existing.

It's also an attraction for the region and bringing more young people to the area to envision kind of the rural town of the future.

- I think creative community design-build as a process is necessary for projects in rural spaces to communicate the importance of the place.

- Art through architecture is the beginning of the creativity that got people involved and providing lots of feedback.

The beauty of a creative process that is you don't know where you will end when you begin.

And the only way it actually works is to allow people to really be involved and to be engaged, voice their opinion, share in the process, to get people thinking about what options there were besides complete demolition.

- [Miranda] So today we're having what's called a community design share back at The YES House.

Essentially we have renderings, graphics, a video about the future space inside The YES House showing what our design scheme is for the building.

The reason for this design share back is really to have the community tell us what they think so far, whether they like it, whether they think there's something missing.

And I think that's what makes this project really exciting because of what we've heard from the community that they need.

- I think it could be transformative for small towns everywhere to rethink these spaces and have a plan for moving forward that really works and creates more potential for more change happening all over main streets.

- Finally, I want to share a snippet from a story that we're currently editing.

For the past few months, an artist in residence, Dani Prados has been working within the city of Granite Falls.

One of Prados' projects has been to bring color to the city's crosswalks.

(bright music) - [Dani] Each crosswalk you'll see is a part of a big community initiative at an open artist call.

Every crosswalk is based around the idea and the famous storytelling and each crosswalk tells a different story.

Our crosswalks down here were each designed by a different local artists.

So if we could get a round of applause for our local artists, Mira Isfeld, Tom Linquist, Jess Gorman, Adam Price, and Autumn Cavender Wilson.

And all of our incredible art around the schools was done by student artists.

- We really appreciate the creativity and the overwhelming support that all of these is gathered here in town.

It's a wonderful day.

(indistinct) Oh my God.

It is very bright.

- [Dani] It's been a journey that included both ship and grant funding through ship to increase public safety both in terms of reducing traffic and speeding in our main street and around our schools as well as bringing pedestrian traffic downtown which it looks like has worked so far.

So that's pretty exciting.

(upbeat music) - Thank you for watching this June edition of Compass.

Remember we encourage audience interaction and feedback.

So head over to our social pages and website and let us know what you think we should be covering.

And a heads up, the July edition of Compass will air on July 8th.

Thank you for watching Compass on Pioneer PBS.

- [Voiceover] Funding for compass is provided in part by the Otto Bremer Trust, the McKnight Foundation, and members of Pioneer PBS.

Thank you.