lummi island wine tasting mar 21 ’25
Wine Tasting Friday Mar 7 4-6 pm
welcome signs of Spring…
NO Friday Bread Pickup This Week 🙁
This time every year our baker goes somewhere to watch a bunch of basketball games!!
Island Bakery has developed a rotation cycle of several dozen breads and pastries. Each Sunday the Bakery emails the week’s bread offering to the mailing list. Orders received before 5 pm Tuesday (and not already claimed!) will be available for pickup at the wine shop each Friday from 4:00 – 5:30 pm. Contact us at least two weeks before your visit to get on the bread list .
This week’s $10 Wine Tasting
McManis Chardonnay ’22 CA $14
Lush and inviting with pure fruit flavors, voluptuous palate of peach, apricot, vibrant citrus, and melon and an easy, creamy texture with hints of vanilla and a smooth, lingering finish.
Natura Carmenere ’22 Chile $14
Attractive bouquet with cherry aromas and hints of chocolate and spice. Big volume taste on the palate with soft round tannins and a firm, well-balanced structure. Good balance between fruit and oak with a long, juicy finish. 100% organically grown grapes.
Jacob Williams Syrah ’21 Washington $34
Hand-destemmed, open-top fermentation, manual punchdowns, 11 months in 12% new American oak; earthy aromas of crushed gravel and a juicy blue- fruit palate with flavors of red pepper berries and spicy finish.
Economics of the Heart: SS United States Still Afloat
flickr photo by chrisinphilly5448
The SS United States was the last great passenger ocean liner. She was launched at Newport News Shipyard in 1952, is about 1000′ ft long, 100′ wide, and 150′ from keel to masthead. And, because the Korean War was still happening, she was overbuilt and powered to allow easy conversion to military duties.
She holds the record average speed (30kts/35mph) for Atlantic crossings in both directions, and was iconic until nearly 1970, when air travel made such vessels too much of a luxury to sustain. For decades the United States Conservancy tried unsuccessfully to refit the ship, and the current plan 🙁 is to sink her in Okaloosa County, FL as an “artificial reef.” Alas, so it goes, as Vonnegut might have said.
In many ways the history of this ship parallels the history of our country; born in wartime, carefully built to the exacting specifications of our Constitution, and setting the high bar by which ourselves and others could be measured. Hers has been a long, slow passing from public consciousness as fewer and fewer are left that remember her era.
The story of SS United States is a haunting metaphor for our presently unfolding national crisis. Over the last two months, our country has been taken over by a small group of habitually angry, mean-spirited, sexist, racist white men. Driven by a toxic sense of personal entitlement, they are committed to destroying our 250 yr-old ship of state, dismantle her for parts, throw the passengers and crew overboard (or worse), severely punish anyone who resists their cruelty, and embrace our historic enemies-turned-fascist-dictatorships as an offering of adoration and obeisance. No one who has ever taken an oath to defend the Constitution will ever willingly accept that. Resistance will take as long as it takes.
We have learned a few encouraging things in these two months. First, these guys are not the brightest bulbs in the box. Second, their ham-fisted and illegal mass firings of essential workers at all levels across the federal government have led to chaos and legal pushback. Third, the heart-breaking sudden abandonment of our long-term traditional allies around the world, imposition of trade-stopping tariffs on long-established imports, and slashing of the federal workforce have put us in an entirely avoidable downward economic spiral which will hurt everyone.
To consider that let’s pull out the dog-eared chart of the Economic Circular Flow. The simpler versions only included households, businesses, products, and labor, leaving out environment, natural resources, health, and community well-being. My long-time personal favorite version is this very entertaining video from a long time ago by career environmentalist Annie Leonard, who explains it all clearly and convincingly. The government’s stated goals of pumping more oil and gas, backing off development of renewable energy sources, and doing away with the EPA will hit a lot of roadblocks in a nation much more committed to climate change than even a few years ago.
Since January we have watched in horror as the Project 2025 playbook has selected targets with the dual goals of crippling specific functions of federal offices and inflicting pain on specific categories of “enemies.” Their goals are not to save federal money but to steer it for their own $interests and for the sadistic pleasure of inflicting suffering on legal and illegal immigrants, non-whites, young women, and blue-state residents and governments. The glue that holds all the elements of Project 2025 together is the underlying philosophy of white male supremacy, often thinly disguised as “Christianity.”
Some 23 blue state attorneys general began meeting early last year to prepare for the “second coming” of the Tweetster. Their dedication to the rule of law prepared them to respond to each unfolding breach of the law with an array of federal lawsuits, most of which are in process at the moment. Their preparation and dedication has markedly slowed the ongoing coup agenda. Their aggressive efforts are an ongoing positive sign.
Also encouraging is the recent brief comment from the very conservative Chief Justice Roberts regarding the Tweeter’s desire to impeach judges he didn’t like: “For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose,” The comment is widely interpreted as a “teaching moment” that the T should not ignore.
Last and definitely not least mixed note: 1) our unilateral withdrawal from NATO and huge tariffs against historic trading partners are crashing the stock market, killing our farm export markets, and raising costs for everything we buy, making it likely our entire economy is in for a very rough ride; and 2) the worse things get economically, hopefully the more people will, you know, “turn Blue!”
lummi island wine tasting march 14 ’25
Wine Tasting Friday Mar 7 4-6 pm
shown: today’s Brunelli Rosso di Montalcino
a little wine can brighten some of these dark days…
Friday Bread Pickup This Week
Seeded Multi Grain Levain – Made with a sourdough culture and using a flavorful mix of bread flour and fresh milled whole wheat and rye. A nice mixture of flax, sesame sunflower and pumpkin seeds and some oatmeal adds great flavor and crunch. And just a little honey for some sweetness. A great all around bread that is full of flavor – $5/loaf
Polenta Levain – Also made with a levain, known as sourdough, in which the sourdough starter is fed and built up over several days, then mixed with bread flour and polenta in the final dough mix. This bread is a nice rustic loaf with great corn flavor. – $5/loaf
and pastry this week….
Black Sesame & Candied Lemon Brioche: A delicious brioche dough full of eggs, butter and sugar. Filled with fresh lemon zest and candied lemon and as if that wasn’t enough, topped with a black sesame streusel before baking. Ooh la la, what’s not to like…? – 2/$5.
Island Bakery has developed a rotation cycle of several dozen breads and pastries. Each Sunday the Bakery emails the week’s bread offering to the mailing list. Orders received before 5 pm Tuesday (and not already claimed!) will be available for pickup at the wine shop each Friday from 4:00 – 5:30 pm. Contact us at least two weeks before your visit to get on the bread list .
This week’s $10 Wine Tasting
Vielle Ferme Blanc ’23 France $12
Flavorful blend of bourboulenc, grenache blanc, roussanne, ugni blanc, & vermentino delivering seductive aromas of jasmine, hawthorn, and pear with flavors of blood orange with delicate saline notes.
Garzon Tannat Reserva ’21 Uruguay $18
Deep purple color, fresh spicy aromas of plums and raspberries, full-bodied palate with ripe tannins and minerality make for a terroir-driven wine of unique identity.
Brunelli Martoccia di Luca Rosso di Montalcino ’20 Italy $24
Classic, dignified structure with approachable, wonderfully bright fruit; bright nose of cranberry, cherry, and slate; smooth, integrated tannins, and thoughtful, composed finish.
Economics of the Heart: Ego => Karma
In 1965, a typical CEO got paid about 20 times what an average employee earned. In those days the top goal of a company was to maximize the return to shareholders; executive focus was on quality, reliability, productivity, and customer, client, and employee satisfaction. But by 1980 CEO focus was starting to shift away from long-established goals of maximizing productivity, product/service quality, research and development, which slowed innovation and started reducing product/service quality and reliability.
Instead, because CEO compensation was becoming increasingly tied to a company’s share value on the stock market, board rooms became more concerned with keeping share price high and costs (including employee compensation) low than in keeping quality high. These same forces are responsible for turning Boeing into something of a poster child for the purposeful decline of a highly respected company with the disastrous series of failures in its rollout of the new 737 Max a few years ago. Hundreds of people died and a highly regarded, iconic company’s reputation was trashed; but the CEO still makes millions.
The forces behind these shifts in long-term American business pride and practices can be traced directly to the changing focus of top business schools over the same period, as students were taught to extract resources instead of creating value. Of note is that in 1985 Harvard Business School deliberately shifted its curricular focus by hiring a graduate of Milton Friedman’s “Chicago School” for a top position. Friedman long championed the idea that only when markets were completely unregulated could the magical forces of the market’s “Invisible Hand” lead inexorably to the optimal allocation of scarce resources in which all players would thrive. Btw, Friedman is the guy who made famous the line “there’s no such thing as a Free Lunch.” (My personal feeling was always that Friedman was only believed because the corner of his mouth turned up in a perennial little smile…but we digress…
The problem that we resource economists have always had with Friedman is that he refused to consider significance of the vast number of ways in which markets consistently reward unfair labor practices, price gouging, monopolization, pollution, environmental damage, over-extraction of resources, and gross inequality in economic outcomes. Business schools went all in for deregulation of markets, and Reagan and his merry band of Heritage Foundation financial advisors launched the ongoing war on economic efficiency, social fairness, environmental protection, and the worthy goal of modest economic security for every citizen. It also led to the deep recession at the end of 2007. Btw, it is no coincidence that for some decades we have seesawed from Republican administrations looting and crashing the economy to Democratic ones that get it back on track. Dubya crashed it and Obama fixed it. Tweetster crashed it and Biden fixed it. At the moment the Tweetster is on track to crash the entire world economy. So how did we get here?
Starting in the 1980s, consistent with the 1000-page Heritage Foundation’s “Plan” for the Reagan administration, business schools began a long transformation in philosophy and orientation that reflected shifts in business practices and in the economy at large. In 2016 William Lazonick saw that changes in the core teachings of business schools would ensure that firms would not give workers a fair shake. At that time, Wall Street was taking off and American businesses were becoming increasingly “financialized” —meaning that executives started to base their business decisions more on the goal of boosting their firms’ stock prices, and turning away from investing in the productive capabilities of employees, which had long been the cornerstone for rising American living standards.
For 40 years these wealth-concentrating practices have been squeezing millions of households between decreasing wages and higher prices for everything. People are hungry and homeless not because they are lazy, but because those who are already financially secure are not spending enough of their earnings to keep the economic circular flow economy going. Many well-educated workers can barely make ends meet, while more and more less-educated people cannot afford housing even if they work full time.
The basic fact is that everyone on the planet is by necessity both a worker and a consumer, and ultimately the purpose of an economy is to manage household income and expenses optimally. It is the basic Circular Flow: at the end of each day, the total amount spent by everyone has to equal the amount received by everyone. If anyone is hoarding, then someone is starving. If lots of players are hoarding, lots of people are starving. We are all in this together.
Congressional Republicans are curiously united in their reticence on these developments and thereby are declaring war on our Constitution just as we should be planning the celebration of its 250th birthday. Let’s be clear: this Administration has been spitting in the face of the Constitution all day every day since before Inauguration. All of their actions demonstrate their commitment to replace our Constitutional government with an authoritarian dictatorship, realign our country away from our traditional allies and trading partners, and realign it with Russia and its ilk, in defiance of the very specific oaths all have taken to support and defend the Constitution.
Let’s be clear… this is not “politics as usual.” Every such action by a Congressional Republican or Cabinet member in direct contradiction to the Constitution is a conscious, deliberate act of treason, and should be treated as such. They are all already traitors, every single one. Project 2025 Republicans (pretty much all of them) have deliberately conspired to start this new Civil War. We all know at a gut level that everything we have known and loved about our country is at stake, and that we must fight these bozos for it until we win, however long it takes.
lummi island wine tasting march 7 ’25
Wine Tasting Friday Mar 7 4-6 pm
clearing morning fog…
Friday Bread Pickup This Week
Kamut Levain – Kamut, also known as khorasan wheat, is an ancient grain that has more protein than conventional wheat. Some people who can’t tolerate wheat find kamut to be more digestible. The bread is made with a levain that is fermented overnight before being mixed with with bread flour and fresh milled whole kamut flour. It has a nutty, rich flavor and makes a golden color loaf. – $5/loaf
Le Pave d’Autrefois – Translates roughly as “old paving stones.” This is a ciabatta-like bread with a lot of hydration so it isn’t really shaped so much as simply divided into approximate squares – hence the ‘paving stones’ name. Made with a mix of bread flour as well as fresh milled whole wheat, rye and buckwheat flours for a lot of hearty whole grain goodness. A great artisan bread -$5/loaf (or paving stone) – $5/loaf
and pastry this week….
Traditional Croissants – Made with a levain as well as “old dough” where a portion of the flour, water, salt and yeast is fermented overnight. The final dough is made with more flour, butter, milk and sugar, & laminated with more butter before being cut and shaped into traditional French croissants. Quantities are definitely limited so if you want croissants this week be sure and get your order in early! 2/$5
Island Bakery has developed a rotation cycle of several dozen breads and pastries. Each Sunday the Bakery emails the week’s bread offering to the mailing list. Orders received before 5 pm Tuesday (and not already claimed!) will be available for pickup at the wine shop each Friday from 4:00 – 5:30 pm. Contact us at least two weeks before your visit to get on the bread list .
This week’s Wine Tasting
It has been many years since we visited Seguret, possibly the Most Picturesque Village in France. Washington winemaker Bob Betz had suggested it was not to be missed, and so we made a point to visit. Like many designated Picturesque Villages, there is little Industry beyond Being, well, Picturesque, constantly Posing in a way. Every turn of an alley, every stone stair climbed, every archway-framed view has its Finger on your Cute Button before you can even begin to shrug and exclaim Jacques Robinson!
This photo was taken from the window of a (of course) Charming Little Tea Shop about halfway up the steep, narrow, and winding cobbled walkways of the village. It was great to sit down, have a little something, and explore the interesting selection of teas. We settled on an Oolong tea called Tung Ting (aka Dong Ding), which has become a Favorite Late Afternoon soother.
I bring this up today because this weekend we are pouring a white wine from Seguret which blends some of our favorite white varietals (see notes, below). Hopefully it will taste almost as good accompanying the view from our wine shop window as it would if you were actually there!
Domaine de l’Amauve La Daurèle, Côtes du Rhône Villages Séguret ’23 France $21
Grenache blanc, clairette, viognier, & ugni blanc; expressive nose of white fruits, mirabelle plum, and acacia honey; soft on the palate with lively citrus flavors…very Food Versatile!
Lancyre Pic St Loup Vielles Vignes ’20 France $18
100 % malbec; unfolds with dark, enchanting notes of blackberry, grilled plum, and jammy raspberry with accents of orange peel, vanilla, and tobacco spice, finishing with balanced structure, plush texture, and a lengthy finish.
Idilico Monastrell ’22 Washington $19
Known as Mourvèdre in France, monastrell typically showcases tart dark cherry, freshly crushed pepper, some game notes, bright acidity and freshness and low alcohol levels. Fermented 10 days on lees and aged in neutral French barrels.
Economics of the Heart: Lock Him Up!
In five short weeks, Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 blueprint to end American Democracy (which they unveiled a year ago) has already decimated our civil service with many thousands of short-notice firings, deeply compromised the many-layered security systems in our national databases, given away or sold national security secrets to our historic enemies; abandoned our historic international alliances and commitments; gutted long-established civil service protocols and social support networks, eliminated oversight of federal agencies, and replaced competent, long-serving, professional, and dedicated agency leaders with deeply unqualified Maga sycophants who all qualify as “domestic enemies by taking oaths to the Tweetster instead of the Constitution. And all the while Congressional Republicans look away, mumble, and acquiesce.
All of this deliberate chaos is, as designed, taking huge daily tolls on national morale, our national and international institutions and relationships, the smooth functioning of our public sector, and both our own and the global economy. All of these actions violate both existing law and solemn oaths of office, and over 20 Blue-State AG’s have filed scores of federal lawsuits around the country.
Although these arrows have all been pointing in the same Authoritarian direction since the 2024 election in November, No One was prepared for the jaw-dropping and shameful White House shakedown of Ukraine and President Zelensky in the White House last Friday (Feb 28). That spectacle reminded us all, of course, of the 2019 whistle-blower exposure of the Tweetster’s threat to withhold Congressionally approved military aid to Ukraine unless Zelensky would lie about the Bidens, triggering an international scandal and the Tweetster’s first impeachment. The Oval Office meeting on Friday was clearly a well-rehearsed pay-back ambush that backfired by revealing Zelensky the hero, the Tweetster the self-obsessed sh**head he really is, and the others present the sycophantic fools they are.
The inescapable fact is that psychological assessments of the Tweetster’s behavior over many years have consistently correlated with textbook definitions of psychopathy and sadistic personality disorder, both of which were on full display in his aggression against Zelensky on Friday. He was loud, rude, bullying, blaming, coarse, and breathtakingly un-statesmanlike. His every action is solely in service of his hungry-ghost ego.The entire performance was not just a long-awaited act of revenge for Zelensky’s inadvertent role in exposing Trump’s bribe attempt to help him smear the Bidens. It was also part of his long-term fantasy of becoming America’s Putin, and at this very moment he is well on his way to that goal.
It should by now be obvious to everyone on the planet that these hateful, persistent, and ever-deepening personality disorders, aggravated by his obvious mental decline, are completely incompatible with the highly demanding requirements of an effective Presidency to listen, understand, consider, and discuss a broad range of complex topics. Of immediate concern is that with neither Congressional nor Cabinet consultation he has single-handedly abandoned our 80-yr alliances with our NATO allies and many other countries in favor of autocratic states including Russia, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Hungary, and North Korea, not to mention his weird side shows on Greenland, “Gulf of America,” immigration, DOGE, Musk, air traffic control, or actually having any sense of responsibility whatsoever for anything.
This is NOT politics as usual. Everything our country has stood for for 250 years is on the line, right now, right this minute. Every US Senator and Representative must be bombarded continually with demands that they show up, speak up, and defend our Constitution against Project 2025. Whether by 25th amendment, psychiatric evaluation, arrest, imprisonment, or “compelling retirement package,” Trump and his unqualified traitors must be removed from office IMMEDIATELY or we REALLY WON’T have a country anymore!
LINK: Call/write your Senators and Representatives NOW!
lummi island wine tasting Feb 28 ’25
Wine Tasting Friday Feb 28 4-6 pm
familiar sight at the ferry dock….
Friday Bread Pickup This Week
Whole Wheat Levain – Begins with a sourdouinal mixing of the dough- which is then fermented overnight in the refrigerator. This long slow process allows the fermentation process to start and the gluten to start developing. About 25% fresh milled whole wheat, a ‘toothy’ crumb, great texture and flavor and a nice crisp crust. – $5/loaf
Semolina Levain – Semolina is made from durum wheat, which is a hard wheat and often used in pasta. The flour has a lovely golden color that comes through in the bread. Uses a sourdough starter/levain that ferments overnight before mixing the final dough with bread flour, semolina and fresh milled whole wheat and little butter for a soft crumb. Makes great toast! – $5/loaf
and pastry this week….
Muffins – 4 for $5. All orders include 2 each of:
Almond Poppy Seed Muffins – Some people think of lemon with poppy seeds, but I think of almond. Everything you want in a muffin
moist and delicious with a streusel topping.
Chocolate Chip Muffins – Just like a chocolate chip cookie, but in a muffin! Made with regular white flour, eggs, buttermilk, butter and of course chocolate chips. Yum!!
Island Bakery has developed a rotation cycle of several dozen breads and pastries. Each Sunday the Bakery emails the week’s bread offering to the mailing list. Orders received before 5 pm Tuesday (and not already claimed) will be available for pickup at the wine shop Friday from 4:00 – 5:30 pm. Contact us at least two weeks before your visit to get on the bread list .
This week’s Wine Tasting
Lancyre Pic St. Loup Rosé ’20 France $15
Raspberry and pear aromas on the nose, with distinctive spicy, minty garrigue notes. Big, bold and firm on the palate, ending with a long, clean finish; pairs perfectly with hearty salads, grilled vegetables, kebabs, stuffed tomatoes or charcuterie.
Phelps Creek Pinot Noir ’19 WA $28
Polished acidity balances a rich nose of leather and tobacco; palette of bright red fruits, lush texture full of
earth and spice notes reflective of Gorge volcanic soils.
Idilico Graciano Reserva Snipes Mountain ’17 Washington $28
Best known as a blending grape with tempranillo; all by itself this Washington graciano offers jammy aromas of raspberry and blueberry, cigar box, and light spice accents; fermented two weeks on the skins and aged 15 mos. in small French barrels; inky color, wild aromatics, huge fruit, zesty acidity, and lingering finish. Whew!
Economics of the Heart: Wealth, Entitlement, Chaos, and Cruelty
The rollout of the new so-called “Administration” since January has made it clear that its goal is the complete destruction of the United States of America. These are not just a handful of billionaires who can never have enough wealth to feel really secure or fulfilled. They are angry and hateful and are compelled to inflict pain and suffering on the entire world. It’s as if the only way they can feel any sense of stature or achievement is to cause widespread suffering.
We see this in the firings, the demotions, the complete abandonment of the rules that for 250 years have kept our country safe and prosperous, and continually has moved toward inclusion and universal well-being. What we see are a bunch of angry men who know no joy except in the suffering of others, as if making enough people suffer enough for long enough will give them some kind of peace, or revenge, or…?
This week’s suggested thought-provoking readings directly or indirectly resonate with our collective search for some explanation for the apparent need of Project 2025 to cause massive suffering to as many people as possible while destroying our alliances, and crashing the global economy.
Charlie Sykes interview with Olivia Troye
2072 Granger Way
