lummi island wine tasting oct 2-3 ’26
This weekend open Friday & Saturday 4-6 pm
fall colors are here, and wind is gettin’ colder…
Friday Bread Pickup is Back!
Multi Grain overnight preferment – The initial mix of flour, water, salt, & yeast is fermented overnight to allow a portion of the dough to begin enzymatic activity before mixing with bread flour, whole wheat, rye, cornmeal, and flax, w/ sunflower and sesame seeds added for crunch and extra flavor. – $5/loaf
Rosemary Olive Oil – Made with bread flour and freshly milled white whole wheat; fresh rosemary from the garden and olive oil make for a tender crumb and a great allaround bread – $5/loaf
and pastry this week...
Chocolate Croissants!! – Traditional laminated french pastry made with a bit of sourdough flavor and another pre-ferment to help create the traditional honeycomb interior, then rolled out and shaped with delicious dark chocolate in the center. Quantities are limited so get your order in early so you don’t miss out! – 2/$5
This week’s wine tasting
Tre Donne Roero Arneis ’23 Italy $21
Pale golden yellow; soft aromas of orange blossom, honeysuckle, nectarine, and lemon verbena; flavors of pear, peach, quince, and green apple; enduring minerality and balanced acidity.
Greenwing Columbia Valley Cab Sauv ’21 WA $19
Alluring aromas of Bing cherry, rooibos tea, loamy earth with hints of cinnamon, clove, and wild herbs; palate of red currant, raspberry and wild strawberry, fine-grained tannins and bright acidity.
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.
Economics of the Heart: The Enemy Within
Everybody wants economic security for themselves and their families. As a nation we pretend we all want that for everyone in our country. However, what we have seen and experienced over the last forty years has been a concerted effort of the Republican party to concentrate wealth (i.e., ownership of income-earning assets) into fewer and fewer hands. while at the same time flooding news and information airwaves with deliberate lies and misrepresentations about climate change, Constitutional responsibilities of elected and civil service federal employees, and 24/7 media insistence that they are the Good Guys. They have been playing that game for so long most people just wince and roll their eyes. Or as Leonard Cohen put it, “everybody knows that the dice are loaded.”
Clearly the single focus of the Republican Party since about 1980 has been to redesign public news media outlets to create a 24/7 Fake News cycle with the single objective of portraying “Democrat voters” as woke, corrupt, fictitious, mean-spirited, trans-gender, non-citizens out to destroy our country. But again and again and again, reality has demonstrated that the ultimate goal of the Republican Party is to concentrate the world’s wealth into the hands of a very small number of joyless trillionaire men at the top of a global society whom everyone else serves at the pleasure and whim of these, their masters.
Either these people don’t believe that the Global Warming that is happening at their behest is exterminating vast regions of habitat, croplands, fisheries, and forests across the planet, or like an ostrich with its head in a hole, really don’t care one way or the other. Nor do they care about the immense suffering their policies seem designed to accelerate, including water shortages, mass starvation (like when they did away with USAID), global warming, higher winds, increasingly destructive floods, storms, fires, and species extinctions— we have already seen enough of the reality of the long list of Horrors by now to know that yes, fifty years after knowing CO2 from fossil fuels was killing the planet, the Oil Giants are still pretending it’s a hoax and all the Republicans are pretending they’re telling the truth as our planet begins to die.
In various forms, most existing autocratic nations across the globe promote a certain brutality of spirit, by which the leaders accumulate vast personal wealth, and the masses do the grunt work and strive to subsist. They take what they want and leave the pack to sort out the rest.
As we have seen in our own country in the last two years, it’s not just about the $Money to these guys. Oh, no no no, monsieur, it is Much more than that.
Indeed, as card-carrying psychopathic sadists, it is, as we see from the obvious glee of the Tweetster whenever he inflicts criticism or anger on someone and gets to watch them suffer physically and emotionally, or when ICE sends a family to a torture prison in a distant country. It is an addictive pleasure that no amount of bombing little boats in the Caribbean, or elementary schools in Iran, or withholding aid from Ukraine just to torment its leader will ever relieve. There is a big dose of sadistic psychopathy in this picture that many watch every day on their Cruel Channel. Regardless of who is is speaking in the always crowded and tastelessly decorated Oval Office, everyone present knows that at any moment they can become the target of his disdain.
In the coming election our duty as Americans is to take majority control of both the House and Senate. It’s a tall order, yes, and almost certainly there will be a lot of squabbling, lawsuits, and court cases. At long last we have a moment where it is at lease theoretically possible to get control of Congress for the Tweetster’s Farewell Ride. Wouldn’t that be lovely…?!
lummi island wine tasting Sept 25-26, ’26
This weekend open Friday & Saturday 4-6 pm
hmmmm…might get a bit wet out theah this weekend…
ayuh, might wanna bring youh slickah just in case!
Friday Bread Pickup is Back!
Poolish Ale – the preferment here is a poolish, made with bread flour, a bit of yeast and a nice ale beer for the liquid and fermented overnight. Mixed the next day with bread flour and fresh milled whole wheat. This makes a great all around bread with a nice crisp crust. – $5/loaf
Buckwheat Walnut & Honey – another flavorful artisan bread made with a poolish, fresh milled buckwheat, and bread flour. Buckwheat has an earthy flavor that in this bread is balanced with a little honey. Some toasted walnuts add a nice crunch, going well with meats and cheeses – $5/loaf
and pastry this week...
Brioche Sugar Tarts – In France this pastry might serve as a goûter (kids’ afternoon snack). The tart is made with a rich brioche dough full of eggs and butter, rolled into a round tart and topped with more eggs, cream, butter and sugar. Great topped with fresh fruit! As always, quantities are limited, be sure to get your order in – 2/$5
This week’s wine tasting
Garzon Single Vineyard Albarino ’20 Uruguay $34
Medium-bodied white wine with dense texture, rich, elegant aromas, and succulent flavors of pineapple, lemon zest, chamomile, sea salt, stone fruits, and a bright, tangy acidity, pleasing creamy texture, and deep flavors!
Jordanov Vranec ’20 Macedonia $18
Aromas of ripe berries with notes of clove, nutmeg and cardamom; full bodied with ripe dark fruit and hints of herbs and dark chocolate on the well-structured finish.
Angeline Cab Sauv ’24 California $16
Opulent aromas of black currants, morello cherries, savory cedar and mocha with an undercurrent of petrichor. Red fruits are on full display to the taste, with bramblefruit, red plums and fresh strawberries; defined by its round edges and silky tannins.
Economics of the Heart: When Leaders Lose Their Followers
The stage is now being set for the most important American election of our lifetimes. Those of us committed to preserving American democracy are currently engaged in a battle to save it from the card-carrying foreign and domestic enemies committed to destroying it completely (pretty much every Republican in Congress.) From a broad perspective, this battle has been part of American politics for at least a hundred years, pitting the moneyed few against everyone else.
That changed for a while under FDR’s New Deal in the 30’s, which put unemployed people to work on Federal projects building infrastructure, investing in public education, creating Social Security, and stimulating that magical economic “circular flow” by which $$ circulates continuously from wages to purchases from people who grow stuff, make stuff, store stuff, and transport stuff.
We all have ongoing needs for safety, affection, food, water, shelter, and community in amounts sufficient to sustain and enrich our family and community lives. Everyone is in some sense both producer and consumer. We all need more or less the same basic things to stay alive, and we must all find employment to pay for them.
As we have mentioned before, the small class of ultra-rich business and banking guys who were responsible for kicking off the Great Depression/Crash a hundred years ago (not to mention Dubya’s crash of 2008! ) are the same ones who have been setting the stage to, more or less, change it back to the way it was in the booming profit margins of the early 20’s. The rich were very rich indeed, and the poor were stretched thin. And during the Depression, of course, finding even basic shelter and sustenance was elusive, creating substantial populations of homeless men, sometimes going door to door for scraps of food. (so my mother used to tell me)
The still-unfolding Republican “Plan” was set out in great detail by Project 2025 in its 1000-page playbook to replace American democracy with an Authoritarian police state. Our only hope for restoring Democracy and Constitutional law to our country is for enough loyal American voters to replace enough Republican Senators and Representatives in the coming election to give Congressional Democrats an ample majority in both legislative bodies in November!
lummi island wine tasting sept 18-19 ’26
This weekend open Friday & Saturday 4-6 pm
ah, a few dear faces from a few years back…
Friday Bread This Week
Sorry…our baker is away again this week…
back to regular schedule next week…!
This week’s wine tasting
Decoy Chardonnay ’23 California $16
Blended from several CA central coast vineyards; aromas of sweet mandarin orange and white peach; juicy and vibrant palate of tropical fruit flavors with a hint of oak from its time in barrel.
Angeline Cab Sauv ’24 California $16
Fruit-forward with aromas of lush cherry, cassis, rich cherry, and plum flavors with hints of vanilla and soft oak that over-deliver for the modest price.
Bodega Garzon Tannat Reserve ’18 Uruguay $16
Opaque deep, dark red; opens with enticing, delicious aromas of very ripe, dark fruit and berries stewed in their own liqueur, with lingering notes of spice, herb, and licorice on the seamless finish.
New Paintings by Anne Gibert
new paintings from Anne Gibert
Last weekend we replaced Anne Gibert paintings that have graced our
walls since Covid made public spaces implement health precautions like
masks and social distancing. Last weekend our walls were all updated
with her more recent collection of local scenery and the many critters that abound around us.
(with apologies for this hasty photo…!)
Economics of the Heart: Too Stupid to Lead or Be Followed
It is hard to comprehend how, in just two years, so much traitorous political effort has gone into reducing our United States from the most powerful nation and economy in the world to a pitiful, second-rate autocracy. In just two years of breathtaking incompetence, stupidity, cruelty, racism, lying, graft, and nonstop outright theft from the American people by a tiny handful of joyless multi-billionaires (now of course including the Tweetster) and a rapidly dwindling audience of Fox-news-addicted morons. The Fake President uses his Fake Cabinet, Fake Supreme Court, Fake Republican Party, and nonstop Fake News to make stupid people believe things are true that are not, and that things that are patently false are true.
The broad direction of all of this is to replace the elected government and Constitution of the United States with an autocratic dictatorship that will control everyone and concentrate national wealth into the pockets of a handful of joyless billionaires.
The metaphoric picture that emerges from this dystopian vision is of an impoverished America where workers earn subsistence wages (the lucky ones) or struggle to find food and shelter in a world without compassion, law, or justice. Somehow this vision is supposed to usher in a time of Christian Glory where a handful of white, billionaire, misogynistic men, acting in the name of their cruel, hateful, scheming version of the historical Jesus, take complete control of the “Seven Mountains” of social/civic/governmental organization: Education, Government, Religion, Family, Business, Media, and Entertainment. Thought and expression not specifically authorized will be monitored, limited, and punished with neither due process nor mercy.
We are now living the forty-years-in-the-works plan behind Project 2025, unleashed on the nation in 1980 by the Heritage Foundation-owned-and-operated “Reagan Presidency” and now launching the implementation phase of its wet-dream Dystopian Vision for America. A handful of white male billionaires will somehow enlist the historical Jesus to be the poster child for its massive replacement of democracy with a jack-booted, misogynist, national Christian militia (ICE is the prototype) with an open license to kill anyone for any reason.
Don’t know about you, but that sure as Hell ain’t my idea of Utopia.
This IS the new Civil War, folks, and the good guys have been losing for 40 years. A search through the ranks of contemporary Republican politicians has yet to find more than a handful who actually support the Constitution. The broad majority serve the Tweetster in deference to his demonstrated power to remove them from Congress by supporting challengers. This isn’t a government, folks; it’s a fookin’ crime family, both literally and figuratively. It would appear that if you took all the Republicans in Congress and boiled them down to their basic elements, you would find not a single ounce of Integrity.
A growing majority of American voters want their country back, and their/our voices are having impact on the national dialogue. The emerging topics of political consequence represent a long list of things American voters hate about this so-called Administration, as in “I’m mad as Hell, and I’m not gonna take it anymore!”
It’s not just that the so-called “President” is a self-centered, misogynistic, lying, cruel, mean-spirited man of limited intelligence and a complete inability to tell the truth about anything, to anyone, at any time. His only documented achievements are breaking laws and causing needless suffering to his world-full of Designated Enemies. He has destroyed our economy, our global alliances, our military readiness, and our influence for good in the world.
No one knows how the coming election will turn out. But everybody knows they must vote to restore justice, the rule of law, and every citizen’s right to vote. We know that administration loyalists in Congress and across federal agencies are regularly violating their Constitutional oaths, and doing their best to rig November state elections by illegally preventing voters from registering, voting at all, or having their votes count if they vote Democratic, especially in Red states, where Republican Fraud will be rampant.
Everything is at stake. The good news is that every day more and more citizens see what is at stake and committing to taking our country back for democracy. The bad news is that elections have been heavily gerrymandered in red states and further rigged to make blue votes disappear without getting counted.
We close today with yet another poignant lyric from Leonard Cohen…
And yes it’s come to this,
it’s come to this,
and wasn’t it a long way down…
wasn’t it a strange way down…?
lummi island wine tasting sept 11-12 ’26
This weekend open Friday & Saturday 4-6 pm
Maryhill’s Stonehenge
Friday Bread This Week
Sorry…our baker is away this week… 🙁
This week’s wine tasting
Riebeek Pinotage ’21 South Africa $14
Cold soaked overnight, fermented on the lees in 80% French and 20% American oak, and blended with unoaked wine to enhance fresh fruity flavors.
La Atalaya del Camino ’20 Spain $15
Intense aromas, fruit, and elegance on the nose with a distinct spiciness and a touch of floral notes. Rich and meaty structure, with rich dark fruits and hints of spice. Smooth and pleasant long finish.
Stoller Helen’s Pinot Noir ’19 Oregon $50; sale $30 !!
Elegant nose of heady floral, baking spice, and red fruit, notes of earth, and black raspberry; layered and vibrant palate carries red fruit flavors and a ferrous minerality through a long finish.
New Paintings by Anne Gibert
Last weekend we took down Anne’s paintings that have graced the wine shop since, we think, Covid.
In their place we have a wide range of newer ones of all sizes and subjects we think you will enjoy!
Economics of the Heart: What Everybody Knows
A classic tune by our old friend Leonard Cohen tells a story that fits our present moment with precision.
It begins like this:
Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor and the rich get rich
That’s how it goes…and Everybody knows
The “mid-term election” is what is supposed to be happening in every state across our country in November. But Everybody knows that’s not what will be happening, because for the past two years our federal government has been staffed with people specifically chosen because they are committed to the complete destruction of our Constitutional Government.
Before our eyes the last two years have unfolded on a schedule and trajectory laid out in great detail in Project 2025, which is very clear on its commitment to creating an Authoritarian State where all power is wielded by a handful of multi-billionaires whose only truly remarkable characteristics seem to be a complete lack of any semblance of empathy, honor, loyalty, kindness, or fairness.
On the contrary, we have seen over and over in the ten exhausting years of 24/7 domination of public media by a stunningly small, hateful, lying, mean-spirited, and cruel white men committed to turning America into a Christian dystopia where all wealth and authority is in their hands, voting will disappear altogether; women will become completely subordinate to husbands they don’t get to choose; and people of color will be expelled or exterminated to make room for, you know, Jesus.
Almost certainly the coming election will be rigged, as it was in 2016, 2020, and 2024. The Tweetster gets 24/7 media coverage while he dozes, lies, plays golf, and punishes everyone because he can and because he loves their pain. And pretty much every Republican goes along with its inherent racism, meanness, and cruelty.
This has all become an active Civil War, already hurting broad communities of the most vulnerable among us, including school kids, immigrants, people of color, women, the poor, handicapped, or “different” in any way from White, Racist, Christian, and worth at least $hundreds of millions.
It is a terrible thing to feel this deep shame for what our country has become along with ongoing disgust, disappointment, and grief that such mean spirits should prevail.
So…we keep fighting for this 250 yr-old American Dream we old-timers have been blessed to live.
2072 Granger Way