lummi island wine tasting jul 17 ’26
This week open Friday only, closed Saturday
another glorious morning…!
another glorious morning…!
Friday Bread This Week
Kamut Levain – Kamut, also known as khorasan wheat, is an ancient grain with more protein than conventional wheat and more digestible for some. Starts with a levain, fermented overnight before being mixed with with bread flour and whole kamut flour for a nutty, rich flavor. – $5/loaf
Rye w/ Currants, Pumpkin Seeds & Cracked Coriander – Made with a rye starter and mixed w/ bread flour and freshly milled rye flour, some molasses, malt syrup, pumpkin seeds, currants and cracked coriander seed. – $5/loaf
and pastry this week:
Morning Buns – Made popular by Tartine Bakery in San Francisco using the same laminated dough as croissants. Dough is rolled out, spread with a filling of brown sugar, orange zest, butter and cinnamon, rolled up, and sliced before baking. – 2/$5
This week’s wine tasting flight
Cannonball Chardonnay ’22 Calif $16
Nose of pear, pineapple, citrus, and stone fruit; medium bodied, smooth palate; polished style with hints of oak; partial malolactic fermentation and lees-stirring adds a pleasing rounded texture.
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.
Chakana Estate Selection Malbec ’20 Argentina $25
Opaque, bright purple in color; pleasing nose of plums and ‘spicy attic dust’ (?) ; full-bodied palate of plums and spice with good length, balanced acidity, soft tannins, and lingering finish.
Economics of the Heart: Big Carbon Still Claims Climate Change Isn’t Real
Lummi Island reefnet fishery
Everybody knows that the accelerating Global Warming over the last 50 years is being caused primarily by the burning of “fossil fuels” formed in the Earth’s crust over millions of years from the bodies of carbon based life forms.
Beginning in Britain around 1760, human beings figured out that that the potential energy available from burning coal offered enormous potential for generating energy to drive production, transportation, heating, cooling…the foundation of the global Industrial Revolution. Very quickly human society evolved from an agrarian and craft economy to one dominated by industry and machine manufacturing, mass production factories, assembly lines, and capital-based economies which concentrated wealth into the hands of a burgeoning population of “Capitalists.”
In a certain sense the Industrial Revolution was not that big a change from the long-standing feudalism in Britain and Europe, in which wealth was already concentrated among titled landowners and hereditary royalty. Workers learned trade skills, apprenticed, and found employment where possible. The long-term effect would be to concentrate wealth even further, not just with Royalty, but also with the emerging capitalist class, which developed their own sense of entitlement getting their indoctrinating MBA’s.
Fast forward to today’s United States, and we see the emergence of a far more virulent attachment to wealth formation by a relatively tiny handful of already very, very, very, very rich men. Most, if not all, are multi-billionaires who engage in some forms of political philanthropy. In 1982 the combined wealth of the 400 richest Americans was $92 billion; in 2025 it was $6.6 trillion, an enormous increase concentrated in a very small group of individuals who as nearly as we can tell, spend a large % of it buying politicians to help them make it even bigger.
At the present moment the Tweetster is selling our country bit by bit to our enemies, moving full speed ahead to accelerate global warming, selling the White House piece by piece, creating conditions for millions of deaths and vast suffering across the world, and of course littering the World with tasteless testaments to his bottomless vanity.
Global warming is the greatest threat to life on Earth in millions of years. It has been deliberately ignored by Energy CEO’s for 40 years, making climate change, habitat loss, storms, tornadoes, floods, sea level rise, droughts, and wildfires more frequent and deadly across the world. The living world is struggling to survive, and yet the carbon-mining oil execs keep lying and making it worse.
There are direct lines connecting Republicans to favors for oil execs and selling out the long-term survivability of our planet not just for human beings but for entire networks of interdependent life forms that keep it all functioning.
One is moved to ask, WTF are these silent Republicans in Congress thinking as they look down at their fingernails as the stupidest President and Cabinet the nation has ever seen continue their looting, lying, and lunacy? Is that some kind of “loyalty?” with some imagined “benefit?” Are they all on drugs? Under threat of violence to themselves or family?
As I have probably pointed out here at some point, in summer of 1980 I had a 10-week summer fellowship at Battelle Labs in Richland, WA. Their Economics lab had a major grant from Dept of Energy to look at the economic impacts of possible global warming from a buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. My piece of that was to explore the potential economic impacts on global fisheries (my PhD major).
There had been several independent studies funded by DOE. They were very sophisticated, with carefully gathered data and analysis of likely effects on atmosphere, winds, rainfall, habitat, food supplies, ecosystem integrity. My paper was later published in Natural Resources Journal at the University of New Mexico a year or so later. At some point it was discovered by a radio station in Toronto (fisheries are a major element in the Canadian economy), which interviewed me online. At close of the interview, when asked about what I thought might happen, I remember musing that, giant energy producers being what they were, they would likely drag their feet. Skeptical, yes, but I never for a moment imagined that the industry would make excuses and do NOTHING for the next 40 years!
So yes, climate change is a Big, Real Deal, and the evidence even 50 years ago in those studies was careful, thorough, and convincing. It was important that action be taken quickly because habitat, food supply, spawning, reproduction, and survival of marine fish are dependent on particular ranges of temperature, salinity, food availability, and successful spawning, all of which would be threatened by global warming.
It is the Big Oil lobby that has kept lying all these years, downplaying the existential dangers of global warming even as fossil fuel production and use continued to grow, until we are so far into it there may be no return.
What kind of people DO s*#t like that??!!
lummi island wine tasting july 10-11 ’26
July- August Hours: 4-6 pm Friday & Saturday
cloud reflections….
Friday Bread This Week
Whole Wheat Levain – Sourdough mix fermented overnight to start gluten development. About 25% fresh milled whole wheat, a ‘toothy’ crumb, great texture and flavor and a nice crisp crust. – $5/loaf-
Breton – Flavors of the French Brittany region; bread flour, fresh milled buckwheat, and rye make for interesting flavor, and sel gris – Brittany grey salt adds minerality to pair w/meats and cheeses- $5/loaf
and pastry this week…
Black Sesame & Candied Lemon Brioche: Brioche dough full of eggs, butter and sugar. Filled with fresh lemon zest and candied lemon and topped with a black sesame streusel before baking. – 2/$5
This week’s wine tasting flight
MAN Chenin Blanc ’24 South Africa $14
Free-run juice preserves a crisp, clean, natural character; light, bright flavors of quince, pear, and pineapple, palate of fresh stonefruit and apple, and a round, soothing mouthfeel.
Kiona Lemberger ’22 Washington $14
Perfumed aromas with traces of orange zest and flower, with notes of blueberry; an agreeable palate that pairs particularly well with spicy foods!
Pascual Toso Reserve Malbec ’22 Argentina $21
Dry, full-bodied and richly layered with aromas and flavors of ripe blackberry, sous bois, and toasty oak, with firm, fine-grained tannins that go well with savory, rich. or spicy spicy dishes. A long-time local favorite!
Economics of the Heart: Revisiting Joan Robinson, Pondering Graham Platner
Maine Senate Candidate Platner
Over the years on numerous occasions I have instinctively been drawn to a brief phrase from early 20th century economist Joan Robinson. Born in 1903 in England, and an early proponent of Keynesian economic theory, she established what came to be known as “The Cambridge School,” and was a prominent force in shaping economic theory during the Depression.
Here’s the quote: ““Every economic system requires a set of values, a set of rules, and a willingness in the people to carry them out.”
That concept was a central plank in FDR’s New Deal, which increased taxes on the ultra-rich to fund projects that created jobs for unemployed workers and spurred infrastructure development to boost economic development. Like cranking to start an old Ford of the era, it stimulated employment, production, and individual incomes just as Japan and Germany were building war machines.
The very rich were very unhappy about increased taxation on their vast wealth, which they considered as, to quote Dick Cheney, “their Due” for some reason, an entitlement for their investments. This idea that the owners of the means of production deserved huge profits went hand in hand with the notion that workers were sort of drone-like, undeserving creatures who served them at subsistence wages for which they should be grateful.
For nearly 50 years a handful of the world’s wealthiest white men have been plotting to take it all back, reducing wages, eliminating public funding for the expendable needy, embracing climate change, abandoning environmental regulations, and replacing the Constitution with some kind of dumbed-down, compliant, Christian police state.
All of this is the background for strange goings-on around Maine’s 30-yr Democratic Senator (lifetime appointment?!) Susan Collins, who has perfected the art of saying she will vote one way, but always voting with the nastiest Republican version.
Enter Graham Platner, unlikely political contender for Collins’ seat in the coming election. As a Marine he did three tours in Iraq and a fourth year with the Army National Guard in Afghanistan. Service in Iraq and Afghanistan were considerably more risky than service in the earlier Gulf War. Nevertheless, numerous Afghan War and Iraqi War veterans have recovered and returned to combat and have served two or more tours. Also, it is important to note that while the Vietnam War had a 2.6/1 wounded-to-killed ratio, the Afghan and Iraqi Wars registered ratios of approximately 15/1…lots more injuries.
I take a particular interest in this election because a grew up in Maine (Bangor), took ROTC at Bangor High, graduated from the Naval Academy, and my ship did one tour in Vietnam, carrying various cargo and personnel in and out. Later, as a psychotherapist, I learned a fair amount about PTSD, how it blocks people, and how to work with it. And it is that understanding that makes me sad that Mr. Platner was forced to bow out of the election at the last minute because of behavior that was almost certainly a result of PTSD, and a result of his service to this country.
That brings us squarely to operative hypocrisy that the so-called President, a convicted rapist, can steal $billions from our Treasury, fire our professional civil servants and top military leaders on a whim, sever ties with our historical allies, sell national secrets to our enemies for personal profit, and do and say any F-ing thing he wants without consequence while making us a second-rate nation in the eyes of the World. But a decorated combat Marine with PTSD from his service gets humiliated with big slaps in the face from Democratic “leaders.”
lummi island wine tasting july 3 ’26
Open Friday July 3 from 4-6 pm
(closed on the 4th)
Friday Bread This Week
Barley, whole wheat & rye levain- Nice mix of bread flour, fresh milled whole wheat and rye. A fair amount of black pepper and toasted walnuts give this bread great flavor with just a bit of peppery bite to it. Works well with all sorts of meats and cheese- $5/loaf
Spelt Levain – Spelt is an ancient wheat w/ a nutty, slightly sweet flavor and is made with a levain before blending with bread flour, spelt flour, fresh milled whole spelt and whole rye. – $5/loaf
and pastry this week…
Chocolate Croissants! – The traditional laminated french pastry made with sourdough and another pre-ferment to create the traditional honeycomb interior, rolled out and shaped with delicious dark chocolate in the center. – 2/$5
This week’s wine tasting
Quinta de Aveleda Vinho Verde ’24 Portugal $14
Loureiro, Trajadura and Alvarinho blend; apples, lemons and a touch of ripe pear fill the palate. It is an off-dry very young white wine, refreshing and crisp with a mineral aftertaste…a longtime local favorite!
Alto Moncayo Zisnero Garnacha Spain $16
Ruby red; aromas of cherries and currants; pleasant freshness with notes of laurel and toast, balanced acidity, lingering palate.
Stoller Helen’s Pinot Noir ’19 Oregon $25
Elegant nose of heady floral, baking spice, and red fruit, which gives way to secondary notes of earth and black raspberry. The palate is layered and vibrant, which carries red fruit flavors and a ferrous minerality through a long finish.
Economics of the Heart: Corruption, Self-enrichment, Abuse of power, and Defying the courts.
Every American in the last 250 years has known what the “Fourth of July” stands for. We have taken pride and joy in it, marched in parades for it, lit firecrackers and sparklers in summer twilight, picnicked and barbecued with friends and family, and wholeheartedly sang the Anthem, the Battle Hymn, and America the Beautiful together.
We knew we were uniquely blessed and proud, happy, grateful, and committed to doing whatever it might take to preserve this blessed nation and its freedoms. It seemed Solid, Strong, Safe, and Reliably committed to a Constitution which defined the rules.
No surprise it has been gut-wrenching to experience it all being ripped to pieces not by armed enemy nations, but by a domestic coup outlined and described in great detail by Heritage Foundation’s manifesto known as Project 2025 and made public in February of 2024 for all to see. We have written about it here in a scores of posts. P2025 was designed from the beginning to do away with Constitutional government completely and replace it with essentially a business plan to privatize control of Federal Assets into the greedy hands of the 0.1% that already had most of the nation’s wealth but somehow needed it all.
The United States of America, the richest and most powerful nation on Earth has been the target of a massive power grab and no-holds-barred reorganization, looting, and traitorous defiance of Constitutional oversight of the federal government. They systematically replaced the competent, loyal, intelligent, and experienced career civil servants who have kept the lights on, wheels turning, laws enforced, regulations followed, and the work of the nation done to high standards since the New Deal, with deeply unqualified, less-educated, untrained, unquestioning, mean-spirited traitors.
Fast forwarding through 18 months of White House defiance of Congress, the Constitution, federal laws, individual rights of citizens, asylum seekers, people of color, and critics of all persuasions to today brings us to a surreal world. The conjoining fiascos of the White House so-called” fight night,” the reflecting pool disaster(s), the deliberate demolition and despoliation of the White House, its grounds, its art, and its history.
It’s all about Destruction, Insult, looting billions from the Treasury, selling secrets, pardons, and favors through bitcoin and family. It is not governing, it is using the power of the United States to hurt as many people as possible as much as possible. The bottomless greed and cruelty lie directly at the feet of the card-carrying sadistic psychopath who always lies and whose only enjoyment in life is making people suffer.
Below are links to a few quotes from a couple of thought-provoking recent Salon articles by writer Heather Digby Parton, whose perspective we have found ourselves nodding and agreeing with for several months. Below are a few brief quotes from each article to tease your interest.
https://www.salon.com/2026/06/30/how-donald-trump-hijacked-americas-birthday/
“throughout these last 250 years, many have looked to America as a beacon of hope, opportunity and freedom from places that had too little of all of that… this weekend’s “celebration” in the midst of what is more and more looking like a slow-motion ethnic cleansing all the more disorienting. The Supreme Court’s ruling, issued June 25, allowing the deportation back to failed states and war-torn countries of millions who have made lives here drives that point home.”
“It’s tempting to say that the (July 4) celebration has become a metaphor for Trump’s second term — but then everything from the tariffs to the Iran war to the Reflecting Pool is the same metaphor, which pretty much says there’s no need for metaphors. Because of course, our national 250th birthday celebrations would be botched. Everything is.”
And from: https://www.salon.com/2026/06/30/how-donald-trump-hijacked-americas-birthday/
“It’s a cruel quirk of fate, or maybe just a tragic irony, that we are celebrating America’s semiquincentennial during one of the most surreal periods in American history. We’ve certainly been through tougher economic times, and our latest war in the Middle East is not as ambitious as even the ones we waged earlier in this century. But I don’t think things have ever been as downright strange on both a domestic and global level as they are in the era of Donald Trump. Celebrating the Declaration of Independence under these circumstances is downright phantasmagoric.”
“In 1976, having come through the tumultuous period of the Vietnam War, Watergate and massive social change, the country seemed to be in the mood to pretend they had all never happened. The bicentennial celebrations took place over the course of a couple of years and memorably included the 26-car American Freedom train, which carried historical artifacts across the country. There were concerts and festivals in various venues on the Fourth that featured superstars including the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Queen, The Who, Elton John and Elvis Presley. In retrospect, it presaged the flag-waving and jingoism that were at the heart of the Reagan Revolution.”
“Reports from middle American towns — like Lawrence, Kansas, which has welcomed the Algerian national team, and the Algerian fans who have gathered there — may just tell us more about ourselves than the crass, political pageant taking place in Washington. Perhaps the ideals of the Declaration do still live in the hearts and minds of ordinary people who can see the shared humanity in all of us. Maybe, just maybe, this joyful embrace of the world and the sport that binds it together more than any other is the first real sign that, for zthe noise and ugly divisiveness of the Trump era, there is still hope for us yet.”
The breathtaking magnitude of the grifted/grafted $billions being stolen by the Tweetster, his family, cronies, Congressional co-conspirators and federal administrators at every level for their own selfish enrichment has become increasingly obvious, documented “news.” Taken together with the ongoing cruelty of disappearing/torturing entire families of innocent immigrant refugees, a growing majority of Americans want their Constitutional government back, with improved checks and balances, ethical/reliable administrators sworn to protect everyone’s right to vote and have their vote correctly counted and implemented.
lummi island wine tasting june 25-26 ’26
Open Friday & Saturday from 4-6 pm
- Fridays tend to be louder and more crowded...
- Saturdays tend to be calmer and less crowded
Friday Bread This Week
Barley, Whole Wheat & Rye- Levain bread with sourdough culture built over several days with bread flour, whole wheat, barley, and re flours.- $5/loaf
Spelt Levain – Spelt is an ancient wheat w/ a nutty, slightly sweet flavor and is made with a levain before blending with bread flour, spelt flour, fresh milled whole spelt and whole rye. – $5/loaf
and pastry this week…
Chocolate Croissants! – The traditional laminated french pastry made with sourdough and another pre-ferment to create the traditional honeycomb interior, rolled out and shaped with delicious dark chocolate in the center. – 2/$5
This week’s wine tasting
Maryhill Winemaker’s White ’22 Washington $15
Sauv blanc, viognier, semillon, albarino, pinot gris; careful early morning harvest, slow press cycle, limited oak, and blended to keep each varietal’s profile in both aromas and flavors– a complex, versatile, and tasty white blend!
Maryhill Winemakers Red ’22 Washington $15
Aromas of blackberry, cherry, and baking spice with hints of chocolate and dried herbs; ripe black currant and cherries on the palate with hints of tobacco and a rich, chewy finish.
Stoller Helen’s Pinot Noir ’19 Oregon $25
Elegant nose of heady floral, baking spice, and red fruit, which gives way to secondary notes of earth and black raspberry. The palate is layered and vibrant, which carries red fruit flavors and a ferrous minerality through a long finish.
Economics of the Heart: The Grift That Keeps on Grifting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Liberty
Our beloved 250-yr old nation has suffered a long, Hellish ten years of concerted Republican trashing of everything noble this nation has ever stood for. Whether you call it MAGA, or Project 2025, or the Republican Party/Heritage Foundation’s traitorous efforts since the seventies, the Reagan Revolution’s trashing of “fair and balanced” news reporting, or the breathtaking hubris of modern wannabe Southern slave-owners, it has become starkly clear to the entire world that the United States of America is being dismantled and sold for parts by a small group of disturbingly emotionless billionaires.
It is also clear to everyone that the so-called “President,” family, and friends (yes, hard to imagine…) are raking in $billions on bitcoin, selling the White House piece by piece, and selling Presidential pardons to those who can afford them, while trashing the iconic landmark with cheap trinkets or destroying it completely. It is heartbreaking that any President could possibly be so tasteless or vain to do such a thing to “the People’s House” on the whim of a moment. It can only be understood as a deliberate middle finger to the entire nation by a sadistic psychopath.
Our nobly motivated Constitutional government of, by, and for the People has been beautifully symbolized since October, 1886 by what Americans have always known as New York Harbor’s Statue of Liberty. The French nation and artists who crafted it called her “La Liberté éclairant le monde,” or “Liberty Enlightening the World.”
And, indeed, she has been a symbol for the whole world, welcoming visitors and immigrants alike to our shores. She stood for something rare and beautiful that gave hope and welcome to immigrants longing for a better life. As Americans, we all stood with her and should still be standing with her, because that’s who we are.
The past year and a half have generated many yardsticks for how far we have fallen, losing respect from traditional allies and foes alike for the subversion of our values, the dumbing down of our leadership, and the shadows over what we really stand for as a nation.
Indeed, the Statue represents over two and a half centuries of competent, human, caring, and Reliable alliances, understandings, compromises, and promises. For some years now Congressional Republicans have rejected all of these values and replaced them with loyalty only to the $bottom lines of billionaires, and been largely silent as federal employees, military leaders, and Inspectors General whose job it is to keep agencies following the rules were eliminated on Day 1.
All that needs to happen to “make America Great Again” is to restore the values represented by our long history and symbolized by the Statue of Liberty. Sure, in one sense it’s just a metaphor. In a much more important sense, though it is an iconic symbol of the ideals, the meanings, and the guarantee and commitment to “certain inalienable rights” that Really made America Great in the first place.
2072 Granger Way