lummi island wine tasting mar 24 ’23
Hours this weekend: 4-6 pm Friday only
Friday Bread Pickup This Week
Honey, Wheat, Lemon & Poppy seeds – Made with a poolish that ferments some of the flour, yeast and water, but none of the salt, overnight. This results in a very active pre-ferment which is mixed the next day with the final ingredients which includes a nice mix of bread flour and fresh milled whole wheat. Some honey, poppy seeds and freshly grated lemon peel round out the flavors in this loaf. – $5/loaf.
Flax Seed Currant Ciabatta – Made with a poolish that ferments some of the flour and water overnight before being mixed with the final ingredients which includes a nice mix of bread flour and fresh milled whole wheat and rye flours. Loaded up with flax seeds and dried currants for a delicious bread. This bread is mixed with a lot of water that makes for a very slack dough so it can’t be weighed out and shaped like other bread, it is just cut into pieces. A really flavorful artisan loaf – $5/piece
and pastry this week…
Rum Raisin Brioche: A delicious brioche dough full of eggs, butter and sugar. Filled with golden raisins and chunks of almond paste and (wait there’s more!) topped with a chocolate glaze before baking!- 2/$5
To get on the bread order list, click on the “Contact Us” link above and fill out the form. Each week’s bread menu is sent to the list each Sunday, for ordering by Tuesday, for pickup on Friday. Simple, right..? If you will be visiting the island and would like to order bread for your visit, at least a week’s notice is recommended for pickup the following Friday.
Wine of the Week: Toso Reserve Malbec ’19 Argentina $21
Notes: Elegant and balanced with good concentration and ripeness;focused, clean notes of blackberry, plum, and ripe, dark cherries; a plush, elegant mouthfeel, easy tannins, and lingering notes of leather and Spring soil..
Pascual Toso winery is named for its original founder, who emigrated from Italy to Argentina in 1880 (OMD, that’s 140 years ago!). Sr. Toso settled in Mendoza, and with a family history in wine making, and intrigued by the exceptional quality of the vineyards in the region, opened his first winery in San Jose in 1890.
In subsequent years he (among others!) was a pioneer in proving the exceptional terroir of the Maipu Valley, where he bought land and developed vineyards. These days the winery has planted additional Bordeaux varietals cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc, which, not surprisingly, also do very well in Mendoza.
All these many decades later, the winery has changed hands over time and is now, like an increasing proportion of wineries globally, owned by a global corporation, which often leads to declining quality. In this particular case, though, the proof is in the tasting– this wine delivers a lot of flavor for its moderate price point!
This Week’s $10 Wine Tasting:
Maryhill Winemaker’s White ’20 Washington $
Sauv Blanc, Viognier, Semillon, Albarino and Pinot Gris blend makes for a flavorful Bordeaux-style white blend; a slow, gentle press cycle ensures optimum fruit character, and each varietal partially fermented separately before blending.
Townshend Cellars T3 Red Washington $18
Bordeaux style blend of cab, merlot and cab franc; fruit forward with hints of black currant and vanilla, with layers of complexity and depth through extensive oak aging in French and American barrels.
Toso Reserve Malbec ’19 Argentina $21
Elegant and balanced with good concentration and ripeness; focused, clean notes of blackberry, plum, and ripe, dark cherries; a plush, elegant mouthfeel, easy tannins, and lingering notes of leather and Spring soil..
Economics of the Heart: The Coming Scarcity of Everything
The recently released UN report on climate change has documented a very long list of ways that we humans could theoretically slow and reverse the catastrophic effects of the climate changes that we have brought forth on our Mother planet. The report analyzes numerous scenarios of atmospheric carbon reduction in detail, and concludes that yes, is still barely possible, if we act immediately, with deep, global, and unified commitment, that we could theoretically keep global average temperature increase under 1.5°C, and, you know, save the Planet. The report then goes into great detail analyzing how we got to this critical point and the possible outcomes of various global response scenarios.
In just the last two decades climate change has already caused substantial damages and irreversible losses to terrestrial, freshwater, cryospheric (permanent ice cover), coastal, and open ocean ecosystems. Hundreds of species have already migrated or perished from heat, drought, flooding, desertification, food scarcity, or increased predation, and human communities across the world are now regularly experiencing the worst storms, flooding, winds, and heat waves on record. And they are getting worse each year. It’s Here, it’s Happening, and it Getting Worse every day.
Even the tiny increase in average sea level rise of several inches in recent years has been enough to show us that coastlines are rapidly becoming economically uninhabitable already; it only takes one super-storm during a king tide to wipe out an entire community; how many times can one afford to rebuild?
Human populations across the world are now all experiencing the destructive manifestations of their own geography. Many places, particularly in lower latititudes, face increasing scarcity of both food and water as conditions grow hotter and drier. The UN report estimates that some 3.5 billion people are trapped in these failing “geomes” (just-coined term for “geographically bounded habitats”…?) where declining rainfall and falling food production pose grim prospects for the foreseeable future.
Roughly half the world’s population currently experiences severe water scarcity for at least part of the year due to a combination of climatic and non-climatic drivers. At the same time, ocean warming and acidification are adversely affecting food production from fisheries and shellfish aquaculture in some oceanic regions. The growing geographic– and hence also ethnic, racial, and cultural–redistribution of resource availability is combining with growing scarcities of food and water, failing governance, and increasing mass mortality from thirst and hunger to condemn entire populations to struggle for basic necessities.
It would be both wonderful and very surprising if the world were able to pull together into an “all for one and one for all” commitment. The Good News is that it is our best shot at an appealing global future, and it is “possible.”
Still…given what we know about human nature from history, leading up to and including the deliberate efforts of the energy industry to deny the dangers of climate change though they had sponsored the very studies — one of which I worked on 40 years ago– that predicted it with considerable accuracy. They spent many $millions over these forty years convincing people that global warming was nothing to worry about. All of this suffering, all of this anguish, and this existential threat to all life on our beautiful Planet Earth is because some greedy guys in suits were only concerned about their bottom line.
When you think about it, there seems to be something about our species that just doesn’t get the “system interdependence” thing…not the most promising species survival characteristic.
lummi island wine tasting mar 17 ’23
Winter Hours: 4-6 pm Fridays only
Friday Bread Pickup This Week
Pear Buckwheat – Begins with an overnight poolish preferment mixed the next day with bread flour and fresh milled buckwheat; the preferment allows the dough to begin to develop before the addition of toasted walnuts and dried pears soaked in white wine. – $5/loaf
French Country Bread – A a rustic country loaf made with bread flour, fresh milled whole wheat, and and a bit of toasted wheat germ. After building the levain with a sourdough culture and mixing the final dough it gets a long cool overnight ferment in the refrigerator. This really allows the flavor to develop in this bread. – $5/loaf
and pastry this week…
Chocolate Babka Rolls – A sweet pastry dough full of eggs, butter and sugar, rolled and spread with a chocolate filling, rolled up and cut into individual rolls that are placed in baking forms for baking and then brushed with sugar syrup after baking. – 2/$5
To get on the bread order list, click on the “Contact Us” link above and fill out the form. Each week’s bread menu is sent to the list each Sunday, for ordering by Tuesday, for pickup on Friday. Simple, right..? If you will be visiting the island and would like to order bread for your visit, at least a week’s notice is recommended for pickup the following Friday.
This Week’s $10 Wine Tasting:
Charles Krug Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc ’20 Napa $15
Cold-soaked before pressing and cold-fermented on the skins to develop rich and nuanced aromas and flavors of grassy lime, tropical fruits, and lychee, with a crisp, lingering finish.
Bodega Garzon Tannat Reserve ’18 Uruguay $15
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.
Pomum Red ’16 Washington $18
Carefully made Bordeaux blend of cab, cab franc, malbec, petite verdot, and merlot; aromas of red fruit-leather and exotic spices; flavors of black cherry, cranberry, and garrigue.
Economics of the Heart: Lies, Damned lies, and ‘Regular and Routine’
photo courtesy beardoholic.com
The classic phrase was made famous by Mark Twain, though for which he credited Disraeli; but the actual coining of the phrase is lost in the mists and myths of history. Mr. Twain’s version was ‘There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics.‘ (link). This story is told at some point in just about every statistics class everywhere for its suggestion that one can “massage” any statistical analysis to make it “prove” anything you want. Nowadays Fox News hosts don’t even bother with analysis, they just make it up as they go along. But politics aside, statistical analysis provides extremely useful information about groups of observations of any sort.
On our island front burner for some weeks now has been the recent ferry fare increase proposal unveiled at the January County Council Meeting by Public Works, and which is being rushed into law as quickly as possible with limited opportunity for input or reflective discussion. A central bone of contention between County officials and Island residents is that a primary reason for the fare increase is that Public Works has charged 55% of the $800,000 cost of a major infrastructure repair to ferry fare receipts as “regular and routine maintenance.” This practice is blatantly contrary to several elements of State and County law.
A few of us have been challenging this illegal assignment of $.8 million to the fare burden on the grounds that said repairs should properly be considered capital expenses because they add value and years of service to the structures in question. Indeed, the County has an annual contract with the State Dept of Transportation which specifically excludes such expenses from being classified as “ordinary maintenance.”
Many public and private entities have rules of thumb such as dollar limits to easily decide whether to account for a specific expense as capital improvement (adds value and service life) or as operations/maintenance expenses. The limit may vary depending on the size of the firm or agency, but around $10k is a common boundary. Under this standard definition, the $400k being charged to the fare box as “ordinary maintenance” is way, way, way out of line with convention.
Whatcom County has specific rules for ferry accounting laid out in County Code Chapter 10.34 In particular, 10.34.005B states:
B. “Operating cost” means all actual daily running expenses and all actual regular and routine maintenance and administrative expenses associated with the use and operation of all physical elements of the ferry system”
Curiously, this definition makes no mention of capital costs. Rather the central focus of the statute is on the intent of the words “regular and routine” to qualify an expense as a valid “operating cost.” So let’s take a look at common synonyms and antonyms of these words to get a bead on the main intention of this carefully chosen wording.
- synonyms of REGULAR: customary, periodic, recurrent
- synonyms of ROUTINE: everyday, normal, familiar
The feeling here is of calm waters, constancy, and predictability.
In contrast, here are the common antonyms/opposites of each word:
- antonyms of REGULAR: infrequent, occasional, unexpected
- antonyms of ROUTINE: exceptional, extraordinary, uncommon
The feeling here is of choppy waters, tension, and stress.
The takeaway is that great care was taken in the wording of the statute to ensure stability and predictability. Think about it: You want to be able to set fares that will likely stay the same for some years at a time. You want both the expenses and the revenue to be predictable and consistent from year to year. The goal of this wording is to ensure system stability, with fares covering the day to day expenses of the system, and for out of the ordinary expenses to be absorbed the same way as road washouts, bridge failures, and fires: from general taxation.
Let’s be clear: the statute as currently written limits the annual fare burden to paying “regular and routine” administrative and operating costs to maintain the same transportation options here as everywhere else in the County. If the new Public Works Director is successful in changing the rules to allow charging the fare box for major capital upgrades — a clear violation of both State and County laws– rising fares will continue to push frequent commuters to the mainland to be replaced by retirees and telecommuters. Not a pretty picture, and not a sustainable model because it forces its best customers to move away. So there’s a lot at stake for our community.
Along those lines, for those of you who have not seen Janice’s very thorough posting to the County Council on these challenges, it is highly recommended reading for all Islanders, and you can read it here.
lummi island wine tasting mar 10 ’23
Current Hours: Open 4-6 pm Fridays
OOPS! Recent Billing Snafu…
A couple of weeks ago we noticed our checking account seemed to be standing still. Some inquiries revealed that none of the credit card sales in the shop since mid-October were showing up in our bank account. Inquiry revealed that our credit card machine (the one we have been at war with for about two years) had not been sending the charges to the various stakeholders as it is supposed to do every day. Thus we learned how to make that “batch closing” happen manually, and they now appear in your account.
The good news is that yes, we really did have some sales (see 5 ft printout at left); the bad news is that a bunch of you just got billed for purchases that happened weeks or even months ago, and are justifiably puzzled. Well, that’s the story, and yes, you really did make that purchase!
Friday Bread Pickup This Week
Multi Grain Levain – – Made with a sourdough culture and 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 polenta add 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, aka sourdough, from a starter 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…
Pain aux Raisin– Uses the same laminated dough as croissants. The dough is rolled out, spread with pastry cream and sprinkled with a mix of golden raisins and dried cranberries soaked in sugar syrup. Rolled up and sliced before baking. – 2/$5
To get on the bread order list, click on the “Contact Us” link above and fill out the form. Each week’s bread menu is sent to the list each Sunday, for ordering by Tuesday, for pickup on Friday. Simple, right..? If you will be visiting the island and would like to order bread for your visit, at least a week’s notice is recommended for pickup the following Friday.
This Week’s $10 Wine Tasting: Small Vineyards Pre-Order Sampler
You wine shop old-timers know that once or twice a year we bring in a shipment of mostly Italian wines from a Seattle importer called Small Vineyards. Our orders usually follow a sit-down tasting at a local restaurant where we hear a story about each of the family wineries, wine makers, and the particular wines as we taste them, munch, chat. Yes, we think to ourselves... this is how wine tasting should be…relaxed, convivial, good wine, good food, good company!
As it turns out, the weather this year did not allow us to attend the Bellingham tasting. However, we hope to snag a bunch of bottles on Friday (if any are left) from earlier tastings in Skagit County. So if all goes well, we will have a selection to share with you on Friday afternoon! (see list)
Economics of the Heart: A Place to Call Home
https://www.hummingbirdsplus.org
Every living thing needs a home, a place where survival is at least possible. For most living creatures the conditions are quite narrowly defined for a habitat where they/we can at least survive long enough to reproduce, at best to thrive. As we mentioned last week, there have been numerous major extinction events in the fossil record, each one eradicating over 75% of existing species and turning the evolutionary clock back almost to zero numerous times. But life has managed to keep on ticking; pretty magical.
The species that currently exist here on our dear Planet Earth have continually been able to find the sometimes very particular places which met their needs for food, water, air, temperature, light, darkness, and shelter as conditions slowly changed over eons. Obviously, and to our great good fortune, the conditions here on planet Earth have been life-friendly for an unimaginably long time. But as we mentioned last week, many of the mass extinctions on the planet were caused not by cataclysmic events like massive asteroid collisions, but by the slowly changing background conditions on the planet, including atmospheric composition, ocean temperatures and salinity, humidity, rainfall, habitat, climate, food, predation…you know, everything.
The slow and ever-evolving conditions at every point on Earth’s surface have ever moved niches around, causing some species to perish, others to gradually migrate or adapt. But this world we live in now is in a very different situation than any we have seen in the fossil record. The habitability of this world is changing because of what our own species has done to it in the lifetimes of us current elders. Barely an eye-blink in evolutionary time, it has been long enough for us to multiply from 2 billion to 8 billion and cause catastrophic damage to the balance of Nature that created us.
Every geographic point on the planet has an historical set of naturally changing conditions that determined what kinds of life it was able to support, how well, and for how long. Every place has a story of how it has fared so far in this new world and what it is doing. So our current fantasy is to look at particular places at random and see what we can learn.
to be continued…
lummi island wine tasting mar 3 ’23
Open 4-6 pm Fridays
This Week’s $10 Wine Tasting:
Ryan Patrick Rock Island Chardonnay ’20 Washington $16
Aromas and flavors of wildflowers, crisp apples, honey, and cinnamon roll with a round, crisp, body and a graceful finish of sumac-spiced croutons.
Rubino Oltreme Susamaniello ’19 Italy $15
Fresh, fragrant notes of cherries, pomegranate, raspberries and ripe plum; fruity, round and minerally, with soft tannins and rich flavors; a versatile pairing with richer dishes.
Seven Hills Walla Walla Cabernet ’20 WA $32
Aromas of red cherries, black raspberry, and black tea, with hints of fresh herbs, cedar box, and earth; flavors of cherry, raspberry, dark chocolate, baking spice, and vanilla; medium bodied with plush texture, firm tannins, and balanced acidity.
Friday Bread Pickup This Week
Kamut Levain – Kamut, aka khorasan wheat, is an ancient, protein-rich grain discovered in a cave in Iran in the 70’s that many people who can’t tolerate wheat find more digestible. This 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 – which translates roughly as old paving stones. This is a ciabatta like bread with a lot of hydration so is 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
…and pastry this week…
Gibassiers – A traditional french pastry from the south of France. Made with a delicious sweet dough full of milk, butter, eggs and olive oil. The addition of orange flower water, candied orange peel and anise seed bring great flavor to these pastries. After baking they are brushed with melted butter and sprinkled with more sugar. – 2/$5
To get on the bread order list, click on the “Contact Us” link above and fill out the form. Each week’s bread menu is sent to the list each Sunday, for ordering by Tuesday, for pickup on Friday. Simple, right..? If you will be visiting the island and would like to order bread for your visit, at least a week’s notice is recommended for pickup the following Friday.
Wine of the Week: Seven Hills Walla Walla Cabernet ’20 WA $25
Seven Hills winery founder and 4th generation regional farmer Casey McClellan began planting grape vines in Walla Walla in the early 80’s, making it one of the the first few wineries in the area, and setting the stage for the rapid development of the Washington State wine industry over the forty years since.
Seven Hills pioneered the planting of primary Bordeaux varietals merlot and cabernet sauvignon in the area, demonstrating that the soil and climate of the area were ideally suited for vineyards in general and these varietals in particular. The winery has forged long-standing relationships with many of the most prestigious vineyards in the region, including Ciel du Cheval and Klipsun at Red Mountain and McClellan and Summit View in Walla Walla. The wines have an established reputation for a quiet, reliable quality. You will like it!
Tasting notes: Aromas of red cherries, black raspberry, and black tea, with hints of fresh herbs, cedar box, and earth; flavors of cherry, raspberry, dark chocolate, baking spice, and vanilla; medium bodied with plush texture, firm tannins, and balanced acidity.
Economics of the Heart: Looming Scarcities
In a recent book (2020), David Wallace-Wells (see video ) effectively lays out the stakes in humanity’s coy little dance around the profound existential threat posed by climate change. As we have discussed in this blog many times over the years, the world has clearly seen this coming for nearly fifty years and has done precious little to change its ways.
However, Wallace provides a pretty effective wake-up call that puts the problem into clear perspective with several compelling facts we now know for certain:
1. There have been at least five mass extinctions on our dear Planet Earth:
- 450 million yrs ago– 86% of species gone
- 380 million yrs ago– 75 % of species gone
- 280 million yrs ago– 96% of species gone!
- 230 million yrs ago– 75% of species gone
- 70 million yrs ago– 75% of species gone (dinosaurs)
These numbers are sobering and scary. What makes them even more scary is that:
2. All but the last extinction were the result of climate change.
The worst one was produced by a two-step greenhouse gas buildup that first raised global temperature by 5 deg C. ( 9 deg. F.) which warming in turn triggered massive releases of methane from the ground which made it even worse, and which very few species survived. A similar scenario could happen again if the icecaps melt completely and the tundra starts off-gassing methane from entombed remains of long-ago frozen animals.
3. More than half the carbon added to our atmosphere since the dawn of civilization has been emitted just since 1990, even though we have known the risks for nearly fifty years. We are speeding blithely along to more than four degrees C. of warming by the end of THIS Century! According to some estimates, that would render vast regions of the world uninhabitable because of direct heat, desertification, and, paradoxically, catastrophic flooding and landslides.
To this point climate change has already brought enough record-breaking forest fires, hurricanes, floods, landslides, and tornadoes to have left few outright climate change deniers getting much traction with their arguments, and we have seen some signs of progress in the development and deployment of carbon-neutral energy production. But a lot of lives depend on how soon we can start bringing CO2 levels back down. Right this very moment millions of people across the world are already suffering from lack of food, water, shelter, and work.
As resources dwindle and more and more places become economically uninhabitable, competition for basic necessities is intersecting with increased numbers of failed and failing states with collapsing economies and infrastructure, powerless or lawless governments, and runaway inflation. And it only takes one climate disaster in an area to make it economically uninhabitable for more than a handful of people.
Millions of people across the planet will be seeking new locations as the number of habitable areas decreases and the moats protecting the habitable ones get increasingly impossible to cross.
2072 Granger Way