lummi island wine tasting april 7, ’23
Hours this weekend: 4-6 pm Friday
Friday Bread Pickup This Week
courtesy www.savoringitaly.com
Colomba di Pasqua or “Easter Dove”: A traditional Italian Easter cake made with a slievito madre, a sourdough levain fed every 4 hours at a warm temperature to make it more sweet than sour. This cake-like bread also contains flour, eggs, sugar and butter, candied orange peel topped with a crunchy almond and hazelnut glaze and pearl sugar before baking. The dough is baked in a dove shaped baking form as a symbol of the Easter dove. $5/loaf
Italian Breakfast Bread – A delicious lightly sweet bread great any time of day. Made with bread flour eggs, yogurt, a little sugar and vanilla as well as dried cranberries, golden raisins, and fresh and candied lemon peel. Perfect for breakfast toast or maybe for Easter morning French Toast! – $5/loaf
and pastry this week…
Hot Cross Buns – An enriched dough (butter, sugar, eggs and just a hint of whole wheat). full of spices, including cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger as well as currants and candied lemon and orange peel. Topped with a flavorful paste and glazed these are a delicious traditional treat to celebrate spring. – 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: Seghesio Zinfandel ’19 California $23
The Seghesio family has been growing zinfandel grapes in Sonoma since 1895, some five generations ago, most likely starting with cuttings from closely related primitivo vines brought from southern Italy. Zinfandel from the region has built a reputation for big, fruit-forward red wines that coat the palate and fill the senses with their plush flavors and aromas. Over the decades the winery has developed numerous single-vineyard labels, each with its own special characteristics and sometimes hefty prices.
As is the case for many top wineries, “deselected” portions of the harvest that are not selected for the single-vineyard bottlings are blended to make this annual blend, which is predictably delicious and enticing in its own way. From year to year it reliably delivers a delicious zinfandel at a modest price…and elicits an appreciative “mmmm” after the first sip….! read more…
This Week’s $10 Wine Tasting:
Chapoutier Belleruche Blanc ’20 France $14
Delicious blend of grenache blanc and roussanne; fragrant and perfumed with a light, grilled-lemon note over ripe melon,with a lingering palate of rich white peach.
Kiona Lemberger ’20 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!
Seghesio Zinfandel ’19 California $23
Aromas of deep dark fruits lead to a juicy, vibrant palate with notes of black cherry, black raspberry, fig, baking spice and fresh plum, and layered fruit flavors, finishing with supple, textured tannins and a lingering, complex finish.
Economics of the Heart: Comity and Common Purpose
Over the years we have often started this blog with a quote from economist Joan Robinson that so often seems to capture the essence of our world: “Every economic system requires a set of values, a set of rules, and a willingness in the people to carry them out.” And here is today’s lesson on the challenge of comity in the face of diverging values.
Today’s exploration is a bit of a lament on the current strained sense of comity in our little island community. Let’s begin with an old song that most of you under 75 probably never heard of, simply called MTA (click link for video). It was written in 1949 and made a famous by the Kingston Trio around 1960. As you will hear in the introduction, it is a ballad bemoaning a subway fare increase by Boston’s Metropolitan Transit Authority, bettah known back theaya in Beantown as simply “the MTA.“
Right here, right now on our not-so-idyllic-at-the-moment island, we are dealing with our own County’s controversial ferry fare increase proposal. Those of us who have studied the rationale offered for the increase do not believe the County has made a sufficiently convincing case for any fare increase at all, and a substantial proportion of the island population agrees with that view.
Nevertheless, the issue has been a political challenge right here in our own community, right here on the County Ferry Committee this writer sits on. Let’s just say that about 4.5 of the 7 members of the committee ( 5 from the island, 2 from mainland) believe that their primary responsibility is to serve the interests of the County Ferry Dept (authority figures…?), and we of the other 2.5 read our charge as an advisory committee to represent to the County Council the broad interests of the entire County, including especially our island.
Which brings us to the elusive path to comity. Of course there are times when we have disagreements with our friends. That’s when everyone’s built-up stock of comity should kick in, and kindness and reason prevail. Sadly, the “four and a half” seem to see their primary responsibility as in service to ferry management, not to the broader economic interests of the County as a whole.
At root there is something visceral and deep in our individual DNA and in the unconscious beliefs we all developed about our selves and the world from childhood experiences that makes some of us accede without question to perceived Authority, while others of us will refuse to do so without being convinced that the “authority” knows wtf they are talking about.
In any case, it is deeply troubling to find world views to be so sensitive to unconscious beliefs about autonomy and authority, and to find oneself at odds with the incomprehensible mindsets of people you thought you knew. 🙁
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