lummi island wine tasting Groundhog Day 2024
Friday, Feb 2, 4-6pm: Groundhog Day!
Open for wine tasting, sales, AND bread order pickup
“Jour de la marmotte — Groundhog Day” by Gilles Gonthier is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Hmmm…why does this keep happening over and over…?
This week’s wine tasting
https://www.facebook.com/thewolftrapwine/
Pascual Toso Chardonnay ’16 Argentina $14
Aromas of ripe green apple, pineapple and mango; full, fresh palate with bright acidity, finishing with a slight toasty hint on a smooth, lingering finish.
The Wolftrap Syrah Mourvèdre Viognier ’18 South Africa $12
Aromas of ripe plums, red currants, violets, Italian herbs and exotic spices lead to vibrant flavors of darker berries and spicy plum with hints of orange peel that linger on a juicy finish. Also way over-delivers for its modest price! (read more)
Chapoutier – Cotes-du-Rhone Belleruche Rouge ’21
Intense black currant and raspberry notes with hints of white pepper; juicy, lovely palate with silky, delicate tannins; good pairing for grilled meats, pizza, pasta, and and (someone says) especially lamb ragu!
Friday Bread Pickup This Week
Levain w/ Dried Cherries and Pecans – a levain is made the night before final mixing of the dough using a sourdough starter. This allows the fermentation process to start and the gluten to start developing. The final dough is made with the levain, bread flour and fresh milled whole wheat and then loaded up with dried cherries and toasted pecans. A nice rustic loaf that goes well with meats and cheese – $5/loaf
Pan de Cioccolate – Also made with a levain, this bread is a delicious chocolate artisan bread not an enriched sweet pastry dough with lots of eggs, butter and sugar. Rather it is a rich chocolate bread made with a levain, bread flour and fresh milled rye flour, honey for sweetness, vanilla and plenty of dark chocolate. Makes fabulous toast, even better french toast – $5/loaf
and pastry this week…
Traditional Croissants – Made with two preferments, a levain as well as prefermented dough – which is also known as old dough where a portion of the flour, water, salt and yeast is fermented overnight. The final dough is then made with more flour, butter, milk and sugar, laminated with more butter before being cut and shaped into traditional french croissants. I’ve heard some say these are the best they have ever had. 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 lengthy rotation cycle of several dozen breads and pastries. Each Sunday Janice emails the week’s bread offering to her mailing list. Orders received before Wednesday will be available for pickup at the wine shop each Friday from 4:00 – 5:30 pm. Go to Contact us to get on the bread email list.
Economics of the Heart: The Last Republicans
“Constitution Avenue Sign” by JSquish is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
This week on PBS Judy Woodruff did an in-depth interview with long-time Republican and card-carrying “old school” Conservative David Frum. He was briefly a speech writer for Dubya, sat in a couple of think tanks, is now an editor/writer at the Atlantic, and an outspoken critic of Trump and Trumpism. His own website shows his photo with the quotation “Those who seem to despise half of America will never be trusted to govern any of it.” (Some of us would prefer “should never be trusted to govern any of it again.)
Mr. Frum observes that the Tweetster has an intuitive talent for engaging and manipulating people’s fears in ways that:
- make them feel justified in breaking established rules of both law and civilized behavior;
- condition them to applaud when he breaks the rules and be encouraged /obligated to do it themselves on his behalf (as on Jan 6);
- convince them every criticism of him is really a criticism of them, because his words and actions are always on their behalf.
He sees the Tweetster as most Democrats do: a strange amalgam of circus barker, mob boss, and con man with an instinct for inspiring unquestioning loyalty to him from his followers to take up arms against a mythical Democratic “Deep State” he warns is committed to taking away their rights and their stuff and replacing them with foreigners, Blacks, Muslims, Hispanics, Asians, and non-Christians. Like some kind of Underworld shaman, he keeps his Maga Believers in a sort of trance where they feel completely justified in destroying property; threatening, injuring, and killing those who disagree with the Maga religion; and abandoning established conventions for civil behavior, not on their own behalf, but on his.
On that, Mr. Frum warns, quite apocolyptically, “If he regains power “the chaos will never stop.”
Mr. Frum’s philosophical aspiration seems to be an archaic and almost quaint belief that Conservative means “protecting the things that are precious about America, being cautious about change, and setting limits on power.” He seems to recognize, along with what we hope is a growing number of former Republicans, that another Trump government would likely be the end of both our country and our World. Therefore, along with card-carrying Conservatives Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Mitt Romney, George Conway, and hopefully a growing number of others, they are all campaigning for Biden in this year’s election.
It is hard to imagine that anyone would disagree with Frum’s observation that “balance between the two major parties is essential to maintain a need for continual compromise,” a kind of ongoing “satisficing” where neither side wins or loses, the trains run safely and on time, and people can trust their elected officials to serve the greater good and preserve the values and the set of rules set forth in the Constitution to which we all pledge allegiance.
The job of Government in our system, he suggests, is to manage and balance various grievances among groups, maintain a broadly shared sense of belonging, well-being, and sharing across this nation, making it work for everyone, and maintaining a functional set of institutions so that no one gets all of what they want, but “everybody gets enough to call it progress.”
Encouraging vision, huh…?
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