lummi island wine tasting march 26 ’21
(Some photos will enlarge when clicked)
Bread This Week
French Country Bread –A levain bread made with mostly bread flour, fresh milled whole wheat and and a bit of toasted wheat germ. A long cool overnight ferment in the refrigerator allows the flavor to develop in this bread. Not a refined city baguette, more of a rustic loaf that you would find in the countryside. A great all around bread – $5/loaf
Buckwheat with dried Pears & Walnuts – Made from a poolish preferment of bread flour, water, and yeast fermented overnight and mixed the next day with bread flour and fresh milled buckwheat. Buckwheat is a grass, not a grain. It is actually closer to rhubarb in the plant family. It has an earthy flavor that is complemented by pears soaked in white wine and toasted walnuts. – $5/loaf
Brioche Almond Buns – Made with a delicious brioche dough of eggs, butter and sugar spread with an almond cream filling of almond flour and even more butter, sugar. Tres riche!– 2/$5
Wine of the Week: Olim Bauda Barbera D’Asti
Asti is the name of the province, the town and the wines from a small portion of the Piedmont wine region of Italy, bounded by the Mediterranan on the south and France to the west. The suffix “d’Asti” appears in the names of several wines from the Asti subregion, including Barbera, Dolcetto, and both still and sparkling versions of Moscato. Barbera is the region’s most widely planted red wine varietal.
Grapes for this wine are hand selected after harvest, crushed the same evening, and immediately transferred into stainless steel tanks for fermentation. The fermentation temperature is managed not to exceeds 28°C. The wine continues to age in these steel tanks until it is bottled, and then ages in the bottle for several months.
Janice, our baker, is in the habit of bringing a bottle of wine with her to the wine shop to sip during lulls in bread pickup, and several weeks ago she brought one of these. It turns out that one of our main suppliers carries the wine, so we ordered some. As with many barberas, it delivers enjoyment above its modest price, and is compatible with a broad range of dishes.
Olim Bauda Barbera D’Asti ’17 Italy $13
Intensely fruity and fresh, with a distinct ripeness and vibrancy from first bouquet to the palate of fresh red cherries, dusty sweet spice, crushed stone, and wild herbal tones given lift and energy from brisk acidity and a long, zesty finish.
Partial Reopening Coming Soon!!
Given the increasing pace of Covid vaccinations, especially among our many retired wine club members, recommended precautionary behaviors have been loosening for several weeks. The CDC is now permitting those who are at least two weeks past their second doses to meet more or less normally without masks or distancing.
We just got back from three days in the trailer at Deception Pass State Park, our site adjacent to Mike and Diane’s. It was a savory taste of what used to pass as normal behavior– gathering with friends around a table or a fire for food, wine, and meandering conversation, things we have lived (and suffered) without for an entire year now. We were reminded of an old Star Trek episode which ends with Capt. Picard’s being rescued after being partially robotized by the Borg, with several electronic implants on his head and face. When Counselor Troi asks him how he feels, after a short pause he says, in a gravelly, somewhat electronic voice, “Almost…Human.”
We are now looking at offering limited wine tastings beginning in the next few weeks, so we can all feel a little more Human again…!
The Economics of the Heart (see photo link)
For the past four years, this portion of our weekly blog was reserved as an ongoing lament on the ongoing deliberate deconstruction of our country by “the former guy” in collusion with a large percentage of Republican Representatives and Senators in Congress. Today we begin exploring a new theme which has been looking for expression for several decades now.
From an economics perspective, it includes things like sustainability, equity, distributive justice, stewardship, compassion, empathy, selflessness, personal responsibility…let’s just call them the long list of virtues humans have valued and sought to attain on most paths of moral development. So it’s a big topic.
The January insurrection at the Capitol has revealed a well-developed Authoritarian Movement in our country that is fully committed to the concentration of power in the hands of a radical coalition of religious extremists; angry, self-centered, and unfulfilled white men; and a cadre of soulless political grifters who make daily bargains with whatever Devil might keep their sorry butts in office for yet another day.
The final 2020 election results have brought the welcome reprieve of a little breathing room in our nation’s current existential struggle. We have the luxury of a little time to inhale and exhale fully from time to time, and it is very important that we develop that skill and practice it regularly. You can be sure that none of the assailants at the assault on the Capitol (or any other assault, for that matter) was exhaling fully, because anger just doesn’t work that way.
One technique for exhaling more fully is toning. You just pick a vowel, inhale, and sing it out its tone. “Om” is a well-known example. As you repeat it, you gradually and quite naturally make the tone longer. You discover that the range between full inhalation and full exhalation is much larger than is familiar to most of us, though singers know it very well. Even a minute or two can be very calming.
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