lummi island wine tasting march 27 ’26
Open Friday 4-6 pm
Friday Bread This Week
Kamut Levain – Kamut, aka khorasan wheat, is an ancient high-protein grain preferred by many who can’t tolerate other wheats. Fermented overnight with a levain before adding bread flour & kamut flour for a nutty, rich flavor and golden color loaf. – $5/loaf
Rye w/ Currants, Pumpkin Seeds & Cracked Coriander – Made with a starter fed with rye instead of wheat flour, bread flour and freshly milled rye flour, some molasses for sweetness, and pumpkin seeds, currants and cracked coriander seed make for an interesting flavor profile – $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- $5/loaf
This week’s wine tasting
Bread & Butter Chardonnay ’22 California
Essentially this is a mass-produced California chardonnay blend from many sources and engineered to mimic the pleasantly rich texture and smooth, vanilla-y, CA oakiness of CA chards of the past with .
Lapostolle Grand Select Carmenere ’23 Chile $18
Fresh nose with red fruits such as strawberries and plums in addition to red paprika and spices. It is well-balanced with a lovely red fruit expression, a medium structure, and juicy tannins.
Catena Malbec’23 Argentina $ 16
Leads with an elegantly perfumed, juicy bouquet accented with turned-earth aromas; precise, vibrant texture, and high-toned finish with a savory, sturdy core.
Economics of the Heart: Mean Spirits
that’s a lotta weight to carry, huh…?
Over the past year I’ve been reading a lot of books set in the Middle Ages by English historian and prolific writer Bernard Cornwell. In several overlapping series of compelling stories stretching over a thousand years of feudal Britain between about 500 and 1500 AD he has created a compelling picture of the times. The backgrounds he paints of feudal organization form a myriad of overlapping, self-proclaimed kings, each with an army of knights, archers, corrupt priests, fighting brutally for days at a time, and killing hundreds or even thousands of opposing soldiers in brutal, all-day battles face to face with swords, and at a distance with arrows from longbows and crossbows.
The image and feel of the period Cornwell portrays comes across as a time of relentless churning for power in an era driven by the need for standing armies for defense, for payback, and of course for the hubris of gathering ever more power. While each little village or town might have its resident farmers, fishermen, shopkeepers, and inns, it also had to maintain some kind of defense against surprise incursions of larger, wealthier, better armed bands who might attack on a passing whim and wipe out an entire town or village. Uncertain times meant “keeping an eye to weather” at all times.
The books as a group form a compelling portrait of the times and the destructive nature of humans, in particular wealthy males with an insatiable need to dominate. Most people of the era were serfs working at the pleasure of their lords for basic sustenance. Life was hard and unpredictable.
Over time power consolidated into larger political entities with more formal organizational structures, larger populations, and more complex economic relationships. But underlying it all was the enduring fact that a substantial enough number of wealthy, titled men were so consumed by the desire to control ever more that “old age” began at thirty for soldiers, and ordinary people were frequent “collateral damage.”
Today we stand, in this 250th year of our great country’s existence, in a time unpleasantly reminiscent of the senseless, thoughtless, ruthless, and ego-driven cruelty of the Dark Ages. Right now, mimicking the merciless, ego-driven real and fictional butchers across Cornwell’s books, steps the Project 2025 plan to end democracy and freedom for everyone but the trillionaires, the politicians they have bought, and the corporate CEO’s they either are or have bought.
Our country has survived many existential threats since its founding, but nothing like this coalition of a emotionless autistic billionaires and their fawning Congressional lackeys who, as the old saying goes, willingly sell their souls for a bigger share of money and power.
At present a quick view of the news at any moment of the day is enough to confirm that everything this Republican government is doing aims to turn our nation and perhaps our entire planet into a Dark, Dystopian, and Unsustainable world with a short, dark, and agonizing future.
Our survival requires that every Congressional Republican must be replaced asap with an actual human being, with a mind of his/her own, gratitude for his/her good fortune to be an American, and a dedication to restoring the Constitutional balance our country and our world most desperately need to maintain life as we have known it for 250 years.
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2072 Granger Way