lummi island wine tasting nov 8-9 ’24
Hours, Nov 8-9 ’24
clouds in the slough…
Friday Bread This Week
Poolish Ale – the preferment here is a poolish, made with bread flour, a bit of yeast and a nice ale beer for the liquid and fermented overnight; a great all around bread with a nice crisp crust – $5/loaf
Buckwheat Walnut & Honey – Also made with a poolish, buckwheat and bread flour. Buckwheat is actually a seed (not a grain and therefore has no gluten) that adds an earthy flavor that in this bread is balanced with a little honey. Some toasted walnuts add a nice crunch and just a touch of honey for a little sweetness; goes well with meats and cheeses – $5/loaf
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 as if that wasn’t enough, topped with a chocolate glaze before baking. Ooh la la, what’s not to like. I can only make a limited number so be sure to get your order in early. -$5/loaf
Island Bakery has developed a rotation cycle of several dozen breads and pastries. Each Sunday the Bakery emails the week’s bread offering to the mailing list. Orders received before 5 pm Tuesday (and not already claimed) will be available for pickup at the wine shop Friday from 4:00 – 5:30 pm. Contact us at least two weeks before your visit to get on the bread list .
This week’s Wine Tasting
Garzon Single Vineyard Albarino ’20 Uruguay $34
Elegant pale yellow in color; fresh and vibrant nose of tropical fruit with a chorus of subtle citrus and floral notes leads to a round, fresh, lingering palate with a saline minerality and a marked sense of terroir.
MAN Vintners Pinotage ’20 South Africa $12
Aromas of dark coffee beans, red berries, nutmeg, and vanilla spice turning to dark berries and smoky plum; rustic yet silky and juicy, with smooth tannins, balanced acidity, and comforting intensity.
The Wolftrap Syrah Mourvèdre Viognier ’21 South Africa $13
Syrah-mourvèdre blend; aromas of ripe plum, red currant, violets, Italian herbs and exotic spices; vibrant flavors of dark berries and spicy plum with hints of orange peel that linger on a juicy finish. (read more)
Economics of the Heart: The Agony of Defeat
our ferry crossing Hales Passage, Mt. Baker background
So…we taste the bitterness of profound defeat after an 8-year struggle. We grieve for the shredding of our Constitution and the great nation we have loved, served, and felt blessed to have been part of. While half of us voted to keep it alive, a slight majority was brainwashed by a decade of 24/7 mis/dis-information from Russia, China, Fox, and social media bots into believing the same lies they heard over and over for years. The consequences of their gullibility will rock the entire World Order for the foreseeable future and mindlessly destroy our planet’s ability to support life. And there’s nothing we can do about it. Or, as sangha brother Jikai famously put it many years ago:
Everybody knows that the dice are loaded, Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed;
Everybody knows that the war is over, Everybody knows that the good guys lost…
We have suggested for many years that the default organizations of human societies are tribalism and feudalism. At one end of a spectrum the entire group is part of decision-making, and at the other end one or a very few leaders hold complete authority. And lots of variations in between. In any given place over a long enough period of time, chances are that social organization has gone through most of them.
About 40 years ago, a an interesting and cheerful guy named Ernest Callenbach wrote a little book called Ecotopia. The premise was that for various reasons Washington, Oregon, and California broke away from the rest of the US to form its own nation. I was on the faculty in Environmental Studies at Western (“WWSC” in those days), where the book became the “book of the Quarter.” Callenbach visited for several days and there were lots of discussion sessions. I presented a paper called “The Economics of Ecotopia” for a meeting of the Society for Utopian Studies ( a fascinating group of people!) the following year.
The recent election results emphasize that our broader West Coast region more strongly supports broad, sustainable, pro-environmental policies with long-term incentives and constraints to slow global warming as much as possible as soon as possible. The incoming Administration and Congress still deny that global warming is a real problem. And that is a Real problem.
Everything we know about Project 2025 suggests its main goal is to concentrate wealth and power into a very few selected hands, at any cost. Its policies offer no discernible social benefits and a long list of social costs. On the other hand, one expects the corporate types would keep an eye on their bottom lines as climate damages mount. Though the next few years promise to be Ugly, climate destruction is not good for anyone’s bottom line, and will mostly affect local and county budgets and require federal action.
Media is all feeling toxic at the moment, so we are backing off for a bit. We walked Ulee down to the coffee stand by the Beach Store this beautiful morning, schmoozed with friends, toasted the reassuring “moat” that separates us from the mainland, and actually laughed a bit. Because, you know, we’re already in Ecotopia and hope to start exhaling in the near future.
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2072 Granger Way
