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.
lummi island wine tasting nov 1-2 ’24
Hours, Nov 1-2 ’24
Our Burning Bush doing its autumn thing
Friday Bread This Week
Pain au Levain – Made with a nice mix of bread flour and freshly milled whole wheat and rye flours. After building the sourdough and mixing the final dough it gets a long cool overnight ferment in the refrigerator. This really allows the flavor to develop in this bread. A great all around bread – $5/loaf
Cinnamon Raisin – Made with a poolish of bread and fresh milled rye flour fermented overnight before mixing with bread flour, freshly milled whole wheat, rolled oats. Some honey for sweetness, a little milk for a tender crumb and loaded with raisins and a healthy dose of cinnamon for a hearty rustic loaf. – $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
Mas des Bressades Rosé ’21 France $14
Bright and refreshing classic Rhone blend of grenache, syrah, and mourvèdre, with splashes of Carignan and Cinsault; nice flavor balance of bright red fruit, wild herbs, and a vibrant, spicy finish.
Jordanov Vranec ’20 Macedonia $15
Aromas of ripe berries with notes of clove, nutmeg and cardamom. In the mouth it is full bodied with ripe dark fruit and hints of herbs with a noticeable dark chocolate edge on the well-structured finish. Enjoy with cheese, beef, lamb dishes or grilled sausage.
Lancyre Pic St Loup Vielles Vignes ’17 France $18
100 % malbec; unfolds with dark, enchanting notes of blackberry, grilled plum, and jammy raspberry with accents of orange peel, vanilla, and tobacco spice, finishing with balanced structure, plush texture, and a lengthy finish.
Lovo Fior d’Arancio Sparkling Moscato ’18 Italy $15
A very rare clone of Moscato with an unmistakable citrus scent from nearby orange groves makes for a dessert wine with refined bubbles, and a beautiful, pearlescent color.maybe dessert all by itself!
Economics of the Heart: “To Serve Americans”
“To Serve Man,” Twilight Zone episode 1962 (link)
Well, gang, here we are, heading to the OK Corral to fight for a positive future for our nation and our world against the increasingly powerful forces of greed and tyranny. The stakes could not be higher. After 250 years of successfully navigating the perils of foreign and domestic enemies, our nation is putting it all on the line in Tuesday’s election.
Since about 1990, a coalition of wealthy, ego-driven business interests, claiming religious justification, have spent $billions lobbying to undermine our democracy by gaining control of the Supreme Court, the Republican Party, and a majority of State governments. Those forces, with massive cyber assistance from our national enemies China, Russia, Iran, and others managed to get the Tweetster “elected” in 2016, and are aiming this year to take control of the entire federal government– White House, Supreme Court, Senate, and House. Their goal is nothing less than throwing away our Constitution and its troublesome regulations along with civil service, concern about climate change, and anyone who stands in their way.
The model they are following, of course, is that of the Robber Barons of the late 19th century. They will make obedient servants of the overseers they select to manage a subsistence-level existence for the masses, and punish any deviation from their fascist control. They have said so on every page of their Project 2025 handbook.
The best metaphor for understanding what Project 2025 really is and really means is to revisit an old science fiction story from around 1950, by writer Damon White. The story was made into an episode of Twilight Zone back in 1962. The basic plot is that a space-traveling race of 9-ft tall humanoid aliens comes to Earth and willingly shares their advanced technologies to free us from drudgery, scarcity, and worry. The aliens stay around to set us up with carefree lives of plenty before taking off with promises to return.
Perhaps inadvertently they leave behind a book simply called “To Serve Man,” presumably a philosophical treatise on their advanced altruism. An enterprising young woman trained in cryptography translates enough of the book to realize, with some understandable horror, that it is a cookbook!
And so it is with Project 2025. The Heritage Foundation and its partner organizations have been building up to this moment since about 1975, a merger of interests of a very wealthy few, the Birchers, and a carefully cultivated glossy veneer of fundamentalist Christianity. These people see the whole world as as something to mine in evolving displays of their individual power and validity. They threaten our country and all life on our planet.
So: This is not an ordinary election. We must all vote as if our lives depend on the outcome, because they do; vote as if the future of life itself on our planet depends on the outcome, because it does. Violence is likely, so keep your head down. Poll terrorism is likely, so vote early. Election tampering in key states and precincts is likely, so watch for it. And the deck has been heavily stacked against “We, the People,” so be sure to vote and help others to vote.
Fingers crossed……and of course….VOTE!!
and on the philosophical side, some scholarly perspectives on our current situation…
lummi island wine tasting oct 25-26 ’24
Hours, October 25-26, ’24
Friday 4-6 pm Saturday 3-5 pm
EARLY AND OFTEN!
Friday Bread This Week
Pain Normand – A bread that brings in the flavor of french Normandy region which is known for its apples. Made with some fresh milled whole wheat and rye flours as well as bread flour then mixed with apple cider as well as dried apples, for a delicious artisan bread! – $5/loaf
Le Pave d’Autrefois – Translates roughly as old paving stones. This is a ciabatta like bread which has a lot of hydration so it isn’t really shaped so much as simply divided into approximate squares – hence the paving stones name. Made with a mix of bread flour as well as fresh milled whole wheat, rye and buckwheat flours for a lot of hearty whole grain goodness. A great artisan bread -$5/loaf
Pain aux Raisin – Made with the same laminated dough as croissants. The dough is rolled out, spread with pastry cream and sprinkled with a mix of golden raisins and dried cranberries that have been soaked in sugar syrup. Rolled up and sliced before baking. These are my favorites! As always, quantities are limited, 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:
Juggernaut Chardonnay ’21 Sonoma $17
Barrel fermented; aromas of apple, Asian pear and lemon meringue open to rich, lingering flavors of stone fruit, honeysuckle, and yellow plum, with finishing notes of vanilla, butter cream and hints of clove.
Can Blau Can Blau ’20 Spain $16
From the lovely Montsant wine region an hour SW of Barcelona, this long-time favorite calms the soul with aromas and flavors of cocoa bean, ripe dark fruits and berries, a seamless texture, and long, silky finish that improves with aeration.
Jacob Williams Red Mountain Cab Franc ’21
Marionberry nose, over spice and savory herbs with red berries, , silky tannins, and subtle earthy notes on the lengthy finish. 17 mos. in 10% new French oak.
Economics of the Heart: Lemming Myths and Political Realities
Flickr photo by Sander van der Wel
The ubiquitous–and false– lemming myth is that from time to time entire colonies of these darling little arctic rodents commit mass suicide by throwing themselves off cliffs into the raging sea. It originated in a Disney film in the late Fifties that used a lot of tricks to make a handful of lemmings look like a mob, and the myth was born. The truth is that lemming populations in any one place fluctuate substantially and food supplies vary from year to year as conditions vary. The survival instinct leads substantial subgroups to split away and establish separate colonies as necessary.
Nevertheless, the myth has persisted as a go-to metaphor for any group of creatures that would select mass suicide as a logical response to anything. Such has been increasingly the case in our dear USA since about 1987. That was the precise point in our history when the Reagan FCC eliminated the legal requirement for news outlets to present all sides of every news story and opened the floodgates to the 24/7 Right Wing disinformation campaign across newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, internet, print, and social media that has been churning out hateful BS for the last 35 years.
We have endured decades of angry Limbaugh clones bombarding us with mean-spirited lies, not just about Democratic policies, but also with relentless ad hominem attacks on Democratic office-holders, their families, and their personal lives. In the 90’s the constant anger-mongering from Newt’s House empowered our own County’s state legislator to complain, on the WA House Floor, about a bill that would allow teaching Latino public school students in Spanish, exclaiming “If English was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for me!” (we are not making this up!)
This kind of political aggression has long been typical in Red states, which have heavily gerrymandered their Congressional districts enough to guarantee them legislative majorities at both state and federal levels, as well as squeaking Dubya and the Tweetster into the White House on questionable Electoral College results, despite their massive losses in the popular vote.
Which brings us back to, you know, the lemming myth. We primates are wired a bit differently from lemmings, but have a lot in common with our fellow primates. Of particular relevance to today’s politics are the behavioral differences between Chimpanzees and Bonobos described in Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence.
A major takeaway from the book is that chimp males are continually stimulated by the pervasive odor of female estrus to “an innate propensity for dominance, gratuitous violence, war, rape, and murder.” This violence is unleashed frequently and unpredictably against both females and other males in their own group (like some drunken Dads), and periodically even more violently by the periodic stomping to death of male chimps in neighboring groups– not so different from Jan 6 and the agenda for Project 2025.
In contrast, in bonobo society, estrus has more subtle outward signs, does not evoke male competition, and may explain why bonobo society is essentially matriarchal. The implication is that a single variable (the scent of female estrus) has had a significant effect on the evolution of these two closely related primates. The polarities between chimps and bonobos are artifacts of their minor genetic differences.
Curiously, about ten years ago a study at Brown U determined that Republicans and Democrats actually have different body odor! The inescapable reality of our recent experiences is that Republicans, like male chimps, are constantly in some kind of Estrus Rage, irrational to the point of delusion. Their media appearances are regularly broadcast in RAISED VOICES, deliberately evoking Outrage and Anger and portraying themselves as entitled to power. This astonishing hubris has been the main driver behind Trumpism, the Jan 6 coup attempt, donations of $billions for the Tweetster’s army of defense lawyers, and the execution of Project 2025, the blueprint for the new Fascist America.
This is all very scary stuff, mostly because so many Americans have been willingly brainwashed by over three decades of misinformation, disinformation, secret liaisons with enemy governments, compromises of vital national security materials, and traitorous acts against our Constitution.
By all accounts, my friends, this election will either bring a welcome new hope, or cement a permanent despair for our American future. And that is pretty f-ing scary.
SO BE SURE TO…
lummi island wine tasting oct 18-19 ’24
Hours, October 18-19, ’24
Friday 4-6 pm Saturday 3-5 pm
Saturday “Bar Belles”…!!
Friday Bread This Week
Pain Normand – A bread that brings in the flavor of french Normandy region which is known for its apples. Made with some fresh milled whole wheat and rye flours as well as bread flour then mixed with apple cider as well as dried apples, for a delicious artisan bread! – $5/loaf
Le Pave d’Autrefois – Translates roughly as old paving stones. This is a ciabatta like bread which has a lot of hydration so it isn’t really shaped so much as simply divided into approximate squares – hence the paving stones name. Made with a mix of bread flour as well as fresh milled whole wheat, rye and buckwheat flours for a lot of hearty whole grain goodness. A great artisan bread -$5/loaf
Pain aux Raisin – Made with the same laminated dough as croissants. The dough is rolled out, spread with pastry cream and sprinkled with a mix of golden raisins and dried cranberries that have been soaked in sugar syrup. Rolled up and sliced before baking. These are my favorites! As always, quantities are limited, 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:
MAN Chenin Blanc ’21 South Africa $12
Using only free-run juice preserves a clean, natural character, refreshing acidity, light, bright flavors of quince, pear, and pineapple, with palate of fresh stonefruit and apple, refreshing acidity & minerality, and a round, soothing mouthfeel.
Chakana Estate Selection Malbec ’20 Argentina $20
Opaque, bright purple in color; pleasing nose of plums and spicy attic dust; full bodied palate of plums and spice with good length, balanced acidity, soft tannins, and lingering finish.
Cloudlift Ascent Cab Franc ’21 Washington $34
74% cab franc and 18% merlot with a bit of cab sauv and Petit Verdot; deep ruby color and a rich, smoky nose of raspberry, cherry, and plum with scents of rosebuds, brambles, tobacco, sage and pepper. The flavors follow the aromatics with notes of licorice, dark cocoa, French roast and scorched earth.
Economics of the Heart: “He’s one cloudless night away from baying at the moon.”
sumie sketch by Rich
On Tuesday the Tweetser had a lengthy TV interview with John Micklethwait, editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News. Despite a fair amount of coaching from the interviewer, the T was lost in a continual rant not particularly related the questions asked. He was in his own world, visibly continuing to deteriorate before our eyes just three weeks before the Election which could decide the future of the entire world.
Heather Cox Richardson also weighed in on the subject, quoting Journalist David Rothkopf of Deep State Radio, who wrote: “The past 24 hours seem to have been a dividing line in the Trump campaign…and in Trump. He went from being periodically adrift and sporadically demented to being 24/7 unfit and in need of permanent medical attention. He’s one cloudless night away from baying at the Moon.”
And this is on top of the previous night’s “rally,” where the T, accompanied by S. Dakota’s dog-shooting Governor Kristi Noem, was for once not interested in wallowing in his long suffering, self-perceived Victimhood at the hands of the Leftist press. Instead he appeared in all respects to have had a few tokes of some “mellowing agents” that kept him spinning records like a dance party DJ from the fifties. Kristy kept trying to put the train back on the track, but the T was in full 10-year-old mode, oblivious to reality. In the last six months he has been on an increasingly steep dive into cognitive chaos.
The increasingly obvious takeaway is that he is beyond even having an ordinary conversation, take in facts, or make competent decisions. Even if somehow the election is successfully stolen and these clowns actually win, Vance, his real mentor Kevin Roberts (Pres. of Heritage Foundation and force behind Project 2025), and a handful of billionaires will make us sitting ducks for our ruthless adversaries in Russia, China, and around the world.
It turns out that not all Republicans are on board with this plan. We have seen many of the old-fashioned hawks and neocons declare their commitment to vote for Harris to save our Constitution and the Rule of Law. A common threat is recognized by both Democrats and many former Republican House and Senate members who share a collective goal for the continuance of responsible American Leadership in a healthy, peaceful, safe World. There will be plenty of time to argue about the details if we can join forces to keep our careening ship of state afloat and back on course.
Still, this is a scary time. The election is less than three weeks away, and large numbers of ordinary people have been brainwashed by relentless lies from Fox News and its many surrogates, relentless Russian disinformation on social media. These campaigns have been relentless and voluminous for some eight years now, to the extent that millions of Americans who get all their news from these sources really believe a long list of ridiculous sound bytes about untended/open borders (they have obviously never met a real Border Patrol agent!), and on and on and on.
Below are links to several conversations with some of these people about their beliefs. In many cases, when the interviewers gently ask about various details of their beliefs, the people are unable to explain any facts to support their views. On the contrary, their beliefs are ultimately tautological. That is, they cannot relate these beliefs to any particular illustrative incidence. For example, no one has actually seen a Haitian immigrant in Ohio eat anyone’s pet, or seen thousands of immigrants crossing the border freely, (the list goes on and on) yet they believe countless baseless assertions simply because they have heard them so many times.
These responses are exactly the purpose of the disinformation spewed by the Tweetster, Fox News personalities, Republicans in Congress, AM radio, and the rest. It is bad enough to imagine that our 250-year old country would suddenly blink out of existence for any reason, but to die for a LIE…? REALLY…? Yet this is how Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Stalin, and other right-wing dictators have done it, along with ruthless armies of probably well-intentioned ordinary people who had been systematically lied to for so long they actually they stopped seeing what was actually happening right in front of them.
Below are links to some videos of interviews with Maga Believers. They are in general ordinary people who seem to believe what they are saying because they have heard it asserted so forcefully so many times. They have not seen, read, or heard any actual documentation of any instance of the things they believe. And when they try to explain it, they wind up in tautological trap. They believe the unbelievable because they have been trained by repetition to believe it, and have become unwitting “domestic enemies” who can destroy the future of an entire planet with their ignorance.
Try the following links to explore further the exquisite irony of “human intelligence…”
Ezra Klein interview with Emily Jasinzky (a Republican’s interesting history of changing/conflicting directions in the Party over the last 20 years or so)
2072 Granger Way
