lummi island wine tasting june 23, ’23
Hours through June: Fridays from 4-6pm
Good News #1… We will be open as usual this Friday, June 23, from 4-6pm for wine tasting and sales!
Not-So-Good News… Due to family obligations, the wine shop will be closed next Friday June 30;
Good News #2… Beginning July 7, we will be expanding our summer hours to be open both Fridays and Saturdays from 4-6pm!
Friday Bread Pickup This Week
Breton – Incorporates the flavors of the french Brittany region. Bread flour and fresh milled buckwheat and rye make for interesting flavor and the salt is sel gris -the grey salt from the region that brings more mineral flavors to this bread. Goes great with meats and cheeses – – $5/loaf
Spelt Levain – – Spelt is an ancient grain that is a wheat. It has a nutty, slightly sweet flavor and has gluten but it isn’t as strong as the gluten in modern wheat. This bread is made with a culture that is used to create a levain before the final dough is mixed with traditional bread flour, spelt flour, fresh milled whole spelt and fresh milled whole rye. – $5/loaf.
and pastry this week…
Brioche Tarts au Sucre (Brioche sugar tarts)– A rich brioche dough full of eggs and butter, rolled into a round tart and topped with more eggs, cream, butter and sugar. While these are good on their own, they are a perfect substitute for shortcake biscuits for all of the fresh fruit of the season.- 2/$5
To get on the bread order list, click the “Contact Us” link above and fill out the form. Each week’s bread menu is sent to the list each Sunday, for ordering by Tuesday, for pickup on Friday. Simple, right..? If you will be visiting the island and would like to order bread for your visit, at least a week’s notice is recommended for pickup the following Friday.
Wine of the Week: Seven Hills Walla Walla Cabernet ’20 WA $32
Seven Hills winery founder and 4th generation regional farmer Casey McClellan began planting grape vines in Walla Walla in the early 80’s, making it one of the the first few wineries in the area, and setting the stage for the rapid development of the Washington State wine industry over the forty years since.
Seven Hills pioneered the planting of primary Bordeaux varietals merlot and cabernet sauvignon in the area, demonstrating that the soil and climate of the area were ideally suited for vineyards in general and these varietals in particular. The winery has forged long-standing relationships with many of the most prestigious vineyards in the region, including Ciel du Cheval and Klipsun at Red Mountain and McClellan and Summit View in Walla Walla. The wines have an established reputation for a quiet, reliable quality. You will like it!
Tasting notes: Aromas of red cherries, black raspberry, and black tea, with hints of fresh herbs, cedar box, and earth; flavors of cherry, raspberry, dark chocolate, baking spice, and vanilla; medium bodied with plush texture, firm tannins, and balanced acidity.
This week’s wine tasting
Attems Collio Sauvignon Blanc ’19 Italy $17
Straw yellow with green highlights and characteristic bouquet of boxwood, tomato leaves and grapefruit, a bright, crisp palate of blossoms and lime, and a long, bright finish.
Monte Tondo Veneto Corvina ’20 Italy $12
Organically farmed; bright nose of fresh cherries and black pepper; fresh, light, and lively palate of cherry, dark chocolate and spice, with supple, well-integrated tannins and a smooth, seductive, slightly spicy finish.
Seven Hills Walla Walla Cabernet ’20 WA $32
Aromas of red cherries, black raspberry, and black tea, with hints of fresh herbs, cedar box, and earth; flavors of cherry, raspberry, dark chocolate, baking spice, and vanilla; medium bodied with plush texture, firm tannins, and balanced acidity
Economics of the Heart: Crossing Lines vs. Line Crossing
In economics “optimality” is “the place where the lines cross,” where no alternative resource allocation can produce higher net benefits. “Where the lines cross” implies the best available balance between benefits and costs; it’s what we aim for, as at Q in the image, the project size where the difference between total benefits (TSB) and total costs (TSC) is the greatest.
It is quite the opposite of “crossing the line,” which implies throwing out all the rules in in service to political expediency. Boo-hiss, huh?
Events of the past couple of months have brought this distinction into sharp political relief here on the island.
For the past six months, our community has been engaged in a pitched battle with County Public Works about ferry economics. In mid-December Public Works proposed a major ferry fare increase to be reviewed by the Lummi Island Ferry Advisory Committee (LIFAC, of which I am a member) at its January meeting, with an expectation that it would be forwarded to the County Council and passed into law a couple of weeks later, with little discussion or scrutiny. However, island residents proposed a convincing counter-proposal which was passed on to the CC and postponed action on the fare increase.
By April PW had introduced a radical revision of the entire ordinance governing ferry operations (WCC 10.34) and financing (current / proposed), which would remove all guard rails limiting the expenses that could be charged against fares. These guard rails are regulated not only by County ordinance but also by numerous state and federal statutes as well as terms of our annual contract with WSDOT governing annual subsidies from State fuel tax revenues.
The pro-PW majority on Lifac has tried various ways to pass it without discussion. You can see some of that in this video, which begins with considerable public input. You can watch the video and make up your own mind how responsive Lifac was to the public. (Public comments begin at 22:25; the meeting gets interesting at 1:21:00; and starts whimpering to a non-decision over the last 10 minutes or so with a series of interruptions. The main takeaway is that the entire front table completely believed everything PW was asserting despite mounting evidence to the contrary.
Subsequent public outcry from the island community delayed the process long enough to demonstrate that a) PW has made numerous major accounting errors in their calculations ; b) there is actually a $1M surplus in the ferry fund, not a deficit; and c) PW has already passed such expenses onto the fare burden in violation of governing County ordinance which is still in effect.
The June meeting passed a request to the Council to make three important changes to the ordinance, including postponing discussion of the new ordinance till July. Due to extensive public pressure, including a petition with over 700 signatures, and a number of great presentations by members of the public, the delay was granted. That’s good news.
Meanwhile, evidence is mounting of some grievous ethical violations on the part of some of some players in this parochial little saga going a bit too far to get their way, but still a few more details to confirm on that, no need to hurry.
lummi island wine tasting june 16 ’23
Hours through June: Fridays from 4-6pm
wild roses at the Legoe Bay slough
Friday Bread Pickup This Week
Kamut Levain – Kamut, aka khorasan wheat, is an ancient, protein-rich grain discovered in a cave in Iran in the 70’s that many people who can’t tolerate wheat find more digestible. This bread is made with a levain that is fermented overnight before being mixed with with bread flour and fresh milled whole kamut flour. It has a nutty, rich flavor and makes a golden color loaf. – $5/loaf
Barley & Rye w/ Pumpkin Seeds – Made with a levain that is fermented overnight before the final dough is mixed with a nice mix of bread flour and fresh milled rye, barley and whole wheat flours. Some buttermilk makes for a tender crumb, honey for sweetness and toasted pumpkin seedsfor flavor and texture. – $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 (wait there’s more!) topped with a chocolate glaze before baking!- 2/$5
To get on the bread order list, click the “Contact Us” link above and fill out the form. Each week’s bread menu is sent to the list each Sunday, for ordering by Tuesday, for pickup on Friday. Simple, right..? If you will be visiting the island and would like to order bread for your visit, at least a week’s notice is recommended for pickup the following Friday.
Wine of the Week: Clos Sainte Magdeleine ’21 France $34
courtesy https://shop.kermitlynch.com
Cassis is a stunning piece of geography, set lovingly along the Mediterranean coast between Marseilles and Toulon. The carefully groomed vineyards at Clos Sainte Magdeleine sit on coastal bluffs in the heart of the Parc National des Calanques. The softly beautiful setting is a perfectly integrated blend of the area’s natural beauty and the care with which development has incorporated and even enhanced it in some ways. Steep limestone slopes and clear blue-green waters, delicate scents of garrigue and the soft Mediterranean air round out the charm that makes every wine taste even better.
We visited Clos Sainte Magdeleine several years ago, and fell in love with this lovely, richly textured white wine, and it is a great pleasure to have found a source for it and to have it on the tasting list for this weekend. The blend is 40% Marsanne, 30% Ugni blanc, 25% Clairette, and 5% Bourboulenc.
Vineyards have been cultivated here for some 2,500 years. The chalky soil, the sun, and the salt air make a perfect habitat for this unique and delicious blend of Rhone region white varietals. Come by and taste it!
This week’s wine tasting
Clos St. Magdeleine Cassis Blanc ’21 France $34
40% Marsanne, 30% Ugni blanc, 25% Clairette, and 5% Bourboulenc; Rich aromas with salty traces of garrigue and peaches; full and fleshy on the palate with a savory minerality, a cleansing, salty-stony flavor and a honeyed, dry finish. Unique and delicious!
St. Cosme Crozes-Hermitage ’20 France $18
Granite slopes give nice structure and complexity, with aromas and flavors of black fruits, smoked bacon, black peppercorn, and incense.
Marques de Caceres Rioja Red Blend Organica ’21 Spain $18
75% Tempranillo, 25% Graciano; we all loved this wine when Judy poured samples of it three weeks ago, and found it a bit disappointing when we poured it at our tasting. So third time is the charm, right? How do we really feel about it?!
Economics of the Heart: A Moment of Traction…?
courtesy https://www.redarcelectronics.co.nz
Six months ago the County Public Works Dept. that runs our ferry (our only way to the mainland, about a mile away), announced that ferry financing was suddenly found to be on the brink of disaster and would require a substantial fare increase as soon as possible to avoid financial calamity. The announcement carried a tense urgency for immediate action by the Ferry Advisory Committee ( I am a member) and the County Council to get their fare increase request reviewed, discussed, and passed within barely a month…precious little time to review the numbers and the arguments.
For a whole bunch of reasons, for a few of us that story did not seem to meet the available facts, and we started asking questions. Over the next few months, it became increasingly clear that neither the numbers nor the offered rationales could stand up to closer scrutiny. Very slowly more and more residents became concerned and interested, dug into the data, and discovered more and more indefensible errors in the proposal. Each month brought a new battle for more time for review from the public, and to move faster with the fare increase for PW.
Public resistance led to a new, distracting proposal by the County Ferry Department to, under the auspices of “clarifying ambiguities,” completely rewrite the County Ordinance that governs ferry operations to remove existing, carefully crafted limits on what expenses can be charged to fare revenues. Meanwhile, further digging by Islanders continued to uncover even more accounting errors, assertions, and outright misrepresentations going back some fifteen years that have turned the forecasted shortfall into a $2 million surplus. And while it was good news when the fare increase proposal was finally withdrawn, at least temporarily, the Ferry Dept then shifted its focus to Plan B– gutting the guiding County ordinance of the every constraint that limits the kinds of expenses that can be charged against fare box revenue.
Under the existing statute, only “regular and routine maintenance” can be charged to fare revenues. The proposed PW rule changes remove that constraint completely, opening a very wide door to allow charging “anything that we can possibly classify as maintenance” as an ordinary operating expense.
This direction is clearly demonstrated by this document I recently put together from ten years of ferry maintenance expenditures. It is clear from the charts that for most of those years, it was rare to find any individual expenses more than about $25,000. However, in more recent years the graphs show a growing “mission creep” that reaches a crescendo in 2022 and already in 2023, with individual “repairs” some ten to twenty times higher than any others in ferry accounting history.
Last night a barrage of well-spoken public comments at our monthly LIFAC meeting, (watch video) along with a petition with nearly 600 signatures (from an early summer population of maybe 1200) requesting the Council to delay any action on the proposed ordinance changes) was approved by 5 to 1 majority, a significant accomplishment. The Council, in turn, meets next week to decide on that, and we are encouraging every interested Islander to attend the meeting to lobby against the ordinance change proposal. We are hoping the Council will heed the LIFAC resolution and postpone further discussion for at least another month.
Stay tuned. It appears to be increasingly true that “just because we’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get us!”
lummi island wine tasting june 9 ’23
Hours through June : Fridays from 4-6pm.
Can you find the wild rose Dipper…?
Friday Bread Pickup This Week
Buckwheat Rye – –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
Whole Grain Spelt Sweet Levain – – Similar to a bread I sampled in Latvia it is made with a levain, also known as sourdough, freshly milled whole wheat and whole spelt before mixing with bread flour as well as a nice combination of dried apricots, golden raisins, slivered almonds and both sunflower and flax seeds. Chock full of flavor!– $5/loaf.
and pastry this week…
Kouign Aman with Cream Cheese filling – Made with the same traditional laminated french pastry used for croissants. Has both a little levain for the sourdough flavor as well as some pre-fermented dough to help build strength. When rolling out however, instead of using flour to prevent sticking, sugar is used. The dough is cut into squares, placed in cupcake tins then filled with a cream cheese filling…sort of “ a cheese Danish and a Croissant walk into a bar…”– 2/$5
To get on the bread order list, click the “Contact Us” link above and fill out the form. Each week’s bread menu is sent to the list each Sunday, for ordering by Tuesday, for pickup on Friday. Simple, right..? If you will be visiting the island and would like to order bread for your visit, at least a week’s notice is recommended for pickup the following Friday.
Wine of the Week: la Roque Pic St. Loup Rouge ’18 France $19
The “Pic” in the small French wine region of Pic St. Loup is a 640-meter (2000 ft.) “Tooth” of granite that dominates the view for miles in every direction– powerful, beautiful, vaguely remote, and iconic. It looms over a collection of very special, well-drained, limestone-rich vineyards. About an hour north of Montpellier on the Mediterranean coast to the south, it features hot days, but is also far enough north to have Atlantic-influenced cool nights that induce slow, full ripening.
The wines from Pic St. Loup must be predominantly syrah, grenache, and mourvedre (as in nearby Southern Rhone) and fairly consistently have a certain gravitas. The vines must be at least six years old (not the usual three) before considered mature enough for making red wines, but are perfect for making excellent rosé! Vineyards are scattered among rugged terrain that slopes up from the Mediterranean. Atlantic influences make the local climate cooler and wetter than elsewhere in Languedoc.
Wines from this little region typically share an earthy complexity accented by spicy, herbal aromas and flavors of the wild aromatic herbs that flourish in the area, commonly known as “garrigue.” Pic St. Loup reds typically show bold, spicy, and earthy complexity, deeper color and depth of flavor, and more elegance and refinement than wines from the hotter Languedoc plains to the south.
Economics of the Heart: Showdown at the Ferry Corral
Six months ago our November meeting of the Lummi Island Ferry Advisory Committee (LIFAC) was the annual end of year budget meeting held at the Public Works building in Bellingham. At that time we were presented with a bunch of tables and a graph that purported to show that fare revenue had fallen precipitously during COVID and that fares needed to be raised significantly and Immediately to avoid a fiscal catastrophe. Their actual proposal became available in December, and was being fast-tracked to be voted on, with little discussion, by the County Council at their January meeting, barely a month away.
Over the next several months a group of concerned islanders discovered numerous key errors in the County’s calculations and interpretations of guiding statutes. One by one the assertions made by PW have been debunked by demonstrating clearly that:
- A big chunk of the “deficit” was because PW chose not to charge any fares at all during the first several months of Covid;
- For many years PW failed to allocate correctly the two annual State subsidies provided by WSDOT to the four County ferry systems (Pierce, Skagit, Whatcom, Wahkiakum), erroneously allocating them to the County Road Fund for other uses, and illegally increasing the annual fare box burden for over a decade.
- PW recently charged the ferry fund $400.000 to replace the many rotten pilings in failing landing dolphins (the piling assemblies at foot of blue structures in photo), violating the requirement in the County statute that only “regular and ordinary repairs” could be charged to fare box proceeds. At present, with these corrections in place, the fare box has a surplus of around $2 million.
One result of this public pressure and fact-checking was the withdrawal of the proposed fare increase. For now, anyway.
However, PW has also thrown together a proposal for drastic changes to that carefully written 2011 County ordinance governing ferry operations and accounting. Suffice it to say that in the interests of “clarifying ambiguity,” the proposal seeks to remove all the guardrails that were carefully built into the statute in 2011 specifically to minimize operating cost variation from year to year.
Some have suggested that all of this turmoil about fares can be traced directly to the growing financial burden on the County of keeping our 60 yr-old Whatcom Chief plying the short mile between Lummi Island and Gooseberry Pt. thirty-some round trips a day. On that point the example of the dolphin repairs is instructive. Since the County has obtained funding for a new vessel, the only reason to “repair” it under these circumstances is to extend its life a few more years, and that could get very expensive, as the dolphin case shows.
The whole point of the existing split of ferry costs between fare revenues and general County taxation is that the ferry is an integral part of the County Road system. People travel to Lummi Island just as they travel to and from rural communities all over the State, to work, deliver, tour, and spend and earn money in our overlapping regional economy. Islanders do almost all their shopping on the mainland, and pay all the same taxes as mainland residents in addition to our fares. We pay our fair share for County-wide infrastructure. This entire controversy is about fairness.
You can look over several versions of the ordinance (links below) to get a sense of the differences, especially with regard to setting boundaries and responsibilities. If you can, plan to attend the next LIFAC meeting at the Grange (or on Zoom) at 6pm next Wednesday, and let your voice be heard. At present a LIFAC majority tips strongly in favor of anything PW wants, so your participation matters.
see PW proposed ferry ordinance
see LI working group proposed ferry ordinance
This week’s wine tasting
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.
Chateau la Roque Rouge ’18 France $19
65% Grenache, 25% Syrah, 10% Mourvèdre. A lithe and expressive red, with fine balance and well-structured flavors of dried cherry, plum, and boysenberry, featuring hints of tarragon and cream on the finish.
Eola Hills ‘Patriot Red’ Oregon $22
Zinfandel, Sangiovese, Merlot, & Pinot Noir from Oregon, Washington, & California. Intense aromas of fruitiness lead to a soft, smooth palate with flavors of red berry jam. All you need to know is it’s pretty tasty!
lummi island wine tasting june 2, ’23
Hours this weekend: Friday, May 26, 4-6pm.
Ulee, our accountant, is keeping his eye on you…
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…
Chocolate Babka Rolls – A sweet pastry dough full of eggs, butter and sugar, rolled and spread with a chocolate filling, rolled up and cut into individual rolls that are placed in baking forms for baking and then brushed with sugar syrup after baking. – 2/$5
To get on the bread order list, click the “Contact Us” link above and fill out the form. Each week’s bread menu is sent to the list each Sunday, for ordering by Tuesday, for pickup on Friday. Simple, right..? If you will be visiting the island and would like to order bread for your visit, at least a week’s notice is recommended for pickup the following Friday.
Wine of the Week: Daou Pessimist Red blend ’19 California (Paso Robles) $25
This 
is a wine that Judy brought by last year, you all liked it, so we still keep some around. It is from Paso Robles, but in a sense not from Paso. Just got around to doing some exploration of their website, and obviously someone has spent a lot of time and $$ on this place and the PR. It is all very Glossy, from the rugged terrain to the polish of the packaging of both the wine and the story. Rings some kind of alarms for some of us, but hey, the wine is pretty tasty!
The place has a unique story. It is owned by a couple of brothers who grew up in France, came to America as young men, and worked at some unspecified careers (successfully, apparently) until starting this venture over the last decade or two. Or, maybe as the old saying goes, the best way to make a small fortune in the wine business is to start with a Large fortune.
The choice of this 2200 ft. mountain to plant grapes was deliberate because of the setting, the altitude, the steepness, and the geology. In addition, the owners are Bordeaux aficionados who have painstakingly explored and developed a dozen or so unique clones of cabernet sauvignon particularly for specific spots on the mountain, and that suggests some wine knowledge plus some will, plus some $$.
That is not only a pretty creative approach, but it is also in an established wine region made most famous for Rhone varietals syrah and zinfandel, not Bordeaux varietals. On the other hand, California has made great cab for a long time in a lot of different settings from Santa Barbara to Mendocino. Come by and check it out!
Economics of the Heart: Of Mice and Mankind
courtesy www.victorpest.com
The 50’s TV series Dragnet usually began with a little philosophical narration about LA by the main character (Joe Friday) played by Jack Webb. Every week it was a little different, beginning with video footage of various parts of LA with Webb’s voice saying, “This is the City…Los Angeles, California,” a few narrative musings, and ” I work here. I’m a cop,” before fading into the current week’s story, occasionally a violent crime but everything from petty theft to domestic issues to fraud– all of the stuff an urban police department has to deal with. In a strange way, it painted a picture of American values of the era, when there was (to us kids anyway) general agreement about, well, social values of right and wrong that defined our national identity.
There had been radio for decades, but TV was new and creative, a merging of film and radio. The major networks (ABC, NBC, CBS) had generally been involved in both, so TV news sounded like radio news, and shows were westerns, family life, variety shows — the humble and comparatively peaceful beginnings of today’s global media empires.
Back in the late aughts, I spent a couple of years with a small group working toward the creation of an Institute of Sustainability at WWU. We designed and piloted a couple of courses with a format that brought in faculty perspectives from many different disciplines. It went pretty well, and a good friend from those beginnings is now in charge of a real entity, the Sustainability Engagement Institute. At one point we attended a conference at Skagit CC where one of the speakers had everyone send the same text message to their mailing lists. Several hours later, we got to see that the message had gone all over the US, with pockets in Canada, Spain, and elsewhere. The metaphor for communication was no longer one to one, but one to a global network; that’s what “going viral” means.
It was a revelation that even then (2010) mundane information traveled very far very fast, and that many companies like Starbucks had developed networks of millions of followers around the world, all interconnected online. I came away with the uneasy feeling that everyone was talking at once, and millions were connected to it, but no one was listening to any of it. Information was consumed in great gulps with no time to process of make meaning from any of it. Like a great baleen whale constantly straining vast quantities of plankton.
In the decade or more since then, social media has given voice to every insane, idiotic idea imaginable, some of it from real human beings, some from bots, hucksters, con artists, cyber warriors, political sabotage, hackers, and identity thieves. And all of this is going on in a world increasingly controlled by a very few extraordinarily wealthy individuals and organizations.
What does individuality mean in a world of 8 billion human beings? Where 22 million people have the same birthday as you? Where everyone needs space, food, water, energy, and stuff, lots and lots of stuff, the stuff to make that stuff, and a place to get rid of it and places to get more of it. And every one of them/us needs energy and produces waste, and we are killing the planet. And we talk earnestly about reducing our carbon footprints while having more and more children, and imagining that somehow “we” humans will get it together to all agree to get by with less of everything so we can save the planet and all its living things including us. But at least some have to be thinking it would be easier for us to survive if all of Those people would just, you know, disappear.
The next several decades will reveal whether our species is smart enough to make the changes necessary in our collective behavior to save our world. Or, more to our pattern will, like the rats in Calhoun’s rat utopias, find ourselves unequal to the task and blunder our hubris into destruction of the very ability of our planet to sustain life at all. Or, as my college roommate often observed, “well, there are only so many good deals in the world, so the more people you screw over, the more good deals are left for you…!”
This week’s wine tasting
Maryhill Viognier Washington $14
Carefully picked and slowly pressed to extract vibrant aromas of melon, pear, and apricot with traces of pineapple and grapefruit, continuing into a sensational and crisp fruit finish.
Quinta Do Vallado Douro Red ’14 Portugal $16
Blend of Touriga Franca, Touriga Nacional,Tinta Roriz, Sousão; lovely, floral black cherry and black currant fruit; supple yet structured with notes of pepper, meat, and a lovely herbal twist.
Daou Pessimist Red blend ’20 California (Paso Robles) $25
Full-bodied, rich and spicy, with balanced layers of elderberry and truffle with accents of cocoa, cardamom eucalyptus, leather, tobacco, and grilled meat, alluring texture, and leisurely finish.
2072 Granger Way