lummi island wine tasting– a few changes for 2024
Some Changes for January, 2024
We are closed for a few end of year accounting tasks, and planning to reopen on January 12 for wine tasting and bread pickup, with a few likely changes from the routine of the Covid years.
Bread: The current plan is to change the weekly bread pickup from every week to every other week. Those of you who are already signed up for the mailing list will likely receive details from our baker sometime this weekend…our next bread pickup will be Friday, Jan 12.
Wine Tasting: We will have some help with wine tasting for the next few months from volunteer Jonathan, Anne G’s son-in-law, who will be on the island for the next several months and thinks it might be a good way to get to know some Island neighbors.(he’s right, it IS!).
This even raises the possibility of being open both Friday nights and Saturday afternoons as we move toward Spring, and which we have not done since Covid began four years ago…it has been a Long Haul! Phew!
See you soon!
Next Friday Bread Pickup Jan 12 (see above)
Island Bakery has developed a lengthy rotation cycle of several dozen breads and pastries. Each Sunday Janice emails the week’s bread offering to her mailing list. Orders received before Wednesday will be available for pickup at the wine shop each Friday from 4:00 – 5:30 pm. Go to Contact us to get on the bread email list.
Happy New Year 2024!!
Solstice sunset over Orcas Island
This view of the Solstice sunset from our place is looking SW over the hump of Orcas island, and that was a week ago, for the longest night of the year here.
Already the days are getting longer, albeit by only a few seconds a day, gradually becoming minutes a day by March.
lummi island wine tasting winter solstice ’21
Winter Hours: Open Friday 4-6pm
Happy Holidays!
We will be open this Friday, Dec 22 for wine tasting and sales, then closed for the holidays and reopening January 12.
We are anticipating a change in bread orders from every week to every two weeks. Stay tuned for details!
Friday Bread Pickup This Week…
Sweet Corn & Dried Cranberry – Made with polenta and bread flour, then enriched with milk, butter and honey for a soft and tender crumb, then loaded up with dried cranberries. Has great corn flavor but is not a traditional quick cornbread. A delicious bread that makes great toast — $5/loaf
Italian Breakfast Bread – A delicious sweet, but not too sweet, bread. Made with bread flour eggs, yogurt, a little sugar and vanilla as well as dried cranberries golden raisins and candied lemon peel. Perfect for breakfast as toast or even better for french toast on Christmas morning – $5/loaf
and pastry this week…
Cranberry Muffins – Inspired by a well known coffee shop’s cranberry bliss bars these muffins are made with all the traditional muffin ingredients: flour, sugar, eggs, buttermilk and butter. A generous helping of fresh cranberries, toasted pecans and topped with a brown sugar streusel finish them off. Yum! – 4/$5
Island Bakery has developed a lengthy rotation cycle of several dozen breads and pastries. Each Sunday Janice emails the week’s bread offering to her mailing list. Orders received before Wednesday will be available for pickup at the wine shop each Friday from 4:00 – 5:30 pm. Go to Contact us to get on the bread email list.
This week’s wine tasting
Argyle Brut Blanc de Blanc Oregon WA90pts $29
Not only does this little Oregon winery make great pinot noir, it also has earned a reputation for producing terrific Old World style sparkling wine. This blend of chardonnay and pinot noir displays a bouquet of brioche, pear, apple, and white peach. Crisp, balanced, and lengthy, it’s an outstanding value.
Garzon Petit Clos Marselan ’19 Uruguay
Intense red color with carmine reflections; elegant nose of red and black fruits with finish of eucalyptus and mint; Palate of integrated tannins, mineral and subtly saline notes that reflect its exceptional terroir.
Taylor Fladgate 10 yr Tawny Port
Deep brick color with amber rim; rich, elegant nose of ripe berries with a delicate nuttiness and subtle notes of chocolate, butterscotch and fine oak; smooth and silky on the palate with persisting ripe, figgy, jammy flavors on the long finish.
Economics of the Heart: Politics and Karma
Life is like a giant Ouija board. Every living being constantly has a hand on it. The game goes on and on and on, as every hand exerts its little pressure in some direction, and each moment carries the collective impacts of the individual forces to the next moment.
We are each constantly engaged in the business of staying alive, and that requires cyclical sequence of four kinds of activities: 1) recognizing our needs, 2) taking action to satisfy them, 3) savoring whatever nourishment results, and 4) enjoying a moment of satisfaction and rest. Every activity has varying degrees of success or failure; and most of us are better at some elements than others.
A typical day in our lives is a constant repetition of these activities, from getting up in the morning, eating, working, playing, resting, sleeping. Every activity by every player in every moment has a role in creating the initial conditions for the next moment. Karma is the process by which our own actions and our collective actions in this moment determine initial conditions for the next moment— some 80,000 times a second according to some ancient texts.
While everyone plays some tiny role in the collective karma of the entire system, most of us impact only a relatively small number of others. Only leaders at various levels are in positions where their everyday decisions can have significant and lasting impacts on many people’s lives. Ideally such leaders take care that their decisions result in the greatest benefits to all who are impacted by them.
However, this has decidedly not been the case with egocentric dictators. The twentieth century saw two devastating world wars started by such men, at the cost of vast destruction and millions of deaths. Those impacts set the stage for a never-ending series of indirect “proxy wars” across the world in which “great powers” fought for dominance in less-developed countries rather than confront each other directly, including American combat adventures in Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, and now Ukraine and Gaza.
All of this was bad enough under leaders who at least knew the game had limits: insurgency, counter-insurgency, small gains and losses, lots of political posturing, all involving years of death and destruction against local and innocent populations. The best thing we can say about it is that it was carried out with a general unwritten agreement that it was a substitute for direct confrontation in which everyone could lose more than they could possibly gain. At the same time, it killed or maimed tens of thousands of people around the world. And at the end of the day it is hard to see how anyone anywhere benefited from any of it.
At this moment in time our nation is a year away from a major election, and despite his indictments for several major crimes, the Tweetster is still the favored Presidential candidate for what remains of the Republican Party. This man is the most publicity-driven person most of us have ever seen in our lives. He craves it, needs it, is addicted to seeing himself in the news, constantly creating controversy and chaos to dominate media headlines. He lives for it. Every day, as he travels among his many indictments, he tells the world his dream of being America’s first dictator, tearing up the Constitution, jailing his enemies, and looting our economy.
The point of our Ouija board analogy is that the karma of global civilization is affected by every living entity in every moment. But only a handful of individuals are in such positions of power that they can, by their actions, destroy the ability of our planet to support any life at all. Whether by intention or oversight or stupidity, at present only one seems completely capable of all three. He is an existential menace and under no circumstances can he (or any disciple) ever be allowed anywhere near the Oval Office again.
Btw, a very relevant perspective for dealing with this deeply disturbing set of circumstances is explored in , by Tony Judt and Timothy Snyder (formerly Judt’s student). It is Snyder’s assembly of a long series of conversations between the two as Judt was dying from ALS a decade ago.
Judt’s reminiscences make connections between political and contemporary discourse, explaining in detail the profound impact of two world wars and the Great Depression on subsequent politics, philosophy, communism, fascism, and the role of social democracy and Keynesian economics in bringing liberal government, broad-based growth, and social equality to the post-war world…all stuff we will need to survive.
lummi island wine tasting dec 15 ’23
Winter Hours: Open Fridays 4-6pm
Happy Holidays!
We will be open both Fridays before Christmas for wine tasting and sales, 12/15 and 12/22.
January reopening will probably 1/12, depending on some possible changes in the bread delivery schedule.
Friday Bread Pickup This Week…
Black Pepper Walnut- made with a nice mix of flours, bread flour, fresh milled whole wheat and rye. A fair amount of black pepper and toasted walnuts give this bread great flavor with just a bit of peppery bite to it. Works well with all sorts of meats and cheese- $5/loaf
Four Seed Buttermilk – Includes all the elements of whole wheat, adding cracked wheat and bran in to the bread flour instead of milling whole wheat berries. It also has buttermilk and oil for a tender bread and a little tang, and finished with a bit of honey and sunflower, pumpkin, and sesame seeds and toasted millet $5/loaf
and pastry this week…
Morning Buns – Made popular by Tartine Bakery in San Francisco…mine are made with the same laminated dough as croissants. The dough is rolled out, spread with a filling of brown sugar, orange zest, butter and cinnamon, rolled up and sliced before baking. 2/$5
Island Bakery has developed a lengthy rotation cycle of several dozen breads and pastries. Each Sunday Janice emails the week’s bread offering to her mailing list. Orders received before Wednesday will be available for pickup at the wine shop each Friday from 4:00 – 5:30 pm. Go to Contact us to get on the bread email list.
This week’s wine tasting
Marchetti Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico ’21 Italy $14
Verdicchio/ Malvasia blend using only free-run juice; pale straw color with green overtones; intense bouquet of citrus, lemon zest, and floral notes,with complex fruity character, and crisp, well-balanced palate.
Sanguineti Morellino de Scansano ’21 Italy $14
Soil of river stones, quartz, sea shells; flavors of sun-ripened, slightly smoky fruit, fresh cracked pepper, sage, and ocean brine; taut structure and a long, slightly smoky finish.
Lancyre Pic St Loup Vielles Vignes ’17 France $16
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 for a sparkling wine with refined bubbles and beautiful, pearlescent color, a perfect accompaniment to dessert, or maybe dessert all by itself!
Wine of the Week: Marchetti Verdicchio di Castelli di Jesi Classico ’21 Italy $14
The Marche wine region reaches east from the mountainous spine of Italy to the Adriatic. This week’s low-yield Verdicchio is a hallmark of the varietal, with refreshing citrus fruits, playful acidity, and complex minerality. Made only with juice from a gentle half-press, it is precise and engaging.
Established in 1968 as a DOC of 18 hilly communes, the Verdicchio Classico, or Castelli di Jesi, region, is located some 35 kilometers inland from Ancona, an unusual wine region near the Adriatic coast where red grapes are grown close to the sea, and white grapes prefer to be slightly inland. The distinction of being “Classico” is a recognition that “this is what wine from this grape is meant to taste like!”
Wine history of the region dates back to the Romans and before, with some clay artifacts such as amphorae dating the region’s wine production back to the Iron Age. These days, the verdicchios from the region have developed a consistent quality and tasting profile that sets them apart.
Economics of the Heart: Getting on Track Against Climate Change
The world has known for many decades about the linkage between fossil fuels and global warming. Numerous studies contracted by the oil industry as early as the mid-seventies pioneered effective methodologies for assessing the financial, social, environmental, and economic impacts of these projected changes.
Over the years the broad impacts predicted by those early models have proved surprisingly accurate in modeling how increased greenhouse gases would affect patterns of atmospheric and oceanic circulation, evaporation, rainfall, winds, flooding, ocean currents, ice cap responses, all of it. I had a part in one of those studies in 1980 looking at the possible impacts of global warming on world fisheries.
While I was skeptical that the political and economic power of the fossil fuel industry was likely to allow meaningful or timely response to this very serious environmental threat, I never dreamed the industry would not only delay action for four decades, but also go to considerable expense to downplay any threat of global warming, (and probably supplying Reagan with his quip that it had more to do with livestock farts than fossil fuels.) The whole world would not be in the mess it is today if energy industry executives had chosen to help rather than delay and obfuscate– as, we presume, they had been taught to do in business school.
Well, hopefully the decisions of this latest COP 28 will prove better late than never. The resultant unanimous agreement at this meeting seems due to the work of the the High-Level Expert Group on the Net-Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State Entities, a special committee formed by the Secretary-General of the UN specifically to increase the likelihood of success. The goal of the group was, in preparation for the recent COP23 meeting, to develop stronger and clearer standards for net-zero emissions pledges by non-State entities – including businesses, investors, cities, and regions – and speed up their implementation. The Group generated ten how-to recommendations for credible, accountable net-zero pledges for what non-State actors need to follow to achieve net-zero ambitions, a how-to guide for credible, accountable net-zero pledges.
Since it was launched last spring, the Group pursued its work amidst a persistent pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, global inflation, energy security concerns, and
increasingly destructive climate change‐fueled extreme weather around the world. Climate-related disasters have been most acutely felt in the world’s least developed countries, exacerbating the debt crisis they already face and underlining how the developed economies exported the environmental costs of their years of inaction onto the poorest societies.
This is apparent when we see that the Top Five global emitters (China, US, India, EU, and Russia) accounted for about 60 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions in 2021, and the Group of 20 (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union) are responsible for about 76 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Read more on UN and climate action:
Transforming climate issues into action
“Integrity Matters: Net Zero commitments by Businesses, Financial Institutions, Cities and Regions”
lummi island wine tasting dec 8 ’23
Winter Hours: Open Fridays 4-6pm
LI slough with heron
Friday Bread Pickup This Week!
Buckwheat Rye – Fresh milled buckwheat and rye flours are soaked for several hours without any yeast in a method known as an autolyse. As buckwheat has no gluten and rye has very little, the autolyse allows the grain to start the overnight fermenting process in the refrigerator. The buckwheat-rye soaker is then mixed with bread flour, salt, yeast and a bit of honey. Goes well with all sorts of meats and cheese – $5/loaf
Whole Grain Spelt Sweet Levain – Also made with a levain of freshly milled whole wheat and whole spelt before mixing with bread flour and 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…
Bear Claws! – Made with a Danish pastry dough rich in cream, eggs, sugar and butter. The dough is rolled out and spread with a filing made with almond paste, powdered sugar, egg whites and a bit of cinnamon to round out the flavor. Then, because all us bears love honey, topped with a honey glaze after baking! –2/$5
Island Bakery has developed a lengthy rotation cycle of several dozen breads and pastries. Each Sunday Janice emails the week’s bread offering to her mailing list. Orders received before Wednesday will be available for pickup at the wine shop each Friday from 4:00 – 5:30 pm. Go to Contact us to get on the bread email list.
This week’s wine tasting
Ponzi Pinot Gris ’21 Oregon $16
Aromas of honeydew melon, candied citrus peel, white peach and honeysuckle; balanced palate
of sweet tangerine peel, meringue, lime, apricot and light white pepper.
Angeline Cab Sauv ’21 California $16
Fruit-forward, easy-to-drink style with aromas of lush cherry, cassis, and plum and rich cherry and plum flavors with hints of vanilla and soft oak that linger on the palate and finish with complexity and length that over-delivers for the modest price.
Muga Anden Estacion Rioja Crianza ’19 Spain $21
Tempranillo/Garnacha blend matured in French and European barrels for 14 months, making for a floral, juicy, open and approachable rioja. read more
Wine of the Week: Muga El Andén de la Estación Crianza ’19 Spain $21
“our” stork nest in Haro…
Pied de cuve is a technique used by winemakers to develop a local wild yeast indigenous to a particular vineyard to ferment wines made from that vineyard’s grapes. Muga uses this process in the fermentation of this week’s featured wine. The process begins by picking a small amount of grapes shortly before the full harvest which are crushed and allowed to start fermenting from the native yeasts already present on the grapes. This culture is then added to the rest of the grapes when they are picked to initiate fermentation. In organic and biodynamic viniculture, these yeasts are part of the local conditions that define every vineyard…its terroir.
We visited the Muga winery in Haro some years ago. Unfortunately, we also had some kind of bug that forced us to cancel several other winery visits we had scheduled. So we laid low, took some short walks through Haro’s narrow streets, and…during our convalescence we were entertained by the stork pair nesting about thirty feet away on the rooftop directly across the narrow street from our little second-floor apartment.
Curiously, despite having been under the weather, our memories are fond ones. Haro is a small community, in a pretty arid landscape surrounded by vineyards, with good food, charming and friendly people, and a surprising number of rooftop stork nests. What more could you want??
This week’s lovely Rioja is big, luscious, nuanced, and powerful, from young vineyards acquired and developed by Muga over recent decades. Seriously tasty!
Economics of the Heart: Freedom From Religion
The First Amendment to the US Constitution reads: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
We usually have thought about the First Amendment as “Freedom of Religion,” which could easily be interpreted as “you can practice any religion you want.” But it can also be looked at as “you don’t have to have any religion at all if you don’t want one,” which immunizes you from the beliefs, practices, and superstitions of the followers of any and all religious sects. After all, since everyone tends to look at their own religion as the Truth, and everyone else’s religion as Superstition, the Supremacy Clause logically leaves the matter for individual conscience.
Last night NPR presented an interview with author Tim Alberta about his new book “The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism.” He is a young man whose father was a pastor at an evangelical church through his adolescence. Mr. Alberta speaks with clarity about how Evangelicals embraced the Tweetster early on as their own apostate representative in government who would remake America into the Christian Nation they fantasize it has always been. The takeaways from this insight are the double delusions that 1) he really cared about their beliefs, and 2) he shares their delusion that the United States has always been an “explicitly Christian Nation, not just informed by Judeo-Christian principles and values, but explicitly formed to be a Christian nation that has to be recovered and restored.”
It has also become clear in the past couple of weeks that the new Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, is a very far right, self-identified Christian evangelical who is very open about his intention to impose fundamentalist Christian views on the entire country, somehow outlawing all other religions, including, we may presume, any which are soft on abortion, same-gender marriage and adoption, and birth control. And this man is, at this very moment, only two heartbeats away from being the President of this country.
All this is going on in an America which is becoming increasingly secular. According to recent statistical analysis, although a slight majority of Americans consider themselves Christian, between 2006 and 2020 the number of self-identified “white evangelicals” dropped from 23% to 14%; the percentage of white Americans who considered themselves “white non-evangelical” remained constant at 16%, and white Catholics declined slightly from 16% to 12%.
Of particular interest is the rapid increase in the number of Americans who have no religious affiliation from 16% in 2006 to around 25% by 2020.
It is clear from the numbers and from Mr. Alberta’s observations that white evangelicals who cling to the fantasy of America as “their” country are feeling threatened by immigration of non-whites (even Christians ), people of other faiths or agnostics, and their abandonment by a growing proportion of young voters. They are over-reacting to these perceived threats by grasping at the Tweetster’s promises to take care of them if only he can acquire the Presidency again.
In the meantime the Republican Party has devolved into complete inability to discuss actual policy or to comprehend the consequences of their extended party-wide psychotic break. It is therefore something of a comfort to see the clear thinking of a young life-long evangelical who is speaking out on these issues.
2072 Granger Way
