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.
lummi island wine tasting may 26 ’23
Hours this weekend:
robin fledgling’s first landing
We’re back!
The wine shop will be open for sales and tastings: Friday, May 26, from 4-6pm.
Friday Bread Pickup This Week
Black Pepper Walnut- Made with a nice mix of bread flour, fresh milled whole wheat and rye. A fair amount of black pepper and toasted walnuts give this bread great flavor with a distinct peppery bite. Excellent paired with all sorts of meats and cheese…and wine, of course! – $5/loaf
Four Seed Buttermilk – This bread includes all the elements of whole wheat, but does so separately by adding cracked wheat and bran in to the bread flour instead of milling whole wheat berries. It also has buttermilk and oil which will make for a tender bread as well as adding a little tang. Finally it is finished with with a bit of honey and sunflower pumpkin and sesame seeds and some toasted millet – $5/loaf
and pastry this week…
Kyoto Black Sesame & Candied Lemon Brioche — A delicious brioche dough full of eggs, butter and sugar. Filled with fresh lemon zest and candied lemon and as if that weren’t enough, topped with a black sesame streusel before baking. Ooh la la, what’s not to like?! –2/$5
To get on the bread order list, click on 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.
This week’s wine tasting
Maryhill Winemaker’s White ’19 Washington $14
Sauv blanc, viognier, semillon, albarino, pinot gris; careful early morning harvest, slow press cycle, limited oak, and blended to keep each varietal’s profile in both aromas and flavors– a complex, versatile, and tasty white blend!
La Quercia Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Riserva ’17 Italy $19
From 50-yr-old vines; rich, full-bodied and rustic in expression, with rich notes of cocoa, rhubarb, blackberry, and herbs; long, lingering finish of juicy black cherry, with a silky/velvety mouthfeel.
Eola Hills Barrel Select Reserve Pinot Noir ’19 Oregon $27
From best barrels from the 2019 harvest; classic, Burgundian-style pinot, with nose of fresh raspberries, earth, wet autumn leaves, and a silky palate of cherry and strawberry with a lingering cranberry tartness on the finish.
Economics of the Heart: Rules and Values
courtesy www.npr.org
Civilization is a complex business that depends on some combination of broad consensus about the rules, who makes them, and a will to follow them. All manner of organizational structures have come and gone in human history. Our hunch for a long time has been that the default form of human economic organization is to revert to some form of feudalism when resources become scarce, or power and wealth get concentrated into too few hands, and the masses are relegated to perpetual serfdom, scratching the earth like chickens for meager nourishment, and even the Overseers are still slaves.
We have long thought of the Reagan 80’s as The Decade of the Bottom Line, when Republicans finally got to declare open war on the New Deal, made lots of people think Government was the real Bad Guy, and preached the mantra that making the rich even richer was the tide that would raise all ships. Under the auspices of unleashing the goodies in the Big Pinata of free market competition to the masses, taxes (you know, how the public sector must pay for everything) were slashed on the wealthy and corporations while spending was cut on the poor, the hungry, the sick, the insane, and the helpless. By the end of the decade the FCC had declared Open Season for “alternative facts” and the airways filled with 24/7 liberal- bashing on radio and TV.
The 90’s (the Decade of Vapid Pragmatism) opened the floodgates of Rush Limbaugh’s ‘always angry all the time’ talk radio and countless imitators all trying to out-outrage each other. That constant barrage of hyperbolic lies became Fox News, Newt Gingrich, and 24/7 rural AM radio. The mentality was perfectly illustrated when one local Whatcom County State legislator declared on the State House floor that there should be no Spanish-speaking classes in Washington schools, because (I am not making this up): “if English was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for me!”
The 00’s (the aughts…?) ushered in more tax cuts for the wealthy in both 2001 and 2005 (“It’s Our Due,” as VP Darth Cheney put it), concentrating wealth into even fewer hands while invading two countries and starting wars that lasted for the next twenty years and caused the 2008 recession. It is hard to know whether the Ambient Hypocrisy in our society and the News we see, hear, and read are the causes or the symptoms (or both) of the debilitating polarization we see all around us– or whether these are all effects of deliberate information manipulation by unknown players in an escalating global Cyber War.
Either way, somehow we have to find our way back to a set of common values and goals even while deliberate forces do their best to sabotage them for their own reasons. Scary stuff.
lummi island wine tasting may 19, ’23
PLEASE NOTE: The wine shop will be closed during ferry drydock. We will again be open for wine tasting next Friday, May 26.
However… Friday bread pickup will continue from 4-5:30 pm, and “emergency” wine purchases can be arranged with Janice at those times. We regret any inconvenience and look forward to seeing you after drydock!
Friday Bread Pickup This Week
Whole Wheat Levain – Made with a sourdough starter that is built up over several days before a levain is made and fermented overnight in the refrigerator. This long slow process allows the fermentation process to start and the gluten to start developing; it has a ‘toothy’ crumb, great texture and flavor and a nice crisp crust. – $5/loaf
Semolina w/ Fennel & Raisins – A levain bread made with bread flour, semolina and some fresh milled whole wheat. A little butter for a tender crumb and fennel seeds and golden raisins round out the flavors that go really well with meats and cheese – $5/loaf
and pastry this week…
Brioche Suisse- A rich brioche dough made with plenty of butter, eggs and sugar, rolled out and spread with pastry cream before sprinkling with dark chocolate. The dough is folded over all that delicious filling and cut into individual pieces. –2/$5
To get on the bread order list, click on 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.
Bandon House Sparrow
There are a handful of Oregon and Washington State Parks that we particularly enjoy and revisit often. One of them is Bullard’s Beach just north of Bandon, Oregon. It occupies a “sweet spot” on the Oregon Coast where the weather starts feeling a bit more like California– a little warmer, a little softer, a little more sunshine.
Like Sequim on Washington’s Strait of Juan de Fuca, it seems to occupy a pleasant little climate bubble of sunny warmth. It also has some marine fishing, and possibly the best fish tacos on the planet at the Bandon Fish Market right on the waterfront: no frills, just delicious, fresh, simple fish n chips, fish tacos, and chowdah (as we call it it Maine).
On this visit we sat outside in the sun with a cool breeze, and this little bird flew in and sat next to us for a while. It turns out to be a house sparrow, more common in Europe and Britain than America, but common in populated areas everywhere, though I don’ recall having noticed this color pattern before. This particular bird didn’t seem in a hurry to go anywhere, and seemed to be on its own, good company while we enjoyed these “fish tacos,” more like tortilla-wrapped fish burritos!
Homeward Bound
At the moment we are settled in at Bayview State Park, within sight of Lummi Island. (it’s the little mountain to the left of Ulee’s leash). As usual, this is being written Thursday evening; tomorrow we move to another site about 20′ away for Friday night, and were planning to return to Lummi Island on Saturday when the ferry was expected to return from annual drydock maintenance.
We learned earlier today that that won’t happen until Sunday morning, so we are casting about for Saturday night here or somewhere else nearby. This is a bit of a squeeze, because one of the social psychological outcomes from three years of Covid was a massive increase in the popularity of RV’ing, with the result that between April and October every State, local, and county park that offers camping has been booked solid for months, and there are far more people looking for parking and hookups each night than there are spaces available. And Saturdays are the worst!
So we have our feelers out for a Saturday night spot, and are looking forward to getting home on Sunday!
2072 Granger Way