lummi island wine tasting may 5 ’23
PLEASE NOTE: The wine shop will be closed during ferry drydock. We will again be open for wine tasting on 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
P
oolish 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. Mixed the next day with bread flour and fresh milled whole wheat. This makes a great all around bread with a nice crisp crust – $5/loaf
Buckwheat Walnut & Honey – a flavorful artisan bread also made with a poolish, fresh milled buckwheat and bread flour. Buckwheat is not a grain it is actually a seed and closer in the plant family to rhubarb and sorrel than to wheat and contains no gluten. Though this bread is not gluten free as it is also includes bread flour made from wheat. Buckwheat has an earthy flavor that in this bread is balanced with a little honey. Some toasted walnuts add a nice crunch. This bread goes well with meats and cheeses – $5/loaf
and pastry this week…
Brioche Almond Buns – Made with a delicious brioche dough full of eggs, butter and sugar. Rolled out and spread with an almond cream filling. The almond cream is not made from pre-made almond paste, but rather is a delicious creamy filling made with lots more butter, sugar and eggs as well as almond flour. Yum, yum 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.
Grayland Beach State Park
It wasn’t as easy as you might think to teach Ulee how to paw his name into the sand. Then again, there is a LOT of sand out here, about a half mile from the edge of the dunes to the water, and he loves to dig in it.
It’s really quiet out here, with the constant and soothing background of the surf in the distance, no traffic…you know, another favorite Washington State Park.
It can get wet and gloomy out here, but this visit has delivered pretty good weather, more sun than usual and only a few sprinkles. Not to mention the best and freshest fish and chips on the planet a few miles north at Merino’s, right across the street from the pier in Westport.
Tokeland Hotel
Well over 100 years old, this old building in Tokeland, WA drips with charm from a long bygone era, and has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1978.
For some years now it has been owned and operated by Heather Earnhardt, well known around Seattle for her tiny, magical café, The Wandering Goose, where her captivating infusion of Southern ingredients into her recipes built a large and loyal clientele. That same style has now resided in the remote reaches of Tokeland for many years, and its remoteness correlates perfectly with its anachronistic flair, unique style, and over the top Southern flavors.
In short: the food is amazing, the atmosphere chaotically comfortable, the portions (be warned!) are Huge, and even the water is delicious! And yes, it is also a real old-time hotel.
OOPS!
Sorry for the late post! Lost our internet connection for a day or two out here on the NW coast.
lummi island wine tasting april 27 ’23
PLEASE NOTE: The wine shop will be closed during ferry drydock. We will again be open for wine tasting on 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
Sesame Semolina –Tthis bread uses a sponge as a pre-ferment before mixing the final dough. Made with semolina and bread flour as well as a soaker of cornmeal, millet and sesame seeds, a little olive oil rounds out the flavor and tenderizes the crumb. The finished dough is rolled in more sesame seeds before baking. A bread with a lot of great flavors – $5/loaf
Dried Cherry Walnut – Made with a nice mix of bread flour and freshly milled buckwheat and whole wheat flours. Orange juice and olive oil are a unique combination in this bread that add flavor and keep a soft crumb, then loaded up with dried cranberries and toasted walnuts. Makes great toast! – $5/loaf
and pastry this week…
Muffins! Four muffins: TWO Chocolate (Great chocolate flavor and an incredibly moist texture) plus two Cinnamon Streusel Muffins, made with a brown sugar, butter, pecan and cinnamon filling that is swirled through the batter and then topped with a streusel and a cream cheese glaze. Yum! Feed your cinnamon roll fix!
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.
Lummi Island from Bayview State Park
Tonight we are in our trailer at Bayview State Park. That’s our Island in the middle!
lummi island wine tasting april 21 ’23
Hours this weekend: 4-6 pm Friday, April 21
PLEASE NOTE: The wine shop will be closed until the end of ferry drydock, and reopening Friday, May 26. Friday bread pickup will continue from 4-5:30 pm, and “emergency” wine purchases can be arranged with Janice at those times.
Friday Bread Pickup This Week
Multi Grain Levain – – Made with a sourdough culture and a flavorful mix of bread flour and fresh milled whole wheat and rye. A nice mixture of flax, sesame sunflower and pumpkin seeds and some polenta add great flavor and crunch. And just a little honey for some sweetness. A great all around bread that is full of flavor – $5/loaf
Rosemary Olive Oil – Made with bread flour and freshly milled white whole wheat for additional flavor and texture. Fresh rosemary from the garden and olive oil to make for a nice tender crumb and a nice crisp crust. – $5/loaf
and pastry this week…
Traditional Croissants – Made with both a sourdough levain and a prefermented dough – aka “old dough”– where a portion of the flour, water, salt and yeast is fermented overnight. The final dough is then made with more flour, butter, milk and sugar, laminated with more butter before being cut and shaped into traditional french croissants. –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.
Restaurant of the Week: Elizabeth Station
Okay, okay, this is where we usually showcase one of the wines we are pouring this week. But as it turns out we had to go to town yesterday for a bunch of errands (including a beauty shop grooming for Ulee) and had a little time to grab some lunch. Our thoughts turned to Elizabeth Station, next to the old Aftermath Club at the corner of Broadway and Holly in Bellingham.
Though we had not been there for some years, last weekend a wine shop visitor who had been there recently was totally WOW’ed by their pizzas. Since we had to go right by it to get from downtown B’ham back out to the ferry dock, we stopped by to check it out.
They still have a vast selection of 1000 beers from everywhere, with 22 on tap. But the main business is Pizza. And as our wine shop guest had reported, this place takes “pizza” to a whole new level of subtlety, quality, and flavor. Think of it as “the magic of turning ‘pizza’ into ‘Gourmet Dining!’
A brief phone interview with manager/chef Tam Nguyen revealed the simple secret: an ongoing quest to source the best possible ingredients from regional artisan farms, mills, and cheese producers. The quest began when visitors and sales fell rapidly as Covid spread. That led a new vision: to make great pizza that people could order by phone and bring home with a six-pack of one of their wide selection of great beers and minimal contact. The magic was in tying that idea to a growing network of regional sources of the very best ingredients. That commitment makes an impressive difference. So no, all pizza is not created equal. Yum!
This Week’s $10 Wine Tasting:
Phantom Chardonnay ’20 California $15
Entices with its rich layers of green apple and pear that lead into spicy flavors of freshly baked apple pie, while barrel fermentation imparts a creamy, luscious mouthfeel finishing with sweet notes of vanilla and melted caramel.
Monte Tondo Veneto Corvina ’20 Italy $12
Organically farmed; bright nose of fresh cherries and black pepper; fresh and lively palate of cherry, dark chocolate and spice, with supple, well-integrated tannins and a smooth, seductive, slightly spicy finish.
Tre Donne Langhe Nebbiolo ’18 Italy
Dark mauve in color ; nose of red berries, tobacco, and chocolate opens to a balanced palate marked by soft, structured tannins that pair well with well-seasoned dishes, tasty sauces, and roasted or grilled meats.
Economics of the Heart: Price Elasticity of Demand
painting by Nancy Ging
Some bits of Economic Jargon are actually pretty useful concepts. Here in our little island paradise we have been beset for several months with the prospect of a major ferry fare increase. Our community has presented many questions and arguments against many aspects of the proposal, and we have seen some minor adjustments to soften the proposals a bit. Nevertheless, next week the County Council is scheduled to vote on the proposal which, though we have riddled it with holes, and though we have had some teasing indications that our arguments may be getting a little traction, the matter still seems to be on schedule for logic-defying passage in the coming week.
In the midst of all of this, a fairly simple economic concept which is fairly central to the matter continues to be ignored: price elasticity of demand. (read more)
We all operate on some kind of budget, so when the price of something we regularly buy goes up, we try to use less of it or substitute something else for it that will serve the same purpose. If it’s something we must have (gas for the car, say), then in the short run we will pay the higher price while we shop around for a lower one. In the longer term we might carpool, take the bus, or walk to save money. In the case of ferry fares, daily commuters pretty much have to pay the higher fare, at least for a while or until they can move away.
Raising a price brings in more $ per purchase but lowers the quantity purchased. If demand is perfectly elastic, raising your price will reduce your sales to zero. If it is perfectly inelastic, everyone will have to pay the new price until they can find an alternative. In between there will be gains from higher prices and losses from fewer sales. In the case of our ferry, major (300%!) fare increases from 2007-2011 increased revenue for a year or two until many commuters moved away and were replaced by retirees and telecommuters, whose far more elastic demand lets them ride a little less and stay on budget.
In that sense those major fare increases a dozen years ago “poisoned the well” for future fare hikes by pushing away so many commuters. It is anyone’s guess what will happen next week, but we can be pretty confident that demand now is far more elastic than ten years ago and that a major fare increase will bring disappointing revenue changes for the County.
For all these reasons a number of residents are supporting a much smaller fare increase (10% or so), along with a summer surcharge on cash fares, and monitoring of results as a limited experiment on whether it could raise revenue a bit with manageable impact on the community.
lummi island wine tasting april 14 ’23
Hours this weekend: 4-6 pm Friday
Friday Bread Pickup This Week
Pain au Levain – Made with a 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. A great all around bread – $5/loaf $5/loaf
Cinnamon Raisin Rye– Made with a poolish of bread and fresh milled rye flour that is fermented overnight. The final dough is mixed the next day with bread flour and freshly milled whole wheat as well as rolled oats. Some honey for sweetness, a little milk for a tender crumb and loaded with raisins and a healthy dose of cinnamon. This is not a rich sweet bread with a swirl of cinnamon sugar, instead the cinnamon is mixed into the dough to flavor this hearty rustic loaf. – $5/loaf
and pastry this week…
Individual Cinnamon Rolls – These are made with a rich sweet roll dough that is full of eggs, butter and sugar. The dough is rolled out, spread with pastry cream and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. Then rolled up and sliced into individual rolls for baking. And boy are they delicious!! – 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.
Wine of the Week: Shatter Grenache Côtes Catalanes ’19 France $19
The wine is made from grenache grown in vineyards located near Maury in the Roussillon region of Southwest France by California winemaker Joel Gott.
As it turns out, we were lost for a bit in this very area about ten years ago. We were staying in Lagrasse, at the northern edge of the Corbieres wine region, and drove south through the rugged landscape where centuries ago the heretic Cathars fortified themselves in remote mountain fortresses to practice their particular form of Catholicism. It’s a long, sad, and brutal story.
As we moved into Roussillon, we found ourselves on a narrow dirt road winding through farmland when the road took a sudden dip onto a Very Narrow one-lane “bridge,” close to the water and with no guard rails, and from our vantage point no clear sense of where it went after that.
Eventually we got up the nerve to cross it, and within a half mile came to a major highway along the boundary between Corbieres and Roussillon very close to Maury.
The area is known for its nutrient-poor schist soil which forces vines to grow deep to find nutrients, evoking concentrated flavors. The name Shatter and the bottle photo are an homage to the shattered schist soil. All in all, pretty tasty!
This Week’s $10 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.
Robert Ramsay Mason’s Red ’16 Washington $17
Easy-drinking cinsault-dominant Rhone blend; subtle nose of black cherry paste with a hint of cinnamon spice that expands on the palate to a soft anise finish.
Shatter Grenache Vin de Pays des Côtes Catalanes ’19 France $19
From Old Vines in Roussillon’s black schist soil; nose of dark fruit with a hint of espresso; velvety texture with black currant, spice and cured meat flavors with a touch of coffee; firm structure, supple tannins, excellent acidity and overall balance.
Economics of the Heart: Economics, Finance, and Usury
There is a lot of public confusion about economics. So let’s clarify a few things. First, economics has nothing to do with either “money” or “finance.”
Economics is about value, something completely intangible. You can’t hold it in your hand. You can’t see it. You can only feel it, because it’s about you and your values, not about stuff. We are constantly making decisions about what we want to eat or drink, or where to go, or what to do next. Every decision has an economic component– what to do for the next five minutes, what to wear, where to go, what to eat…and the inevitable calculation of how much effort it will take, how likely it will be successful, and whether it will be “worth it.” So there it is: we are constantly making choices about how to spend our time and energy, and economics is the study of how and why we make the choices we make.
Being human is to have constantly arising physical needs like air, food, water, and shelter, and social needs for safety, affection, attention, and approval. When hungry we need to eat, when tired we need to sleep, when lonely we need companionship. The cycle is continuous. Beginning some 2 million years ago, our hunter-gatherer humanoid ancestors worked hard, often in groups, to survive. Their economics was practical and tribal. They endured both scarcity and plenty, were sometimes happy, sometimes sad. They learned about sharing and hording, cooperation and competition, belonging and isolation.
Neanderthals appeared about a million years ago, homo sapiens around 300,000 years ago, and “modern humans” quite recently, about 70,000 years ago, laying out the foundation for both the wonder and the horrors of our relationship with each other and with our planet. Tribes became villages, hunting became farming, and “civilization” has only been around for last ten thousand years or so. By the time the Bible appeared, there was already a word for usury, and charging interest, especially excessive interest, was considered sinful or immoral.
Over the last hundred years the intersecting paths of civilization, trade, banking, and the diabolical “personhood” of corporations have renamed usury as the more palatable and less pejorative “finance.” Nowadays everyone is in debt to faceless institutional lenders for something: mortgages, credit cards, car loans, student loans, insurance. Wealth continues to concentrate into fewer and fewer hands, and more and more things that were once collectively owned “public goods” have been privatized, made proprietary, and sold back to us at a profit as we wait on the phone for hours in another “Doom Loop” waiting to speak to a real “Customer Service” rep about our phone service, internet service, medical bill, or airline cancellation.
Just think of it as “the Business School gift that just keeps on taking.”
2072 Granger Way