lummi island wine tasting nov 18 ’22
Covid Update
Well, I am now into Day 4 of Covid, and all things considered, it’s pretty much like the last time I had the flu many years ago; there has been a definite progression of symptoms and temperature. Definitely achy, with that weird shingles-like scalp tingle when you touch your hair. No energy. Fever started second day at about 99, up to 102 yesterday, back to 99-ish today. Coughing, sneezing, fatigue. So yes even what looks like a mild case (I hope!) still sucks.
So, in case you might be wondering, the wine shop will NOT BE OPEN this weekend, except for bread pickup Friday. (see below).
Friday Bread Pickup This Week 4-5:30 pm
Cranberry 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. Perfect for turkey sandwiches and makes great toast- $5/loaf
Sesame Semolina – this bread uses a sponge as a pre-ferment that ferments some of the flour, water & yeast 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
mmm, and pastry this week…
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 wasn’t enough, topped with a black sesame streusel before baking. Ooh la la, what’s not to like?
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.
Economics of the Heart: Hats Off to American Voters!
courtesy Gallup
The news and survey poll mantra for the last several months led us to believe and fear the worst kind of Ultra-Right takeover of Congress in last week’s election. So it was a huge relief to a lot of us that moderation, sober reflection, the Hearings, and of course the recent Ultra-Right Catholic Supreme Court Decisions led a lot of voters to turn away from election denial and give a solid message in favor of moderation.
We shall see how things roll. But it does feel that an oppressive weight has been lifted from our body politic, that there is at least a shot at moving Congress away from the carnival side show it has become under its massively egotistical and entitled so-called Freedom Caucus.
The signs we will be looking for are legislators working across party lines (yes, a tattered cliche, but missing in action since about 1994), an end to MAGA madness, a more deliberative Congress, a shared commitment to the spirit of our Constitution and a return to our real traditional values.
artisan wine gallery patrons COVID ALERT nov 15 ’22
URGENT COVID NOTICE PLEASE READ!!
This is to let all of you who might have been in the wine shop this past Friday or Saturday know that I (Rich) have just tested positive for COVID. 🙁
I felt a little off Monday night and had various cold symptoms this morning, so took a Covid test and was relieved to find it was negative.
Through the day I have maintained a sore throat, headache, and other cold symptoms, so tonight took another test and it immediately showed Positive. ( …expletives deleted…) Pat has so far shown no symptoms and is testing negative.
Some of you regulars were in the shop on Friday night, and a pretty good crowd of visitors was in on Saturday. If you were at the wine shop at all this weekend it would be a good idea for you to take a COVID test, as some of you might have been exposed to it at the shop over the weekend.
Chances are we will not be open this weekend, and will post updates as we learn more. Btw, we have had all our shots and boosters, so fingers crossed it will be a mild case.
Stay tuned and stay well!
Rich
lummi island wine tasting nov 11-12 ’22
Hours this weekend: 4-6pm both Friday and Saturday
Though Covid protocols have relaxed somewhat, the season of outside seating seems to be pretty much over. So as we move inside, let’s be mindful of distance between us and subdue any tendencies toward those, um, exclamatory expectorants that can come with getting a little too boisterous. Thanks!
Friday Bread Pickup This Week 4-5:30 pm
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
Le Pave d’Autrefois – translates roughly as old paving stones. A ciabatta-like bread with a lot of hydration so is simply divided into approximate squares – hence the paving stones name. Made with a mix of bread flour, fresh milled whole wheat, rye, and buckwheat flours for a lot of hearty whole grain goodness. -$5/loaf
mmm, and pastry this week…
Pain aux Raisin– Uses the same laminated dough as croissants. The dough is rolled out, spread with pastry cream and sprinkled with a mix of golden raisins and dried cranberries soaked in sugar syrup. Rolled up and sliced before baking. – 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: Martoccia Poggio Apricale ’21 Italy $17
click image to watch video
Clean, bright, and pretty, Poggio Apricale is the everyday offering from high
altitude Brunello producer, Luca Brunelli. Built on a foundation of Sangiovese
Grosso (the varietal in Brunello), this ripe, unoaked rosso supplies terrific “grip” for such a freshly-styled
wine. Classic Tuscan aromas of morello cherry, sage, blackberry, and warm terra
cotta fill the glass, along with a supple, approachable mid-palate. A small
production wine from a very small estate, this is artisanal wine at its charming, low
yield best.
Economics of the Heart: Maintaining the Circular Flow
courtesy https://2.bp.blogspot.com
In the first page or two of any beginning economics text there is a chart of the Circular Flow of an economic system. People get money by selling their labor to business and government so they can produce goods and services. People then spend the money buying those goods and services back from producers. Everyone has money coming in from one side, and money going out the other. As long as everyone is included and keeps passing the money, the flow goes on everyone is okay.
The central takeaway from the diagram is the interdependence of consumers and producers. Everyone has to keep working, producing, buying, and selling to keep the economy going. On a macro scale like a big city, state, or country, there are large numbers of producers, workers, buyers, and sellers in a constant flux of competition and cooperation.
However, in a rural community like our little island, we all buy most of our goods and services on the mainland or have them delivered via the ferry. Every day (Mondays especially) a parade of trucks and vans comes off the ferry to deliver various goods and services to island households. Our island economy is completely dependent on the ferry for food, fuel, waste disposal, home repair, mail service, package delivery, propane, and more.
Therefore it has been a sudden shock to our senses to learn that just a month ago a decision was made…somewhere... (we on LIFAC* still have not seen the documents) that because of the proximity of eel grass beds (a protected plant species) to the mainland ferry dock, the barge platform necessary for constructing the planned new ferry dock there will not be allowed to anchor over nearby eel grass beds. Instead, the barge will have to be moored inside the ferry docking area during construction (meaning no car ferry, and a clumsy loading platform for a passenger vessel).
Further, because of seasonal restrictions on marine construction (the annual “fish window”) construction work will have to be confined to the period from October to February, when the days are often short, cold, wet, and windy, and construction could take six months or more!
County officials say this problem is completely independent of the size of the planned vessel, which is on the order of three times the size of our 60-yr-old Chief. They also say that the recent RAISE grant award from USDOT is tied very tightly to the parameters of the 34-car vessel described in the grant, a disappointment to those of us who have championed a much smaller, less expensive, and greener vessel. (So it goes, as Kurt Vonnegut was fond of saying)…at least it will be a diesel-electric hybrid, and we will all be working toward eventually generating the power for it here on the Island.
All of this is complicated by the fact that the terminal area is owned by Lummi Nation, which has its own rights, goals, and sensibilities. At the moment my preliminary view is that if the prohibitions stand and there can be no car ferry during construction, then construction should be phased over a couple of years with no more than three weeks at a time with no car ferry…something our community experiences annually for drydock maintenance. Longer than that without the necessary resupply activities that make life on the island possible at all seems like something “most devoutly to be eschewed…” **
Stay tuned…!
*Lummi Island Ferry Advisory Committee
** K. Adlard Coles, author of Heavy Weather Sailing about “experiencing a hurricane from the deck of a sailboat…”
This Week’s $10 Wine Tasting
Girot Ribot Masia Parera Brut Rose Cava Italy $16
Delicate perlage, deep minerality, and intoxicating white flower and baby mushroom aromas make this wine memorable and delightful.
Montfaucon Cotes du Rhone ’18 France $15
50% Grenache co-fermented on skins with syrah, cinsault, & old vines carignan and matured in concrete tanks; beautiful aromas of cherries, black currant; fresh and round on the palate.
Martoccia Poggio Apricale ’21 Italy $16
Sangiovese Grosso with a little Merlot and Cab Franc; Fruity and persistent nose of wild berries and spice. Soft and balanced with fine tannins to make this Sant’Antimo Rosso work well with any meal!
lummi island wine tasting nov 4-5 ’22
Hours this weekend: 4-6pm both Friday and Saturday
Though Covid protocols have relaxed somewhat, the season of outside seating seems to be pretty much over. So as we move inside, let’s be mindful of distance between us and subdue any tendencies toward those, um, exclamatory expectorants that can come with getting a little too boisterous. Thanks!
Friday Bread Pickup This Week 4-5:30 pm
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
Fig Anise – One of the more popular breads in the rotation. Made with a sponge that is fermented overnight, then the final dough is mixed with bread flour and fresh milled whole wheat. Honey, dried figs and anise bring in all the flavors of the mediterranean. – $5/loaf
mmm, 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 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.
Photos
On the occasion of Pat’s birthday we trekked to Portland (Sherwood, to be precise) to celebrate it with son and grandson. We had a great dinner at Mason, a tiny Italian restaurant with amazing food and wine. Absolutely terrific dinner, superbly accompanied by a bottle of 2003 Quilceda Creek cab (Parker gave it 100 pts, and we have to concur!)
Also a view of Wednesday sunset at Padilla Bay reflected in our back window, and a subtle yin-yang shape in — where else– the bottom of a wine glass!
Nana Pat’s Birthday dinner
Padilla Bay reflections
yin yang wine glass…!
Economics of the Heart: Our ‘Sword of Damocles’ Moment
A
n ancient Greek story tells of a tyrannical King (Dionysius) who was feared and obeyed but also hated. His inability to imagine another way of ruling made him quite paranoid (although in his case they probably were out to get him!) and caused him to take extraordinary measures to protect himself from treachery.
When Damocles, one of his loyal followers, complimented him on how happy and contented his wealth, power, and position must make him, he grew irritated, because he was neither. To give Damocles a sense of his everyday burden, he indulged him in luxuries of food, drink, and comfort, which young Damocles very much enjoyed…until he became aware that above his head dangled a great sword, hanging by a single horsehair which might break at any moment to kill or maim him. Thus did he learn, and does the parable teach, how living under constant threat of injury takes a toll.
Next week’s election has us all in a Sword of Damocles moment. Our country and to some degree the entire world are at present divided into irreconcilable political camps of Authoritarians vs. Humanists. Authoritarians believe the natural order of human society is for One Tough Guy and his loyal lieutenants to control how power and wealth are allocated, and that objective Truth is whatever the Leader pronounces it to be. Humanists believe that all human beings share the same needs for safety, affection, attention, approval, and equal opportunity to live healthy and satisfying lives, and that Truth is that which can be verified by observation, repetition, and analysis.
For 250 years our nation has struggled toward inclusion, fairness, justice, and equal opportunities of all citizens to share in a common prosperity. But over the past 50 years, authoritarians have been at work to sabotage this long American effort with their own visions of white male supremacy and its associated religions. In today’s world it has become perfectly clear that Republicans have abandoned democracy in favor of authoritarianism; today’s Republicans would repeal the Bill of Rights in a heartbeat.
We see behind us in our nation a stained tapestry of deals, trades, treachery, lies, murders, ambition, and the unbridled vanity we call “politics.” We see in front of us a particularly virulent form of the political disease, wherein a massive subculture has been created over the past forty years which is completely unwilling or unable to distinguish fact from fiction or truth from lies, and which sees the Constitution as a constraint, not a sacred commitment.
So. For another week or so we will sip our tea (or wine!) with an uneasy eye to the precarious Sword over our heads while our collective lemming culture decides whether to sigh in relief and go home to a nice warm fire or throw ourselves collectively over a cliff into a cold and raging sea. Fingers crossed!
This Week’s $10 Wine Tasting
Marchetti Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico ’19 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.
Saviah The Jack Syrah ’18 Washington $15
85% Syrah, 10% Grenache, 5% Mourvèdre; Appealing aromas and flavors of red and black fruit, violets, olives, anise, and meat, with a velvety, pleasing texture.
La Quercia Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Riserva Colline Teramine ’17 Italy $26
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.
2072 Granger Way