lummi island wine tasting may 23-24 ’25
Summer Hours: Fridays and Saturdays, 4-6 pm
Friday Bread 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 set gris -the grey salt from the region that brings more mineral flavors to this bread. – $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. It is a great all around bread – $5/loaf
…and pastry this week…
Brioche Tarts au Sucre – otherwise known as brioche sugar tarts. A rich brioche dough full of eggs and butter is rolled into a round tart and topped with more eggs, cream, butter and sugar. As always, quantities are limited, be sure to get your order in early!– 2/$5
Island Bakery has developed a rotation cycle of several dozen breads and pastries. Each Sunday Janice emails the week’s bread offering to her mailing list. Orders received before 5 pm Tuesday 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
Domaine de l’Amauve La Daurèle, Côtes du Rhône Villages Séguret ’23 France $21
Grenache blanc, clairette, viognier, & ugni blanc; expressive nose of white fruits, mirabelle plum, and acacia honey; soft on the palate with lively citrus flavors…yummy and very Food Versatile!
Phantom Red Blend ’20 WA $17
Petite Sirah- Zinfandel blend delivers palate of dark blackberry and boysenberry with pepper notes and on a balanced structure with tantalizing layers of baking spices sandt velvety tannins…a consistent local favorite!
Pascual Toso Reserve Malbec ’21 Argentina $21
Dry, full-bodied and generous; richly layered with aromas and flavors of ripe blackberry, sous bois, and toasty oak, with firm, fine-grained tannins that go well with savory meats and sauces. Pair with savoury herbs, rich or spicy roasts or spicy dishes. A long-time local favorite!
Seguret view
Economics of the Heart: Things are not as they seem…nor are they otherwise…
In a recent article, opinion writer David Frum began a recent broadcast with a nuanced response to a question from a young family friend, who wondered why, “if working-class wages have been in decline for 40 years, especially for men, why would anyone sympathize with the idea of free trade? Why wouldn’t they back Trump’s tariffs, given the pressure they’re under?” Frum’s rambling response providedes some interesting food for thought.
At root in the wording of the question is accepting the presumption that the real buying power of the average American worker’s wages actually has been declining since WWII, and Frum’s meandering response makes the case that from many rational perspectives the average American worker’s real buying power has increased substantially over the lifetimes of us baby boomers in general, and since 1985 in particular.
Over these 80 years the role of government in the economy has become a complex web of taxes, subsidies, and transfer payments in an ever-changing global landscape of trade, technology, innovation, and resource management. The gist of Frum’s argument is that from a lot of perspectives the average family today has better working conditions, living conditions, nutrition, education, safety, medical services and more because of technological advances in science, engineering, and productivity.
Broadly speaking, Frum suggests there is NOT a cogent case to be made that the working classes today are in worse economic shape than in the 50’s or 80’s. Rather, it is the constant and deliberate repetitive insistence of Anger Media all day every day that paints a bleak fictional reality that broad swaths of the population accept as true. Even though their economic circumstances are fine, they are taught to worry that armed immigrants are swarming across our borders to take their stuff and do them harm. Just like the Newspeak of 1984, right-wing media has for many years been a constant barrage of fear-mongering rants.
So why has there been this widespread media noise proclaiming that the nation has become unaffordable, or taken over by vicious illegal immigrants, or “woke” liberals, or gays, or transgenders, or the many other targeted “enemies” of the self-proclaimed morality police? Is it as Bill Clinton used to say with a shrug, “just politics”…? Or is it just exactly what it looks like: nonstop, deliberately generated, purposeful propaganda to convince people that everyone is lying and no one can be trusted.
The consistent day to day business of Republican politics since about 1990 has been to sow chaos and discontent across the nation, continually expanding the “enemies” list to ever more people and institutions and viciously vilifying them on national television and social media, day after day after day. This has been going on since 1987 — nearly 40 years– when the Reagan FCC eliminated the long-enshrined requirement that all public news broadcasts must tell the consensus truth if there is one or all conflicting views if there is not.
Within months of that one regulatory change, right-wing, rural, religious radio and TV began non-stop Republican/Christian, deliberately slanderous, anger-mongering lies directed at discrediting named individuals, political parties, immigrants, and critics, and painting them as vicious enemies intent on murdering you and your family and taking all your stuff. But actually of course, the Project 2025 managers are the ones who want complete control of everyone’s life. They don’t care about your stuff; they care about the control.
There is a deep sadism at work here. Many of the Tweetster’s vastly under-qualified Cabinet members act like adolescent bullies for whom scaring or hurting animals or other people is a turn-on. In that they share the Tweetster’s pleasure in inflicting pain on others and in being feared than on being liked or respected.
Mr. Frum closes with this: “In every way you can measure, America is a better place today than it was 40 years ago. And if it isn’t as much better as we would like, well, the future is open. We can do more to make it better, faster for more people. But it is better. It was better. You have to believe in your country, and you have to not give an inch to those who defame the country in order to maximize their own power and their own cruelty.”
lummi island wine tasting may 16-17 ’25
Summer Hours!!
Fridays and Saturdays, 4-6 pm
Friday Bread 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 cracked wheat and bran in the bread flour instead of milled whole wheat berries, plus buttermilk and oil for a tender bread and a little tang, honey, sunflower, pumpkin,, sesame seeds and toasted millet – $5/loaf
…and pastry this week…
Pain aux Raisin – Made with 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 that have been soaked in sugar syrup. Rolled up and sliced before baking. These are my favorites! As always, quantities are limited, be sure to get your order in early! -$5/loaf
Island Bakery has developed a rotation cycle of several dozen breads and pastries. Each Sunday Janice emails the week’s bread offering to her mailing list. Orders received before 5 pm Tuesday 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
Schmitt Pinot Blanc ’17 Alsace $19
Creamy-smooth nose of subdued pear notes adds an earthy element on the palate and adds an earthy element toward a dry, smooth finish.
Sanguineti Morellino de Scansano Sangiovese ’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.
Château de Crousilles Madiran ’20 France $32
A big, bold, old vine blend of tannat, cab franc, and cab sauv, with a dense, inky core and slightly lighter rim; youthful nose of dark plum, kirsch, bay leaf, tobacco and mild oak, and a dense, restrained tannic structure of darker fruit with herbaceous and peppery flavors.
Economics of the Heart: Seeds of Resistance
www.usnews.com (Bill Bramhall/Tribune Content Agency)
Tides may not be turning exactly, but there is a lot of rough water bouncing around as the public starts wising up to the catastrophic intentions of Project 2025. The Tweetster is now visiting his buddies and benefactors in the Middle East, completely disarmed by their opening their vast checkbooks to his every need and mesmerized by his own growing $billions. As if they actually like him. As if he were using them. These guys are astronomically wealthy masters of flattery and brutality, the same guys who cut Jamal Kashoggi into little pieces for annoying them a little.
We are all up to our necks in the deliberate chaos being continually churned up by the puppet-masters at Heritage and their Congressional flock of willing Sheep. There is no scenario in which their efforts can lead to a better world for anyone, including themselves.
Whether we like it or not, the whole world is being swept up in this chaos, making every person and every nation reassess their values, goals, and alliances in search of stability and safety. We have been seeing increasing resistance to the deterioration of citizen rights, broad illegal presumption of power by the Executive branch, the deployment of masked secret police across the country under the guise of “immigration enforcement,” and a deliberate ongoing flow of misinformation from the White House. Every day more people are waking up to it and a resistance movement is building across the country. A growing majority of citizens is now aware of this ongoing assault on the Constitution to which we have all pledged allegiance many times over many years.
“The Trump administration is not just dismantling healthcare; it’s dismantling the very idea of government responsibility, and the majority of House Republicans appear to be paving the way, this time without Trump having to own it or take responsibility for it. It’s a ruse that’s been baked behind the scenes. Savvy politics on his behalf, but really dumb politics on their behalf. Dumb enough that (even) Senator Josh Hawley is calling them out.” Olivia Troy: link
“For not one of his signature initiatives during his first 100 days in office does Trump have the authority under the Constitution and laws of the United States that he claims,” Judge Luttig writes. “Not for tariffs, not for unlawful deportations, not for attacks on colleges and law firms, not for his attacks on birthright citizenship, not for handing power to billionaire Elon Musk and the ‘Department of Government Efficiency,’ not for trying to end due process, not for his attempts to starve government agencies by impounding their funding, not for his vow to regulate federal elections, not for his attacks on the media.” Heather Cox Richardson: link
“It is time for Republican congressional leaders to look in the mirror. Five years ago, Republican Senator (and now majority leader) Thune claimed that “Republicans believe in the Constitution, and that’s what dictates what happens.” Similarly, speaker Johnson’s website proudly proclaims: “Each branch of government must adhere to the Constitution, and… Congress must faithfully perform its Constitutional responsibility.” – Austin Sarat article in the Guardian
lummi island wine tasting may 9-10 ’25
Wine Tasting May 9-10 ’25
Now on Summer Schedule: Fridays & Saturdays 4-6 pm!
the Gorge looking SW over I-84 across the river
(sorry, phone camera not up to the task!)
Our site has been down for a couple of weeks with a code glitch (first in 15 yrs) and we are our searching for more great wines for your tasting pleasure. Jonathan will be hosting, enjoy!
Back soon!
Rich ‘n’ Pat
lummi island wine tasting april 25-26 ’25
Wine Tasting April 25-26 ’25
Now on Summer Schedule: Fridays & Saturdays 4-6 pm!
Lummi Island refection from Bayview State Park
Friday Bread Pickup This Week
Multi Grain made with pre-fermented dough – Using this preferment a portion of the flour, water, salt & yeast is mixed and fermented overnight before mixing the final dough. The next day it is mixed with bread flour and fresh milled whole wheat and rye, then some cornmeal, flax, sunflower and sesame seeds are added for a nice bit of crunch and some extra flavor. –$5/loaf
Rosemary Olive Oil – Also made with pre-fermented dough like the Multi Grain and then mixed 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. A great all around bread – $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 as if that wasn’t enough, topped with a chocolate glaze before baking. Ooh la la, what’s not to like. I can only make a limited number so be sure to get your order in early. – 2/$5.
This week’s $10 Wine Tasting
Vielle Ferme Blanc ’23 France $12
Flavorful blend of bourboulenc, grenache blanc, roussanne, ugni blanc, & vermentino delivering seductive aromas of jasmine, hawthorn, and pear with flavors of blood orange with delicate saline notes.
Marietta Old Vine Red ’22 California $16
Zinfandel-based red blend from Geyserville with lovely bright plum fruit, dark focused notes of briar and black tea, sweet spice, medium body, and velvety tannins to pair with almost any meal or occasion.
Decoy Red ’21 California $18
60% Cab, 40% Merlot, Zinfandel, Syrah, and Cab; aromas of blackberry, plum, spice and savory herbs; fresh, rich, and savory on the palate with rich, silky tannins and a long, lush finish.
(Traveling, no essay this week…)
2072 Granger Way
