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lummi island wine tasting july 7-8 ’23

Open Friday AND Saturday, July 7 & 8,  4-6pm

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courtesy toiletovhell.com

 

PLEASE NOTE!!    Beginning July 7, we are expanding our summer hours to be open both Fridays and Saturdays from 4-6pm!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday Bread Pickup This Week

Pear Buckwheat – The preferment in this bread is a poolish, made with bread flour, water and a bit of yeast and fermented overnight. Mixed the next day with bread flour and fresh milled buckwheat. Since buckwheat has no gluten using the preferment allows the dough to begin to develop before the final mix. The addition of toasted walnuts and dried pears soaked in white wine makes for a really flavorful bread – $5/loaf

French Country Bread – A levain bread made with mostly bread flour, fresh milled whole wheat and and a bit of toasted wheat germ. After building the levain with a sourdough culture and mixing the final dough it gets a long cool overnight ferment in the refrigerator. This really allows the flavor to develop in this bread. Not a refined city baguette, but a rustic loaf that you would find in the countryside.

and pastry this week…

Gibassiers – A traditional french pastry that incorporates the flavors from the southern France region. Made with a delicious sweet dough full of milk, butter, eggs and olive oil. The addition of orange flower water, candied orange peel and anise seed bring great flavor to these pastries. After baking they are brushed with melted butter and sprinkled with more sugar. Ooh La La a delightful pastry to go along with your morning coffee or tea

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: Bodega Garzon Tannat Reserve ’18        Uruguay        $15

Bodega Garzón vineyards, Uruguay

Bodega Garzón vineyards, Uruguay

Tannat originated in the Southwest of France near Madiran in Gascony, in the shadow of the Pyrénées, where it has thrived for many centuries. It has long been known for its muscular tannins and was often blended with Bordeaux varietals cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc. It was planted in Uruguay by Basque settlers in the nineteenth century, and has evolved into the dominant red wine of the country.

The Uruguayan evolution of the grape has developed wines characterized by soft and elegant tannins and complex blackberry fruit notes. Over many decades, several new clones have been developed which as a group have brought more ripeness, but higher alcohol and lower acidity and fruitiness. There is ongoing development of the wine’s potential by blending it with cab sauv, merlot, or cab franc. At present it offers a unique array of flavor and textural characteristics unlike any other varietal that some of us find irresistible!

Bodega Garzon Tannat Reserve ’18        Uruguay        $15
Opaque deep, dark red; opens with an enticing, delicious aroma of very ripe, dark fruit and berries stewed in their own liqueur, with a melange of spice, wood. The palate is steeped with vermouth-like spice, herb, and licorice notes that are seamlessly balanced and integrated with the robust tannins of this rustic grape.

 

This week’s wine tasting

Chapoutier Belleruche Blanc  ’21      France     $14
Delicious blend of grenache blanc and roussanne; fragrant and perfumed with a light, grilled-lemon note over ripe melon,with a lingering palate of rich white peach.

MAN Vintners Pinotage ’20   South Africa    $12
Aromas of dark coffee beans, red berries, nutmeg, and vanilla spice turning to dark berries and smoky plum; rustic yet silky and juicy, with smooth tannins, balanced acidity, and comforting intensity.

Bodega Garzon Tannat Reserve ’18        Uruguay        $15
Opaque deep, dark red; opens with enticing, delicious aromas of very ripe, dark fruit and berries stewed in their own liqueur, with lingering notes of spice, herb, and licorice on the seamless finish.

 

Economics of the Heart: Undiscussed Elephants

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRNnmH3TMUp88PTSs7UXMhw00Q0Bp2FC8SFAUQHUKb_Z5mSaoY&sOkay, okay, I promise this will be my last post regarding our parochial little ferry finance issue!

Several weeks ago, a unified community was able to get the County Council to postpone any action on the County’s stiff-arming attempt to get a new ferry rates ordinance passed that would allow it to charge any outrageous expense against fare revenues. A little breather, we all thought…

Instead, a subgroup of LIFAC, a County citizens committee that reports to the Council on ferry matters (I am a member), called a “special meeting” on two days’ notice that would change that decision and instead endorse the County’s new draft ordinance, with no public discussion of its many alarming faults. That meeting was called off at the last minute, ostensibly because it seemed to violate the WA Open Meetings Act. It is good that it was called off.

At this point it is important to note that there are several Very Large Elephants in this room that have been studiously ignored by Lifac for many months, never making it onto the agenda for the detailed and thoughtful discussion they deserve, despite extensive citizen resistance, including:

  1. A thorough validation review of at least the highest ten unprecedented O&M charges between $30,000 and $428,000 for “regular and routine” maintenance since 2013;
  2. A lengthy, thoughtful, detailed review and discussion to clarify, point by point, the language and intent of WCC 10.34 (Ferry Fares) with a particular focus on ease of interpretation and fairness to all stakeholders;
  3. Establishing an easily calculable rule to set limits on the allowable annual variation in the total fare box burden.

One place to start such a discussion is shown in this chart. Between 2013 and 2022 there were ten unusually large maintenance charges, ranging from $30k to $428k. There is nothing “regular, ordinary, or routine” about “maintenance” expenses of this magnitude, which in no way qualify for inclusion in the fare box burden.

In the chart there are two lines. The blue line links the total O&M costs charged against fare revenue of the years the expenses occurred. The red line shows how removal of just these ten, vastly higher costs than have ever before been passed off as “ordinary maintenance” substantially increases the “regularity” of total expenses from year to year. And these are just the most glaring examples!

This is the Main Event, folks. This is what the last six months have been about: underhanded changes of the rules in an unscrupulous effort to make ferry users pay for keeping our very old boat afloat. Well, no one elsewhere in the County pays for repaving the road in front of their house, or repairing the bridges they cross to get to work or shop. We are just fine with paying our fair share and maybe a little more. But this way, way, way past a fair share.

 

 

 

 

Wine Tasting
Comments Off on lummi island wine tasting july 3 ’20

lummi island wine tasting july 3 ’20

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Wine Tasting Reset Time

For the past couple of months we have been trying out piggy-backing a minimal wine tasting on Janice’s Friday bread pickup and DIY Happy Hour at the ferry parking lot each week. As you know, she is taking this weekend off, so we remind you there is no bread pickup this weekend. Look for next week’s menu email sometime Sunday.

After experimenting for a couple of months now with with the Friday Tailgate tasting, we have decided to discontinue the practice. That will free us to just drop by and visit along with everyone else on Fridays…and to focus on promoting tastings by appointment. We will have more on that next week.

In the meantime, have a relaxing, sunny, and Happy Fourth of July (with caveats as noted below…!)

 

Annual Fourth of July Alert

Every Fourth of July we like to remind you all to “Watch out for Falling Elephants!” That’s because of an old limerick (even back then!) that was popular in my neighborhood in Maine when I was a kid in the Fifties. It goes like this:

“I asked my mother for fifty cents
To see the elephant jump the fence;
He jumped so high he touched the sky, and
Didn’t come down till the Fourth of July.”

So, a word to the wise for this Saturday: Take nothing for GrantedKeep a Sharp Eye For Falling Elephants!

 

 

Mar a Lago Update: How’s That MAGA Thing Goin’, Mate?

Here it is now July, 2020, and a Long, Long time has passed since the most recent Republican Coup in 2016. As Jesus said in Superstar, “I’ve tried for Three years, Seems like Ninety..!” America’s last three years have been Exhausting and Crazy-Making. We occasionally think back to the Republican Candidates’ Debates in 2015 and just scratch our heads. How could this have happened?

It’s not that any of the other candidates would have been more worthy than the Tweetster in any measurable way. It’s more that their particular forms of insanity were Familiar. We didn’t Like them, and had little respect for them, but weren’t Afraid of them.  On the other hand, the Tweetster’s whole MO is his penchant for the Outrageous, his complete willingness to pull the chain that flushes Everyone and Everything down the toilet. As if the only Element of his actions that is relevant is that they make the Front Page, not that they accomplish or contribute anything of lasting benefit.

Supposedly the Tweetster’s strong suit is the Economy. But a recent article in Independentaustralia.net presents a damning Statistical assessment of the Tweetster’s economic failures.

First, although the economy was supposedly Booming, government revenue went from 85% of gdp in 2016 to 75% in 2019, the worst budgetary outcome of all 36 wealthy members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Second, his penchant for Trade Wars (you know, the Art of the Deal guy)  led him to start trade wars with numerous trading partners in 2018, causing increasing trade deficits. Exports have tumbled, trade deficits have deepened severely, production has declined, farms and businesses have gone bankrupt, and hundreds of thousands of workers have lost their jobs.

Third, The rationale for Trump’s costly 2018-19 trade wars was that our deficits were too deep, averaging $39.8 billion over the last ten months of 2016. The trend continued  for two more years, with exports falling and imports rising, costing tens of billions in lost treasure, thousands of farmer suicides, and trade deficits approaching $50 billion. At the same time, since the 2018 tariffs, counterbalancing production and exports have continued to fall.

Fourth, the Tweetster has claimed since taking office in 2017 that he deserved credit for jobs expansion that was more correctly attributed to the policies of the Obama Administration: “It took gross mismanagement of the Coronavirus pandemic to reverse the positive trend in American jobs which started back in 2010, although the rate of decline eased somewhat in 2018 and 2019 as exports and economic growth faltered.”

Bottom line: There is no Art of the Deal. There is no Business Acumen. There is no Art and No Deal, no Leadership, no Understanding, no Heart, no Mind, no Caring, no Responsibility. And most disturbing of all, our so-called President has not even a Touch of Class.

 

New Wine Tasting Protocol

Pretty simple: call or email us to make a 30-minute appointment for a tasting on our deck. We will pour five wines (as usual over these many years– members $5, non-members $10). More details next week.

Happy Fourth of July!

 

 

Wine Tasting
Comments Off on lummi island wine tasting july 5-6 ’19

lummi island wine tasting july 5-6 ’19

Friday Breads

Multi Grain Levain – Made with a sourdough culture and using a flavorful mix of
bread flour and fresh milled whole wheat and rye. A nice mixture of flax, sesame, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, and polenta add great flavor and crunch. And a little honey for some sweetness. – $5/loaf

Polenta Levain – Also made with a levain which is mixed with bread flour and polentain the final dough mix. While there is a hint of butter used when making the polenta for a nice rustic loaf with great corn
flavor. – $5/loaf

Chocolate Croissants – a traditional laminated french pastry made with a bit of sourdough flavor and some pre-fermented dough to help strengthen the dough to create the traditional honeycomb interior. Rolled out and shaped with delicious dark chocolate in the center. – 2/$5

 

 

Fourth of July

Every Fourth of July we like to remind people to “Watch out for Falling Elephants!” That’s because of a limerick that was popular in our neighborhood in Maine when I was a kid. It goes like this:

“I asked my mother for fifty cents
To see the elephant jump the fence;
He jumped so high he touched the sky, and
Didn’t come down till the Fourth of July.”

Fortunately it is now late in the evening on the Fourth with No Reports of Elephant Damage! (whew!)

 

Mar a Lago Update: American Dreams

Here it is another Fourth of July in America. Besides the perennial worry about Falling Elephants , today we enjoyed the company of close neighbors over tasty snacks, decent wine, tasty barbecue, and excellent conversation on issues of the day that grew curiously animated, suggesting an unconscious anxiety about the world we share and the politics that drive it. Interestingly, our little group shared a common political perspective,  which is not so much Philosophical as it is Nostalgiac, somewhat reminiscent of Robert Kennedy’s line about “Other people see things as they are and ask Why?…I see things that Never Were and ask “Why Not?”

As we went around the table, each of us dug deeply to try to Name the sources of our Fears. The common element seemed to be that from childhood we had all become attached to idealistic fantasies of the Meaning of America which over recent decades in general and over the last two years in particular have been Wholeheartedly Abandoned by Republicans.

At root is a somewhat arcane economic theory involving the relationship between “property rights” and “amenity rights” proposed by EJ Mishan some decades ago. The idea is that in lots of circumstances the behavior of one individual imposes collateral costs on other individuals, as when someone smokes in a restaurant, plays loud music that bothers neighbors, or dumps radioactive waste into a public waterway.

Mishan’s central point was the ambiguity of rights in modern society. Does a cigarette smoker have the property right to smoke wherever and whenever s/he pleases, or does everyone else have the right to a smoke-free environment? Should the smoker pay for the right to smoke in a social setting, or should those present have to pay the smoker Not To Smoke?

Today, nearly fifty years after the first Earth Day, these issues of property rights and amenity rights remain unresolved and to a large degree define the differences between Republicans and Democrats. If you believe every individual Owns the Right to Clean Air and Water, Quiet, and Equal Opportunity, you  are a Democrat. If you believe that every individual Owns a Right to engage in any personal and economic behavior they choose regardless of its consequences on others, you are a Republican. Sadly, it is hard to see any room for compromise between these Extremes.

Washington Post Tweetster Lie Count to date: 10,000 as of 5/1/19

 

This week’s wine tasting

Ottella Lugana Bianco ’16 Italy $15
Trebbiano di Lugano (Turbiana). Intense straw yellow color with green tinges. Exotic notes of candied fruit and citrus, warm and very deep on the nose. Widespread expressive finesse, with rich and persistent texture.

Elicio Rosé ’18 France $12
Syrah-grenache blend; bright vibrant pink; fruit-forward notes of fresh raspberries and summer flowers.

Atalaya Laya ’17 Spain $11
70% Garnacha and 30% Monastrell; Cassis, blueberry, pungent herbs and mocha aromas lead to an open-knit palateof fresh cherry, dark berry, and a hint of black pepper and a subtle floral note.

Coupe Roses La Bastide ’17 France $12
Carignan-Grenache blend; aromas and flavors of the garrigue underbrush of the high Minervois, laced with notes of blueberry and Carignan’s tarry black notes.

Seghesio Zinfandel Angela’s Garden ’17 $19
Nose has ripe bing cherries with a bit of leather that expand on the palate to ripe maraschino and Rainiers. Youthful and bright with a surprising depth of flavor and a youthful finish.

 

 

 

 

 

Wine Tasting
Comments Off on lummi island wine tasting may 18 ’18

lummi island wine tasting may 18 ’18

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Bread Friday this week

Barley, Whole Wheat, & Rye Levain – a levain bread where the sourdough culture is built over several days and allowed to ferment before the final dough is mixed. Then mixed with bread flour and freshly milled whole wheat, barley and rye flours. A hearty whole grain bread that is a great all around bread – $5/loaf

Buttermilk Currant – A really flavorful loaf made with bread flour and almost half fresh milled whole wheat. A little honey for sweetness balances the flavors of the whole grain, buttermilk makes for a soft and tender crumb. Then lots of currants and just a little rosemary round out the flavors. This bread makes great toast and even better french toast- $5/loaf

And pastry this week…

Baker’s Choice Surprise! Sometimes inspiration for pastry comes later in the week than the email. All you need to know is it will be delicious, cost $5, and, as always, quantities are limited! C’mon, step up and take a chance!!

 

Open Friday, Closed Saturday this weekend!

We are away for the weekend, celebrating grandson Seriozha’s Second Birthday in Corvallis! Bread Friday will happen as usual this week from 4-6pm with Janice and David and delivering bread and pouring this week’s wines (see list below). However please note the wine shop will be closed all day on Saturday, 5/19. 

We will reopen for the Memorial Day Artists’ Studio Tour Friday 5/25 from 4-6, and Saturday and Sunday 5/26-27 from 1-6pm, continuing our ongoing show of works by Meredith Moench. More on that next week!

The Current Wine Plan for Studio Tour is for our friend Tristan to come up and pour wines from his Spanish Portfolio on Friday and Saturday. Mark your calendars!

 

 

Trailer Update

Plan A was to pick up our new trailer in Portland on May 1. But as we wrote that week, it was the Wrong Trailer, Gromit! “Our” trailer had gotten stranded Somewhere in Indiana when the factory lost track of where it was supposed to go. Instead they sent a trailer with the same exterior but a different interior.

Then we were assured that Everything Possible was being done to get it shipped ASAP, almost certainly within a week, May 7 or 8 at the latest. As that date came and went, it became clear that yes the trailer had “gone to the shipper,” and would soon be On the Road to Oregon, and For Sure it would be leaving Indiana by Monday, May 14. Figure three or four days on the road and it could arrive in Portland by Thursday, May 17, opening a theoretical doorway for pickup sometime during our current Birthday Trip.

So, as one does, we maintained Hope. At this writing we are in a motel in Woodland, WA, on our way to Corvallis. Today we get the latest update on the Trailer Shipping News; the current projected delivery date is next Friday, May 25. Which is (see above) Studio Tour Weekend. Curiously, repeated Disappointment doesn’t so much leave a Bitter Taste as a Corked taste, Flavorless and somewhat Musty, and you are Ready to Dump it Down the Drain, but you have built up So Much Expectation you can’t quite bring yourself to do it, and you sit with your disappointment and frustration with, you know, a kind of Puzzled Irony.

 

Mar a Lago Update: Rooms Full of Elephants

Day to Day coping with the Tweetster in Charge of The World is an Ongoing Challenge. Everybody Can Feel it is All Wrong, that a Terrible Mistake has been made. It is not unlike the beginning Gambit of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, when a Vogon Demolition Ship is sent to destroy the Earth to make room for a new Hyperspace Bypass. Nothing personal, Just Business, sorry for Any Inconvenience, Really, If you hadn’t been here, we wouldn’t have to Remove You, Our Hands Are Tied.

The News this week has repeatedly reminded us that it is the Anniversary of the appointment of Robert Mueller to Investigate Possible Wrongdoing/Collusion between the Trump Campaign and Russian Intelligence Operatives during the 2016 Election Campaign. Republican Loyalists, having Accepted Him as their Personal Savior,  have Closed Ranks around the Tweetster in a Phalanx of Shields and Spears to protect him from each Daily Onslaught of Fake News. And the Rhetoric continues to Amp Up that there should be a Time Limit for Mueller to Prove that there is a There There.

This all reminds us of the Eight Long Years of the Whitewater Investigation of the Clintons, not to mention the Fox News 25-year Obsession with Hillary Clinton, you know, in case she ever ran for President, and oh by the way, fast forward to today’s world where there is Nothing the Tweetster can do to arouse moral outrage among his Disciples.

So it is worth taking a moment from the daily cries of Fake News and looking around the room Slowly Enough to Start Focusing on the Increasing Number and Size of Elephants in the Room that Everyone is Studiously Ignoring, especially the One in the Middle that No One can either Ignore or Acknowledge: that Yes, Indeed, the election of  2016 was manipulated and Stolen through a concerted campaign involving Russian hacking, Facebook manipulation, Cambridge Analytica, and the Tweetster Campaign. But of course no one can actually Say That.

 

This week’s wine tasting

Maryhill Viognier ’15        Washington       $14
Vibrant aromas of orange zest, honeysuckle, and pink grapefruit; flavors of lemon, pear, and white peach. The mouthfeel is delicate, yet full-bodied, withnotes of fresh flowers.

JM Cinsault Rose ’17   Washington    $23
Bigger, more textured, and more aromatic than one expects from a rosé; in the dark could be mistaken for a full-bodied white blend…delicious!

Antonio Sanguineti Nessun Dorma Toscana ’15    Italy    $15
Super-Tuscan blend of sangiovese, cab, and merlot, with notes of black currant and cherry, and spicy chocolate. Rich and spicy on the palate, the red fruit comes on strong in the middle, with chocolate rounding out the finish.

Chat. Cabriac Carignan Old Vines ’16 France $12
Ruby color with purplish reflections; scents of ripe red fruits, currants and blackcurrant with some spicy notes; in the mouth elegant, round, and well structured with soft tannins and good persistence.

Torbreck Woodcutter’s Shiraz ’16   Australia   $19
Rich, opulent fruit with a wonderful freshness and balance. An incredible deep, central core of dark fruit gives way to an intense textural mid palate full of cassis, plum, spice and dark chocolate.

 

 


 

 

 

Wine Tasting