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12 June 2009

ceviche from down the road

salmon on the side of the road

On Fridays, we grow excited around here. Not because it's almost the weekend. Our concept of weekends as a couple has always been off the norm, since Saturday nights were one of the busiest days for Danny at the restaurant. I sort of miss that Friday afternoon feeling, when the school week finished and everything was shining with possibility. Now, Friday's just another day.

Except, on Friday mornings we wake up and say, "It's fish day."

We love living on this island. You've probably already gathered that. In fact, you're probably already tired of hearing us talk about it. This place we live? It isn't perfect. It's small and rural, rife with small-town rumors, lacking any really good restaurants or the entertainment we take for granted in cities. For us, that's a relief. We have found our home. That's what we love, more than the island itself — the sense that we have found the place we can call our own (along with another 10,000 residents). Both of us spent years searching. It's good to put our feet up and talk about what we will be doing ten years from now. Here.

And we both hope that when Little Bean is a teenager, and attending the same high school where I once taught American Studies, that we'll still be able to drive down the main highway and buy fish out of coolers from the family that caught them.


the fish shed

The Quall family has this plywood shack set up on the main highway, just south of town. Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, you can see the signs on the road and pull over for salmon.

Mike and Thomas, father and son, are fishermen. I have a feeling that Mike — the older guy, with the long suspenders and lumbering walk — has been doing this all his life. They sit together there, talking, listening to the radio, waiting for customers. Mike sits in that folding lawn chair, just in front of the dangling sign that reads "Seafood Sold Here." When they run out of fish, he walks back to the house, through the yard littered with fishing net, and pulls out more halibut or scallops. Thomas taps his feet and greets each customer politely, when they tumble from their pickup trucks and fancy sedans. Everyone seems to know each other. After all, they've been doing this every summer weekend for years.

whole salmon

You might be thinking: "That sounds charming. It's certainly local. But how good is the fish?"

Fantastic.

The salmon — in this case, a King salmon from the Washington coast — is firm-fleshed, pink as a hard blush, and so flush with taste when grilled that it's almost obscene. We bought scallops from the stand a few weeks ago. When Danny and I sat down to eat them, at the end of a long day that left us searing up dinner close to midnight, we nearly fell off our chairs. Those scallops were so fresh and sweet that they melted into something like scallop cotton candy in our mouths.

The only problem is that fish this fresh makes everything else taste sadly lacking. We're ruined from it.

Thomas cuts the salmon

When I was growing up, fish only meant fish sticks, filet o'fish, fish and chips, and frozen shrimp for shrimp cocktail. Not knowing anything else, I enjoyed them. Danny grew up in Colorado, so he had even fewer options in that land-locked state. Neither one of us appreciated seafood until we moved to Seattle.

I could not have imagined a young man pulling a side of salmon from a cooler, then slicing off a pound with practiced hands and a sharp knife. Thomas cuts precisely, with his fingers lined up like a ballerina's toes en pointe. (I'm sure he's never thought of it that way or even considers that he has graceful fingers.)

Watching anyone doing what he (or she) knows well fascinates me. It could be anything: iron welding, log rolling, or weeding the lettuce bed. There's an economy of movement, an absorbed focus, a dance that collapses everything around it into that moment. Watching Thomas cut fish feels like that to me.

smoked salmon

Eating seafood these days raises questions of sustainability, immediately. Should we avoid certain fish because of high mercury levels? I'm afraid of white canned tuna, although I still love it. Is "organic" fish better than non-organic? We don't really like organic fish, because the only way fish can be certified is if it's farmed. Did you know that farmed salmon has naturally gray flesh, and is only sold pink because it's fed chemicals with its feed to turn the color? However, some people insist that farmed seafood is more sustainable than trolling for the wild fish.

What the heck are we allowed to eat?

This week, Mark Bittman wrote a fascinating piece about this confusion of choices, in which he admits that he doesn't want to update his fish book from 1994, because "...the cooking remains unchanged, but the buying has become a logistical and ethical nightmare." He doesn't have any definitive answers, but he asks good questions. In a companion piece, five seafood experts weigh in on what we should be eating. I'm not sure there was much clarity for me after reading what they all suggest, since people disagree.

We sure don't have all the answers, or even most of them. I think that Nancy Leson framed this question much more clearly than I can in the piece she wrote for The Seattle Times this week.

However, the NY Times piece quotes Ray Hilborn, a professor in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington. In it, Hilborn writes: "On the West Coast, Alaskan salmon have been well-managed for the last 50 years and are at record levels of abundance; Pacific halibut and sable fish have long records of successful management."

That's what we buy: wild Alaskan salmon, halibut, black cod (another name for sablefish) and any seafood in season that the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch suggests is a good choice. We only eat salmon in the spring and summer, when it's in season. The rest of the time, we'll eat it smoked, occasionally (that's what you see in the photo above).

Thomas is heading up to Alaska on Sunday, to fish all summer long. He told us that on the days when the luck is running with them, they can sometimes catch up to 20,000 pounds of salmon in one day. That we get to buy this fish from the hands of the fishermen, out of coolers from the side of the road, makes us happy. We're not just buying fish. We're supporting a family who chose the same home we did.

How do you grapple with these questions of sustainability? What do those of you in the Midwest or other landlocked places do? Is seafood just not as much a part of your life? We'd really like to know.


halibut ceviche

HALIBUT CEVICHE

As much as we love grilling salmon and halibut, sometimes we need a new taste. Last week, Danny made a ceviche we ate so quickly we couldn't take photographs. So the next week, we ate it again. We'll probably be eating it all summer.

Ceviche is the all-purpose word for any fresh fish marinated in citrus juices. There are a thousand variations. I'm fond of the Ecuadorian ceviche recipe in my book, because my friend Meri invented it. You could make up your own ceviche, based on the flavors in season. Amy Sherman has an interesting kona kampachi ceviche made with corn that could be amazing for the summer. Elise offers the skeleton of a recipe, with room for you to flesh it out. And if it were still kumquat season, I'd be making Bea's scallop and kumquat ceviche right now, instead of writing this to you.

So play around. Make this for the clean flavors, the little bite of jalapeno at the end, the cool softness of the avocado. Please use only the freshest halibut you can find, however. With this few ingredients in a dish, every one of them counts.

1 pound halibut, cut into bite-size pieces
1/4 cup lime juice
juice and zest 1 lemon
1 small jalapeno, seeded and sliced
1 yellow pepper (red or orange are fine too), seeded and julienned
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons cilantro, fine diced
1 avocado, sliced thin, for garnish

Cover the halibut pieces with the lime and lemon juices, the zest, jalapeno, and pepper. Make sure the juices cover the halibut. Let the ceviche sit in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour, and then stir everything up, to ensure all the pieces are coated with the juices. Refrigerate for at least 1 to 2 more hours.

Do not let sit for more than 24 hours, or the acids will break down the texture of the fish.

When you are ready to eat the ceviche, season it with salt and pepper to taste. Garnish it with the cilantro and avocado.

36 Comments:

At 8:55 PM, Blogger Jenn Sutherland said...

You are indeed blessed to have the ocean so near you for fresh local seafood. When I lived in WA, I ate a lot of wild salmon too, and it did indeed spoil me for what is available here in Chicago.

I really don't eat much seafood now. We belong to a wonderful pasture raised meat CSA and we get local beef, pork, lamb and chicken that beats the pants off anything you can buy in Whole Foods, so we're lucky to have that. Once in a long while, I'll stop at the fishmonger who has Great Lakes fish, though I feel a little iffy about eating that too often as well.

I think each region has its own specialties that should be savored. And when we visit other regions - we eat the best of what they have.

 
At 9:09 PM, Blogger Stargirl said...

I live in Utah. It is not only hard to get any seafood, but our stores are not always... enlightened enough to offer good seafood. Our fair state is improving. The other wonderful thing is catching your own trout. Although it is not organic, it is mighty tasty. You can find the mercury levels of most local streams and lakes, so you can tell the fish is safe to eat. We are also protected from overfishing (most of the time) by really dedicated forest rangers who enforce the catch limits. So that is my key. Local, considerate, and respected. Good Fish indeed.

 
At 9:27 PM, Blogger Green Acres in the City said...

I was born and raised in Seattle and now I am landlocked in Kansas City. Oh the memories of Orcas Island and salmon fishing as a child. We used to stop for fresh oysters. I do enjoy your blog. I have started a gluten free life due to intolerance on my part and our sons ADHD. Thank you for what you do!

 
At 9:43 PM, Blogger Swiss said...

I was starting the 2nd grade when my family moved to the ISLAND. I have only left briefly. I am 61, I love that fish stand too. You help show our beauty of this place I call home too. Thank you.

 
At 10:41 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

Yum. There is nothing better than local wild salmon here in the Pacific NW, is there? I know- we just grilled one up last week. :) I swear I can taste the difference between farmed or wild salmon in the first bite.

Thanks for your blog- I enjoy reading it!

 
At 10:59 PM, Blogger Amy said...

This is one of my favorite posts ever. I grew up in Alaska and continue to call it home. Sustainable fish is a matter close to my heart and I am so happy to see that you, with your large audience of blog readers, are spreading the message to so many.

My family lives in Alaska and we eat salmon all year long that we or friends have caught. We freeze it and enjoy it in the depths of winter. Nothing compares to fresh, never been frozen fish and there is no better place for it than Alaska and the Pacific Northwest in the summertime.

Sustainability keeps coming up more and more as I make decisions about what our family will eat. I love tuna and I am sorry to hear that it is not faring as well as the closely monitored salmon populations. I try and remember this when loading up at the grocery store.

My favorite Alaskan bumper sticker reads: Friends don't let friends eat farmed fish. Manage the waters and fish sustainably is the direction I hope to see fish go so we can keep enjoying wild salmon, halibut, or whatever local fish is in season.

 
At 12:05 AM, Blogger Lyndie said...

We live in Portland, so are blessed with delicious food, but not the abundant seafood Seattlites are. I appreciate your post, because it really can be confusing, especially to a lil sis who insists we serve salmon EVERYTIME she visits!

 
At 3:40 AM, Blogger Heidi said...

We live on "the river" (the Mississippi) and we don't eat much fish at all. The rules are constantly changing as to which fish are safe and which sizes of fish are safe. Basically the local consensus is don't eat the fish.

As for other fish/seafood? Simply not enough good options. I feel that farming fish is quite frankly too much and rarely results in tasty fish! Occasionally we try and often we are disappointed.

 
At 7:01 AM, Blogger Laura said...

Great topic!

I saw a documentary on salmon farms in Alaska that made me want to stop buying farmed fish. Yes, we are not depleting the wild population, but you are introducing parasites and chemicals that are affecting the wild salmon nonetheless. I have long stopped buying trout because of the overcrowding of the ponds and the chemicals used to keep parasites under control. I don't buy farmed shrimp for the same reasons, and the pollution they cause. Plus they have no taste. I think that people have lost the palate for what fish should taste so they are not aware that what they eat is almost flavorless. I grew up in Venice, eating amazingly fresh fish, and after moving to the States I almost stopped eating fish all together, there is no comparison. In the rare occasions I eat fish, I buy it from a local store that follows the Monterey aquarium guidelines so I feel better. I also changed my meat buying after seeing movies life Fast Food Nation and Fresh.

The island sounds like a wonderful place to live and to raise a child, she is really lucky.

 
At 7:04 AM, Blogger Swiss said...

I had to say one more thing- I re read and when you talked about being spoiled for other fish- I have to agree. IN fact when I first started getting fish there it was the only time I could remember buying fish with no smell! NO smell at all! Excellent stuff.

 
At 7:19 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good questions! When I lived in NY and CA I happily ate fresh seafood. I am now land locked in Indiana. Many years ago (when I was much younger) the fish we could get in grocery stores was pathetic at best -- but you could get good locally caught small mouth bass, wipers, etc. Pollution and contamination levels being what they are these days, most of us won't eat the local fish anymore. Sad, but true. However, that gives us good reason to visit the coasts!

 
At 7:38 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I can sympathize with you on the loss of Friday afternoon anticipation. My husband is a chef in a restaurant, too. He's also very involved in the sustainable fish movement. He was one of the first chefs in Canada to join Seafood Watch and the first Toronto chef to be involved in Ocean Wise. Ocean Wise is an amazing program out of the Vancouver Aquarium that works with chefs and their suppliers to ensure they have sustainable seafood choices.

Check out their website it you've got time:

http://www.vanaqua.org/oceanwise

 
At 9:16 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm in Idaho. So close yet so far away from the coast. I can never get enough seafood here. I just try to buy what's wild, not farmed, but like you, can feel unsure about what choices are ethically best for our planet and healthiest for our bodies.

My favorite trips are to the coast, where I load up on seafood all day and night. There's nothing else like it when it's fresh, wild seafood! I miss it a lot.

Organic eating is extremely important to me, both for my health and for my part in trying to do something helpful for our planet. I participate in a CSA from Peaceful Belly, an organic farm run by two awesome people, Clay and Josie Erskine. There's nothing like the produce, chickens and eggs from them. I also get my beef from Saint John's Organic Farm in Emmett. And even more exciting is the addition of raw organic milk from them this year! It is amazing. I'm learning what it means to invest in the joys of learning to make my own butter, cheese, buttermilk, yogurt, etc from it.

I agree with Jenn...savoring our own areas' specialties and those of others when we visit is really what's important. Hopefully the individual pieces of the pie will expand and continue to help us heal our world in so many ways.

Teresa

 
At 9:26 AM, Anonymous Jessica Waters said...

I feel so blessed to live in the locavore paradise that is western Massachusetts! Every few miles there are farmstands bursting with their wares at this time of year. Although we are not close to the ocean (alas...), the choices of grass-fed beef, lamb and chicken, eggs, raw milk, homemade cheeses, etc. is enough to keep me happy.

I do miss living on another "the island"---Whidbey, where I lived for 7 years. My favorite home that this nomad has had in recent memory. Still feel connected to that neck of the woods.

thank you for your illustrious visuals. I can always *taste* what you write! (and we just pulled our first batch of 36 hr chocolate chip cookies out of the oven: heaven on my tongue)

 
At 9:41 AM, Blogger Cristina said...

I also live in Utah, and was just diagnosed with Celiac about three weeks ago. Thank you for your book and blog -- they kept me going and optimistic during that first week when I was both happy and depressed about my diagnosis.

I will confess that I buy the farm-raised salmon at the local grocery store. Having just graduated from college a year ago and having been the main breadwinner between me and my husband for the last year, I haven't had the money to buy the crazy-expensive wild salmon. Unfortunately, I love fish (not as big on shrimp or scallops), and am not willing to give them up just because I don't live near "real" fish. I need some variety in my meat!

Trout, as mentioned earlier, is great when caught fresh, but I don't find too much of that around. Now that my husband's gotten a promotion, though, maybe I'll step it up a notch.

I do love going to the Farmer's Market here, and getting fresh beef out of a freezer. I can definitely tell the difference there. If the difference is that pronounced with fresh fish, then I can definitely guess what I'm missing.

 
At 11:15 AM, Blogger PalmerGal said...

I don't want to argue with Laura, but I live in Alaska, and I don't think that there is any salmon farming going on here. Most Alaskans feel very strongly about keeping salmon wild. Like Amy, my family catches and freezes salmon, and eats it all year long.

As for other seafood, I don't eat much that isn't caught by us or someone we know. I do buy shrimp - and it has be to be wild caught. I never buy canned tuna any more - sigh. I miss it. Tims spent cruising with friends on their boat and eating ultra fresh crab, halibut and rockfish is about as good as it gets. Of course, we don't have what a lot of you do have - access to a wide variety of fresh veggies and fruits, or good fresh local or organic meats. We all have local specialities and let's enjoy them. (THough "eating local" has new meaning when you want fresh greens in an ALaskan winter.)

 
At 2:40 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Enjoy your fresh fish. Don't worry too much about mercury if you don't eat it everyday. We are constantly breathing in toxins due to our environment so, the best we can do is keep our immune system up with fresh foods and herbs and don't worry. As the Bible says, "a merry heart doeth good like a medicine".

 
At 3:04 PM, Anonymous Allison said...

We live in Birmingham, AL and in theory we could have access to freshly caught seafood, but given that the gulf of Mexico is fed by the Mississippi, we have a lot of questions about toxins. And actually,a lot of what I've read has left me feeling that the whole topic of the ethics and health issues behind seafood and fresh water fish is on such shifting sand that I don't have any idea what to think. The result being that I just skip it all. I'm sure that'd be a really big loss for many, but having grown up in Illinois I never was that crazy about fish and seafood anyway, so that certainly comes into play. We have access to a lot of locally grown and raised stuff here (including our own garden) and I do everything I can to leave the factory farm food off our plates.

 
At 4:12 PM, Anonymous Savannah said...

I'm no expert, but from what I've read, one of the huge problems with the fishing industry, in general, is that large commercial fishing operations fish with huge nets that pick up tons more stuff than what they're fishing for (remember the scandal with tuna and dolphins?) Some horrendously large percentage (somewhere between 75% and 90%, if I'm remembering correctly) of what is caught is "not sellable," (sharks, plankton, etc.) and is disposed of. So it seems like if you can talk to your fisher and find out their methods, that in and of itself is a step towards eating more sustainable seafood.
(much of this comes from The Empty Ocean by Richard Ellis, if anyone wants to do further reading/correct my statistics).

 
At 6:18 PM, Anonymous Meghan (Making Love In The Kitchen) said...

Wow that looks amazing.

And loved your post on gluten. We became the cool kids when the bullies went GMO on our wheat supply and upped the gluten factor to a point that no one has the capacity to digest it.

 
At 6:23 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

I have a lot of food issues, so I find myself going back to the canned wild salmon at Costco. It's reasonably inexpensive and wild salmon is still one of those fishes that are still considered to be free of pesticides.

But I really should go looking for good fresh stuff. I'm in California, it doesn't have to go THAT far! :)

Susan

 
At 7:09 PM, Anonymous Lauren said...

I live in Western Pennsylvania and for fish we have 3 options, Lake Erie fish, Chesapeake Bay Seafood or Trout caught by my self. I do not buy the Lake Erie stuff or the Chesapeake Bay seafood. When I want fish I go to a local stream and catch the trout my self. My dad taught me how to fish and I really do enjoy getting out to a lake or stream and enjoy the quietness. I just caught my first fish last Sunday of the season a Walleye a 15 inch so that was exciting. Fresh trout is very good and we don't eat it much maybe once a week if we are lucky in catching them. In the fall we take a family trip to Myrtle Beach SC to visit my brother. We tend to get our fill on Blue Crabs ad other seafood there.

 
At 8:25 PM, Anonymous La Niña said...

Eeek. Sore subject!

Friends don't let friends eat farmed fish.

NO matter where you live... Having a husband who worked in the fish industry in Alaska, having many friends who fish for salmon by ancient reefnet methods, and by having a dear, best friend whose sister is one of THE authorities on how farmed salmon is transferring SEA LICE to our beloved wild salmon, I say this unilaterally and unequivocally:

Don't eat farm raised fish.

Check out Alexandra Morton's research at her site here: http://www.raincoastresearch.org/home.htm

And... I also hate to say this, but I do eat local. When I'm landlocked, I don't eat much fish, unless it was caught in a local stream or lake and it was pristine.

Luckily, I chose to live close to the salt water and close to the best salmon runs in the world. It is a choice. We all have that...

Thanks for bringing this up... and thanks for caring...

-xo- Wish we could move our islands closer. Also- the best wild salmon runs are not going to be here forever. The high prices are real and they will only go higher. Enjoy the salmon while you can, because the sea lice may kill the wild runs. This is why we need to stop the farming.

 
At 3:27 PM, Anonymous Mitten said...

Great post, and I also found the recent articles about fish ethics really interesting. I stopped eating fish last year for all the reasons you covered—ultimately it was too much work to choose, and that took the fun out of the meal for me. But I shop at Madison Market, a little co-op on Capitol Hill in Seattle, and by the time their fish lands in the store they've already asked all the hard questions. I know whatever I buy there will be healthy and ethical,which is a big relief.

Also, as you pointed out, fish from the Pacific Northwest is pretty great, and now is the time to eat it!

 
At 5:08 PM, Anonymous samcarter said...

I grew up on the shores of Lake Erie, and yes, I grew up hearing all the jokes about how badly polluted the lake was.

Still, my grandpa would go out every summer and catch enough Lake Erie perch to fill our freezer. And orange roughy. OH that fish was good. And any decent restaurants near the lake only used the Lake Erie perch.

Now, we don't eat much fish, being in Southern Ohio. We focus on other foods. My kids aren't that into fish, unless it's fish sticks! I'm not worried. They like other foods.

 
At 5:54 PM, Blogger Jeannine from Pittsburgh said...

What a great post! Eating seafood these days is confusing and tricky for anyone trying to make a difference these days. I eat local and am trying my hand at growing vegetables, but living in a landlocked state (PA) I do get a hankering for some seafood now and again. Pittsburgh has some wonderful fish markets, but my favorite source for seafood is at one of our farmers' markets sponsored by Slow Food Pittsburgh. Sara from Alaskan Wild Salmon (http://www.seabeef.com/index.aspx) sells the most amazing wild-caught Alaskan fish!

By-the-way, to anyone here on the East Coast: There are NO wild Atlantic Salmon-they don't exist in the wild. If it's labeled Atlantic Salmon, it's farmed salmon. This is the aquatic equivalent of factory-farmed meat. Yuck!

 
At 7:11 PM, Blogger GiGi said...

Oh my goodness! I am so completely jealous that there are signs on the road that say fresh salmon!!! I would die from happiness! How much did it cost? You are so right about being RUINED when you finally sink your teeth into fresh wild salmon! I live in WY where the only type of salmon you can get is frozen and let me just tell you, when I get back to school (where fresh fish exists) I am in complete heaven!!

 
At 7:00 AM, Blogger kdub said...

Shauna! This morning NPR did a segment on Celiac Disease and the startling amount of Americans who have it and I, of course, thought of you:)

 
At 8:22 AM, Blogger Mel in Mo said...

I miss salmon so much! I grew up in Tacoma & moved to Anchorage in High School. My mom cooked what my dad caught several times a week! I quit eating it for years, just because I was so sick of it! I have lived in Missouri for 24 years and I have been known to be desperate enough to buy canned salmon & make patties! How sad is that! I only enjoy fresh seafood when visiting the coast. My 30 year hs reunion is in October in Tacoma, I can't wait!

 
At 12:52 PM, Blogger Kerrie said...

Holed up in the in Phoenix would leave little for fresh seafood, but our local paper ran an article about some shrimp farming happening just outside the city. They offered shrimp via the mail, so we are working through our 1st 3 pound bag and it is great.

http://www.desertsweetshrimp.com/index.html

Sometime you find the best things in the most unexpected places.
As for the other fish we eat, I cannot say it is form the best of places, but we try to buy quality and sustainably when we can.

 
At 5:36 PM, Anonymous La Niña said...

Hey Shauna-
Me again. In that gorgeous photo of the ceviche it looks like there is also thin sliced onion or maybe jicama or daikon... there is something thin and white... What is that? Is it my imagination?

I want to make this and I do love onion or garlic in ceviche...

Can you let me know?
-xo-

 
At 9:12 PM, Blogger Gluten free Kay said...

I live in Indiana and eat bass and bluegills I catch myself. My brother got to go on a fishing trip of a lifetime to Alaska a couple of years ago. He brought home 125 lbs. of fish. He generously shared with family and friends. My favorite was rockfish. Sadly, I've eaten all he brought me.

 
At 9:58 PM, Anonymous Paige Orloff said...

I had forgotten how much I LOVE ceviche until I read this post. Sadly, I am nearly landlocked (though not midwest) so no, I don't eat as much fish as I did when I lived in CA or when I've vacationed in Hawaii. Sadly, here, fish is a treat, and usually one with a mondo carbon footprint. But I think my next exception (the last was some glorious softshelled crabs) will have to be made for this recipe :-)

 
At 12:02 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The whole idea of sustainable farming is unrealistic and impractical. One farmer in the US can feed 130 people, up from 25 people 50 years ago. This is due to advances in technology that have led to increased yields and better transportation of products worldwide.

Anyone that thinks that sustainable farming is the answer needs to live in North Dakota in January and see how much food they have access to by sustainable methods only.

Midwest Girl

 
At 1:07 PM, Blogger annie said...

hi.
i am lucky enough to also live on an island (13 miles off the coast of maine) and we participate in a sustainably managed CSF (community supported fishery) program modeled off of the CSA idea. we get weekly deliveries of what is fresh off the boat and support one of maine's small fleets. in the summer, it's groundfish, in the winter, shrimp. it is the Best Ever.
check out PortClydeFreshCatch.com.

 
At 2:33 PM, Blogger Jess said...

I live in Wisconsin, the closest thing to the sea is Lake Michigan. We have some wonderful lake perch, walleye and blugill availible to us during the summer, but only if my grandfather goes fishing. The fish we can find at the store is truly sub-par. It has that repulsive fishy aroma from being, for lack of a better word, dead too long. The only time I can find reasonably priced salmon is if I buy it frozen in little chunks, and the flavor is always very fishy. I once saw a man buy a whole fillet of salmon at Whole Foods and pay a whopping $90.00 for it. That was just jaw dropping for me. So, as much as I love seafood, I can't pay the exhorbent prices to eat it the way I would want to eat it, fresh.
Speaking of which, will your cooler-toting fishmonger ship?

 

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