Community Supported Fisheries October 9, 2008

(photo by Mike Martin)

I can see fishing boats chugging out to sea practically from my window, but in the grocery stores and fish markets, the seafood often is farm-raised or foreign. The question of why we don’t have more local seafood has plagued me, and others I’m sure, as long as I’ve lived on the North Shore. Cathy Huyghe discusses this lack in an article in the Gloucester Times. She also offers an answer: Community Supported Fisheries.

 

Any localvore worth her salt (to mix metaphors) is familiar with Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), where the consumer plunks down a small wad of bills in the spring and in return gets weekly boxes of fresh, beautiful produce all summer and into the fall. What if you could plunk down a small wad of bills and receive fresh fish all summer? The fishermen would receive reliable capital and fair-trade prices for their catch and the localvore would eat well and support the local economy.

 

Community Supported Fisheries have received a bit more press since I first mentioned them. A recent issue of Orion discusses them and their benefits and barriers to success and the Gloucester Times is also keeping an eye on them. There’s a CSF in the midcoast of Maine and one in North Carolina. Maine also has a lobster CSF (of course!). The Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance is actively pursuing the establishment of more CSFs. There has been talk of setting up a CSF in Gloucester. I’m looking forward to it.

 

 

-goldlentil

Fried Clam Epicenter of Massachusetts August 27, 2008

thanks, roadfood.com, for the photo!

According to the Boston Globe, Route 133 is the local clam center of goodness. Of the four clam shacks reviewed, only The Clam Box and the all-famous Woodman’s use local clams exclusively. JT Farnham’s and our favorite, Essex Seafood, use local clams for the most part, but will go farther afield if they can’t get local.

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Interested in more local seafood adventures? At the Gloucester farmers’ market, you can see, and possibly take gustatory part in, a seafood throwdown, where local chefs are given $25 to spend at the farmers’ market and fifteen minutes to pick out produce and fish. Then they have an hour to cook a meal at the farmers’ market. If you’re lucky, you’ll be one of the people chosen at random to eat blue fish with braised mustard greens, red-skinned potatoes, sweet corn, caramelized leeks, and tomatoes. It’s a hard job, but someone has to do it.

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The article also mentions the possiblity of Community Supported Fisheries in Gloucester. Anyone interested in picking up a weekly share of fresh North Atlantic fish? Be still my beating localvore heart.

-goldlentil