The event drew a crowd of fair visitors who watched the chefs prepare the food, asked them questions, and heard fishermen in attendance talk about seafood freshness, and the advantages of locally supplied fish. Port Clyde Fresh Catch is a Community Supported Fishery (CSF) which has established links with the network of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) organizations in Maine. The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA), the oldest such organization in the country, has sponsored the Common Ground Fair for the last 33 years.
Over the last couple decades CSAs in Maine, New England, and across the country have developed a strong and growing market position by supplying locally grown and distributed fresh produce, cheese and meat. Consumers, dissatisfied with low quality vegetables, fruit, and meat produced on industrial farms, and sold in supermarkets, have been finding what they want at farmers markets and CSAs. Consumers have been equally dissatisfied with the quality of seafood available. One woman in the Throwdown audience asked where she “could buy fish that didn’t turn to mush in the frying pan, smelled bad, or smelled of chemicals.” Fresh fish in recent years has gone from meaning caught that day or the previous day to caught last week or more. After spending that much time on trucks, being handled, and sitting in a market wrapped in plastic, there is not much left to call fresh.
Farmers markets sell food picked that morning or the afternoon before it is sold. The CSFs are bringing to market fish that is truly fresh, handled in a way that preserves the integrity of the product, without the need to mask the deterioration of a perishable product. The chefs featured at the Seafood Throwdown, Kerry Altiero from Café Miranda in Rockland, and Mike Greer from the Badger Café in Union, were tasked with walking to the farmers market at the fair, buying ingredients, and returning to the Throwdown tent to prepare a dish using fresh fish provided by Port Clyde Fresh Catch. The buying ingredients, and food preparations were all on a timed schedule, with a deadline for serving dishes to the two judges who would rate the dishes.
The common ground fair features small organic farmers from around Maine. Many of them have been in the forefront of reviving traditional agriculture and animal husbandry. There were exhibits of bee hives, apple tastings of some of the hundreds of apple varieties never seen in super markets, spinning wool, making baskets, and dozens of other events and demonstrations. Ahearne said there were 720 different events from timber framing, to sheep dog demonstrations, to talks on sustainable farming over the three days. The small farm, self-sufficient farmer innovating and marketing his products, reflected the goals of CSF fishermen. These fishermen have been in the forefront of developing gear to reduce bycatch, reduce the impact of fishing gear on ocean habitat, and bringing a higher quality seafood product to market. All of which results in leaving more of the revenue from their efforts in the communities in which they live and fish.
Following the cooking event, fishermen demonstrated fish filleting. Port Clyde Fresh Catch also sells whole fish, which of course costs less and enables consumers to use more of the fish they buy. The Port Clyde fishermen have seen rapidly increasing demand for their products. Port Cldye fishermen formed the Midcoast Fishermen’s Cooperative in 2007 as a means of getting area fishermen together and marketing their fish themselves. They have ambitiously sought to develop markets for their products, and consumers are responding.
In the 1970s, the early days of the movement to grow food in the traditional sustainable ways – small scale, good soils, no chemicals – the farmers had a hard sell with a lot of consumers. No longer. One of the largest super market chains in the country focuses on this quality food. Fishermen will be able to benefit from the markets established by farmers for higher quality foods. CFAs have been established in recent years along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. For information about the Port Clyde CSF : 207-975-2191. Or jessica@midcoastfishermen.org |
