Gloucester Fishermen's Wives Association/Cape Ann Fresh Catch
PO Box 831, Gloucester, MA 01930
February is the month of season endings for me this year. Another CSA, actually this one is a CSF (community supported fishery), season has ended. Last summer my family joined the Cape Ann Fresh Catch CSF. I had recently finished reading Bottomfeeder, by Taras Grescoe, which is a book about the state of the world's fish population, and had woefully decided my days of guilt-free fish enjoyment were over. Not so! Enter the Gloucester Fisherman's Wives Association (GFWA) who started the program. It is supported by MIT SeaGrant and the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance, and brings together the fishing community, local residents, and business to allow people to eat responsibly-caught fish while promoting safety for the people out there catching all that delicious fish. The GFWA does a much better job describing this on their website, so have a look for yourself.
Each season is about 10 weeks long and you get a weekly share of fish. And when I say fish, expect to walk up to the truck and get a bag with one (or two) cod, or six big soles. With heads and tails intact, but usually gutted. Although, the sole needs to be gutted at home so you really get whole fish those weeks. This is really fresh fish!
I knew this when I first signed up, but I still did a double-take when I was handed an entire cod. My face must have given me away because the guy who handed me the fish asked me if I had any plans for what I was going to do with it. "Well, I'm going to go home and learn how to fillet a fish, I think!" "Naw," he said," just cook it whole. Put some slits in it and stuff in some garlic and herbs. Brush it with olive oil and then throw it on the grill."
Delicious!
And much easier than filleting. Although, I have to say that since that first day I've gotten pretty good at it. It helps that there's a link to a video on how to fillet a fish on their website. After filleting, you get all those left-over bones to use for making fish stock for soups, too. Yum.
This winter we also got Gulf of Maine shrimp. Seriously good stuff. With heads, of course. And bright blue shrimp roe! (Click on the picture above to see a close-up of the roe). But, you just twist the heads off those suckers, quickly sauté them in olive oil, garlic, lemon, and parsley and there's dinner. We had them tonight and they were fantastic. And I also made shrimp bisque with leftover shells from previous weeks. It was surprisingly easy; although, it's not often that you have pounds of leftover shrimp shells in your freezer. Lucky for me, I had way too many and needed a way to get rid of them.
So now we have a little break from fish--the next season starts in May. Check out the website if you are interested in signing up. They have a bunch of pick-up sites (ours is in Acton), so you can look for one near you. Or, maybe even set up a new one if you can get enough people in your area interested. And don't worry--they are full of preparation ideas if you're not quite sure what to do with what they're handing you each week. Just ask when you get it, or check the website. Or ask me: I've baked, fried, smoked, grilled and poached my way through a ton if it.
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