Thank you Spring.... Hello Summer!
We’ll it’s a wrap folks. Our spring season has come to a close, so we’d like to say a massive thank you to all our members who have joined us over the last 8 weeks.
The spring seas showed us what they were made of and we were thrilled to get our hands on a real range of delicious fish and seafood this season.
It seemed fitting that the SoleShare spring kicked off with sole taking centre stage. Our father and son team Ken and Joe in Kent blew us away with their first haul of the season with dover sole & lemon sole taking centre stage. It’s been a treat to be able to escape the city and take the trip down to Dungeness this spring in time to greet their boat and fishy bounty. We’re glad to be able to support this fishing family, one that’s been fishing the Kent coast for generations. Here’s to you boys!
Our fisherman Martin, who’s been with us since day one, continued to blow our minds with his catch over the course of the season too. On days when Martin was fishing for us, we’d get a call as he was pulling in the nets to tell us what he’d caught, and then at breakneck speed he’d have landed his catch, loaded the fish onto ice and before we knew it, he’d be pulling into London with his catch in tow, just in time for our members. We’re talking dock to dish in a matter of hours. Someone say spanking fresh? We’ve never seen such glowing gurnard, radiant mackerel and brilliantly spotted plaice before.
So over the last 8 weeks, with the combined forces of Ken, Joe, Martin and a final feisty delivery of live brown crab from our fisherman Kev in Cornwall, here’s all the fishy goodness that landed on our tables this spring:
Dover sole, lemon sole, plaice, gurnard, dab, huss, brill, cod, pouting, seabass, grey mullet, skate, whiting, brown crab, cuttlefish, garfish & the mighty mackerel.
Was brill to hear from our members each week about what became of their fishy shares once they'd reached the table, so cheers to all our members for making the most of your catch and turning out some spectacular dishes. We'll keep the recipes coming!
So what’s in store for the summer season you say?
Mackerel, sardines and herring will begin heading into the shallow warmer waters off our coast which means they’ll be within close reach of our inshore fishermen. So we’re likely to see more of these omega-3 rich beauties finding their way onto our member’s plates. With the warmer months ahead seabass are also a more likely catch, as are crab, bream, cuttlefish, skate, sole, pollock, garfish, mullet and no doubt there will be more weird and wonderful fishy surprises finding their way into our fishermen’s nets.
We hope you'll join us for our summer season which kicks off on the 21st of May with pick-ups on Wednesdays at Hackney City Farm, Thursdays at Mother Earth Shop (Newington Green) and Saturdays at The Towpath Café (on the Regents canal, De Beauvoir).
If you'd like to get on board, signup deadline is 19th May. Head to our signup page to get started and we hope to sea you soon!