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SoleShare Suppers!
And we're off! Our spring season kicked off this week with a windy trip down to Kent to collect our fish from Ken and Joe, the father and son team fishing from their day boat the 'Annalousion'.
With our catch of the day in tow, we gathered together some of our favourite fishy recipes to share with our members this week. Here are some of our faves showcasing Wednesday and Thursdays catch of the day:
Here's what Theresa did with her gleaming lemon sole
One of our members, Georgia was so excited to get on board this spring that she's going to be sharing her experience of cooking her SoleShare catch every fortnight through the season right here. We'll be including some of her insight and cooking tips over the coming weeks. Here's what she had to say about chefing up her catch of the day in 'Platessa con patate'.
Georigia's top tip: I might have had knives sharpened, ingredients laid out, a clean apron on and cameraman at the ready, but I stumbled at the key first step: Read the entire recipe (and in this particular case, keep some potatoes back for the top layer)! Luckily this is such a great recipe and I had two of the freshest, spottiest looking plaice to cook with, so it was delicious anyway.
Georgia's discovery of the week: The Marine Conservation Society launched their updated ‘FishOnline’ guide to sustainable seafood (http://www.fishonline.org).
Want to share your fishy cooking successes, failures, revelations? We'd love to see what you come up with with your catch of the day! Get in touch if you'd like to share your sole! theresa@soleshare.net
World Book Day
(it was dead when I found it)
In a former life I spent a year working on a little island off the coast of Tanzania called Mafia. I helped conduct research for the marine park there. Life was pretty tough. In between dives, there was little else to do but play volleyball, go fishing, walk along miles of pristine white beaches and read books in my hammock.
Like I said, life was hard, but it did give me the opportunity to read a great number of books about the sea. So here, for world book day are my top fishy reads:
The Log From The Sea of Cortez
John Steinbeck
No, not pulp fiction about an errant piece of flotsam, but an account of a fishing/research trip around the Gulf of California with marine biologist Ed Ricketts- 'a great teacher, a great lecher- an immortal who loved women'. (He later based 'Doc' from Cannery Row on him).
It's essentially an account of a specimen collecting expedition, which could be pretty tawdry stuff, but Steinbeck's wit, charm and oddball philosophising make it a great read, with some brilliant characters.
Seven- Tenths: The Sea and its Thresholds
James Hamilton-Paterson
More a collection of essays, than a book. It's a perfect blend of science and literature. If you like Roger Deakin's Wildwood, then have a look. An ethereal, slightly hallucinogenic look at the oceans.
Mediterranean Seafood
Alan Davidson
Once the British Ambassador to Laos, Alan Davidson's book is right up my street. At first glance it's a nerdy assay of all the species of fish found in the Mediterranean, with their common names in Turkish, Spanish- all the swarthy languages. But alongside the illustrations are notes on cuisine. Imagine a Collins bird guide with roasting instructions. He also wrote a similar book on North Atlantic Seafood. But personally I think it lacks the summery vibes of his first. Useful if you want to pickle herring though.
Cod
Mark Kurlansky
According to Mark Kurlansky, pretty much every one of man's greatest achievements was somehow reached serendipitously whilst in the search for cod, well discovering America was anyway.
This really is a charming history of a fish so commonplace we tend to forget its ubiquity on menus. Following the early Basque fishermen all the way to the collapse of the Grand Banks fishery, the tale of cod is a tragic, but important one.
The End of The Line
Charles Clover
I remember putting this book down and deciding I'd stop lazing around on beaches and go and do a Masters. It's an amazingly powerful idictment of industrialised fishing and the woeful mismanagement of our oceans. Powerful stuff.
The Unnatural History of the Sea
Prof Callum Roberts
My professor from the aforementioned Masters course wrote this. It tracks the effects on our oceans of mankind's past mistakes, while also keeping an eye on the solutions. It's eloquently done and while it paints a grim picture, there is definitely light at the end of the tunnel.
Coral Reef Fishes
Ewald Lieske & Robert Myers
The definitive book on reef fishes. A bible for marine biologists with a tropical bent. My copy's caked in suncream and sand. Sadly out of print now. God knows what they're using these days. Ipad or something. Try getting that covered in sand and suncream.
Obviously, if you think I've missed out a classic or have any recommendations, do leave a comment.
Democrasea!
We started SoleShare to make sure fishermen get paid a fair price for their fish and our members could get their hands on the good stuff before it got packed away in a freezer.
We understand we do things differently from most businesses that are cropping up these days. 'Nope, you don't get to choose what you're having and yes, you have to come and pick it up'. But that's only because we know that both of those things make SoleShare what it is.
For our first season we teamed up with Cath and all the other lovely people at Unpackaged. Sadly, this trailblazing store recently closed down and we've been on the hunt for similarly nice people to work with. What we thought would be a struggle turned out to be the opposite.
We ended up with five different locations across East London that were keen to collaborate and because we're pinko, egalitarian dreamers we thought we'd ask you, the people to decide which three spots we should use.
And this is what you decided. So from mid March, we'll be at:
Hackney City Farm 1a Goldsmiths Row. E2 8QA
The Towpath Cafe 36 De Beauvoir Crescent on the Regents canal (at the Whitmore bridge)
Mother Earth Shop & Cafe 101 Newington Green Road. N1 4QY
We'll be opening up membership very soon with our first pick-ups starting the week of March 16th. If you haven't already, sign up to our mailing list to be the first to hear when (the strictly limited) membership officially opens.
We're casting our net across East London!
Greetings Fishy Friends!
We're gearing up for our first Spring season and we want your help in deciding on our 3 new pick-up hubs.
If you're keen to get on board, take a quick vote on which of these 5 hot spots you'd like to come collect your fish box at! We'll be posting the final 3 next week and membership will open shortly after!
Sea you soon!
A word on pricing
SoleShare isn't a fishmonger. There's no telling what you'll get each week. But that's the whole point. We only provide our members with what's seasonal. We operate a 'whole catch' ethos, rather than cherry picking the most sought after species. By buying all of a fisherman's catch at a fair price, we reward and encourage responsible practices.
Many wholesalers pay fishermen a set price for fish, regardless of whether it's been caught on a landline or in a trawl net. We want to incentivise low impact fishing methods. Martin, our fisherman only uses rod and line and static nets and we believe he should command a higher price for his catch.
We pay Martin above the market price for his fish. Obviously, we have to pass this cost on to our members. But we're also passing on total transparency from dock to dish.
Over the course of the season, we'll supply you with an amazing variety of fish, some highly valued, others less so (but equally delicious).
Community Supported Fisheries are just that, communities supporting fishermen. It's like buying organic food: you're making sure that your money is going to someone who's methods you support.
We want to connect responsible inshore fishermen with people that want to support their way of life. If you love fish and you care where it comes from, join us.