Meet Your Maker: Fish!
Coming up on June 29th at Kits – Learn From Local Fish Vendors!
As conscientious consumers, we all have questions about where our food comes from. When it comes to local fish, those questions can become even more pressing, and it can be difficult to know where to get answers from.
If you’ve ever wondered about the fish you buy at the Vancouver Farmers Markets, this is the tour for you. Our fish vendors will share with you their stories about how their fish are caught, how they are processed, and how they end up at the market. These family fishers know the oceans better than anyone and are happy to answer all of your questions. June is a great month for salmon this year and you’ll be able to buy fresh fish at the market!
Each tour meets at the Market Information Booth, visits four producers and runs for about 40 minutes.
Tours run rain or shine @ 11am & 12pm.
We’re also joined at the Market on June 29th by a representative from Salmon Safe, a leading eco-label that offers a series of peer-reviewed certification programs linking land management practices with the protection of agricultural and urban watersheds. Whether the site is an organic farm in northern California, an orchard in the Skagit Valley, a Walla Walla vineyard, or a Seattle-area corporate campus, certification requires management practices that protects water quality and restore habitat. Salmon-Safe also is introducing innovative new programs focused on site design and development, as well as an accreditation program for pollution prevention in large-scale construction management. VFM vendors who are Salmon Safe certified include Klippers Organics, Shalefield Organic Gardens, and Poplar Grove Arbour Hazelnuts.
Meet the Makers
Blue Comet Seafoods is a family run business with skippers Tony and Sasha. Tony has fished for over 35 years and is still gillnetting aboard his freezer boat the “Blue Comet”. Sasha has been fishing for over 23 years and presently fishes aboard his boat the “Sleepless Nights”, a 40 ft gillnetter. The Pacific Shadow, a North Coast wood troller also fishes salmon, cod and tuna.Their salmon are harvested along the British Columbia coast from the Haida Gwaii, Nass, Skeena and Bella Coola areas as well as Johnstone Straight, and Barkley Sound. They harvest wild sustainable seafood, dress and flash freeze their fish at sea, ensuring a premium quality product.
Blue Comet have been marketing their salmon for over 13 years at the Steveston Fisherman’s Wharf and for over 9 years at the Vancouver Farmer’s Markets.
Estevan Tuna are a family-based fishing business located in the Comox Valley, Vancouver Island, specializing in British Columbia Wild Albacore Tuna. They catch their tuna in the pristine deep waters of the North Pacific Ocean off the coasts of British Columbia, Washington and Oregon. They harvest and sell premium-quality, chilled, and flash frozen-at-sea Albacore tuna that has been filleted and vacuum-packed in a HAACP approved plant. They are able to sell so competitively priced because there are no middlemen. They catch the fish; they sell the fish. Many consumers are concerned about seafood sources today. Buying Estevan tuna provides you with ultimate traceability as well as a great price.
Fresh Off the Boat have been delivering fresh seafood to homes, restaurants, and catering companies for the last seven years. Through word-of-mouth awareness the company has grown and expanded to farmer markets. “Captain Chuck” has fished commercially for over 25 years. He is the owner of the FV Proud Venture which fishes primarily in BC’s Northern Waters. Owner Mary-Anne loves to cook and creates most of the recipes that come with each order.
Fresh Off The Boat is also a proud member of Vancouver Aquarium’s Ocean Wise Program for sustainable seafood.
Skipper Otto’s Community Supported Fishery (CSF) creates a direct connection between local fishermen and consumers with the joint goal of protecting ocean resources and improving our local food system.Their primary fisherman, Otto Strobel, has been fishing the British Columbia coast since the 1960s. Since that time the number of independent fishermen like him has been reduced to a skeleton fleet.
Skipper Otto’s CSF was started by Otto’s son and daughter-in-law (Shaun and Sonia Strobel) to make it possible for Otto and a few of the hold-out independents to remain fishing. Skipper Otto’s CSF was the first CSF in Canada, and the second in the world.The CSF model ensures that independent, small-scale harvesters can continue to fish using the low impact practices their fathers and grandfathers used before them and still remain in an industry that is rapidly becoming dominated by big business and aquaculture.CSF members buy in at the beginning of the season and receive a share of premium, wild, local, and sustainably caught seafood. Members have boat-to-fork transparency, knowing how, when, where and who caught their fish.
