Farm Fresh Rhode Island blog

Reminder: The market will be closed on December 26. See you on January 2!

Buy local food & share!  The 50 producers of the Wintertime Farmers Market have delicious goodies – coffee, jam, potted herbs, chocolate, soaps, roasted nuts, dog treats, Fresh Bucks gift coins – that will bring a big smile to anyone on your gift list, and incredible ingredients – fish, cranberries, potatoes, salad greens, cheeses, meats, apple cider, ice cream – for your holiday meal. And since everything is locally made, it makes your holiday even more meaningful.

Living here in the Ocean State, you’d think our markets would be teeming with food from the ocean. But that’s not been the case, as industry structure and food safety laws make it difficult for fishermen to market directly to consumers. So we’ve been working for a few years to help make sustainably harvested local/regional seafood more available. Well, when it rains, it pours. This week will see a big increase in regional seafood options at the Wintertime Farmer Market:

• Matunuck Oyster Farm will now have fresh cod filets from RI fishermen and soon their own clam chowder, in addition to the littleneck clams, oysters, mussels, crab and lobster that are already market favorites. Try roasted cod with winter veggies or seared cod with roasted squash. Matunuck littleneck clams are lovely with linguine or stuffed with herbs and bread crumbs. Mussels are often traditionally served so pick up a pound for some Trinity IPA-steamed mussels or mussels with spaghetti, white wine and parsley.
• Bomster scallops shine in simple dishes, try them baked or pan-fried. Plus, taste them wrapped in bacon in this week’s cooking demo by Chef Sophie of My Little French Cottage.
• She Sells Seaweed harvests kelp, wakame, dulse and soup mixes every August off the pristine coastline of Maine. Great for broths or a fun salty snack. Find it at the Farm Fresh & Co table at the front of the market.
• New this week! Dave’s Cape Cod Smokehouse will be bringing locally caught and smoked cod + bluefish and also fish bluefish pates and cod cakes. Dave buys the fresh catch off the boats of Cape fishermen, then slowly smokes the fish over a hickory wood fire. No artificial additives or preservatives – as Dave says, the flavor and freshness are why he does it. This fish is so tasty it’s great with crackers or sliced baguette, or in a hearty salad with winter greens.
• Starting January 9! Sign up for a Sustainable Shrimp CSF (Community Supported Fishery). The fishermen of Port Clyde, Maine have developed the Port Clyde Fresh Catch brand to preserve the resources they depend on and provide consumers with shrimp harvested using environmentally sustainable fishing methods. They’ll be bringing monthly shares of shrimp to RI starting in January!
  • Subscribers receive six deliveries of 5 lbs of peeled, uncooked Maine shrimp, vacuum sealed and frozen in 1 lb packages.
  • Subscribers will receive a total of 30 lbs of shrimp over the 6 month subscription period; each share costs $216.
  • Shares will be available for pickup outside the Wintertime Farmers Market from 12:00-2:00pm one Saturday a month from January- May.
  • Sign up before January 7 to be on the first drop-off

  What makes the Port Clyde fishery “sustainable”?
  Shrimp trawling is known for having one of the highest bycatch rates, but the Port Clyde Fresh Catch (PCFC) uses a fish excluder, or Nordmore Grate, to reduce bycatch. This is the same device that is used in the Oregon Pink Shrimp Fishery, which was the world’s first shrimp fishery to earn a sustainable certification. The Port Clyde Fishery also uses new sorting grids with a partition that separates smaller shrimp out as well so they will live to be adult shrimp. The addition of this device got the PCFC bycatch rate down around 1%. This information is available for review at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. They are experimenting with a new topless net design that further reduces bycatch to close to zero.

See you Saturday 11-2 for all the fixings (and edible gifts) for your holiday. And since there will be no market on December 26, don’t forget to stock up for the next two weeks!