by Catherine Schmitt I recently spent a week on vacation touring the state of Alaska. My tour featured two days in Valdez, a fishing port which is also, as the terminus of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, an oil port. The port was the destination for the tanker Exxon Valdez, which ran aground on Bligh Reef and […]
Read more
by Catherine Schmitt After a hectic summer of coast-hopping, I finally found myself in Portland, where I’ve been wanting to check out the new Eventide Oyster Co. So I caught up with some good friends at the small, bright space on Middle Street next to Hugo’s Restaurant, of the same owners. Speaking of bright, that […]
Read more
by Catherine Schmit The Maine Lobster Festival is underway in Rockland, and there will be plenty of lobsters to go around—at an affordable price, too, given the recent surge in supply. Depending on who you are, the abundance of Maine lobster has been a. a concerning trend. b. a blessing. c. a curse. If you […]
Read more
by Catherine Schmitt Yesterday I joined my colleague Natalie Springuel and our partners in eastern Maine to officially launch the Downeast Fisheries Trail. The 45 sites on the trail, in Hancock and Washington counties, highlight the region’s maritime heritage. “Heritage” means more than just history. According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, heritage means “something transmitted by or […]
Read more
by Catherine Schmitt There are fish in these rivers. In the Kennebec, the Penobscot, the rivers in between and either side, the alewives are running. I wrote a story about alewives for the May 2012 issue of Fishermen’s Voice, well before alewife season began. Now I want to see the fish. Yesterday I stopped by the […]
Read more
by Catherine Schmitt On a recent cloudy April afternoon, Jamie Johnson was up to his elbows in sole, black bass, and halibut. Johnson is a manager at Jess’s Market, a busy seafood supplier to the Midcoast region. Johnson married into this family fish market business, but his knife skills and product familiarity suggest he’s found […]
Read more
Today’s post is from Sarah Redmond, our new resident seaweed expert, who recently attended a “Cooking with Sea Vegetables” event at Five Seasons Cooking School, a small demonstration kitchen set up in the home of Lisa Silverman, a whole foods chef, cooking teacher, and wellness coach. Silverman is a graduate of the Kushi Institute, a retreat […]
Read more
by Catherine Schmitt A few weeks ago I promised more information on buying and preparing Maine shrimp. Well, whaddya know the season ended last Friday. So, for those of you lucky enough to have snagged a final pound (or two, or three…), I’ll offer some final words until next year. I picked up some fresh shrimp […]
Read more
by Catherine Schmitt With the addition of Sarah Redmond, our new marine extension associate, we are fast expanding our research and extension into seaweed aquaculture in Maine. This is exciting to me because I like to eat seaweed (especially nori and seasnacks and dulse) but some of the commonly available prepared sea vegetable products are […]
Read more
by Catherine Schmitt I haven’t yet been smelt fishing this year, but now that it seems cold enough for the rivers to actually freeze, I’m getting anxious. Rainbow smelt are a native, sea-run species that are good to eat (the fresher the better) and fun to catch–at night, in a shack suspended above a frozen tidal […]
Read more