Warner Lew of Icicle Seafoods holding herring in front of the F/V Poseidon. Photograph by Kelly O
One of the true joys of our ministry here at Jones Farms is bringing new, unusual and obscure seafood to the masses. We dedicate an enormous amounts of our time to tracking down Fun Fish and fun ways to bring it to you.
These past months many of you have asked us to source Sardines and other small fish. This has been a challenge, as the sardine fishery has been closed until further notice and our smelt fisherman friend hurt his back and has been pretty well out of commission.
Herring has been enjoying a renaissance of sorts, limited by the means and scale of production. Warner Lew has spearheaded the Herring boom. As fleet manager for Icicle, Warner is in a unique position to select the very best Alaska herring and process them to top-notch specifications. We are delighted to announce that JFF will be Warner’s marketing partner in the Seattle market.
Warner puts up his herring exclusively from the Togiak (western part of Bristol Bay) herring fishery. Togiak is one of the most remote fishing areas in the world, at roughly thirty times the size of Puget Sound there are approximately 2000 people living on the sound. Once a year the outside world comes to Togiak, in the form of Warner Lew and the herring processing fleet. This small fishery boasts the largest herring on the planet, with an average fish size of 8/10 of a pound. Herring are typically processed for caviar for the Japanese market, so in an added bonus for the intrepid prep cook, these fish contain about 10% roe by weight. Togiak herring are also superior in their oil content, at 11%, and in the speed at which they are frozen after harvest. Warner markets his herring, fresh-frozen and canned, as Deckhand Seafoods and Deckhand’s Daughter Seafoods.
These herring are block frozen in 50# blocks for quality, however, we are willing to slack blocks and separate herring to order in 10# increments.
50# cases……………………………………………$4.95#
Broken cases in 10# increments…………….$5.35#
For more information on Werner and the herring situation, please refer to the following The Stranger article, from which we borrowed the above photo.
http://www.thestranger.com/food-and-drink/feature/2015/06/03/22317583/why-is-herring-so-hard-to-find
For more information on the Togiak Herring fishery, please refer to the following ADFW link
http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=commercialbyareabristolbay.herring
For information on how to prepare herring caviar, please refer to the following link
http://bebeloveokazu.com/2013/12/31/kazunoko-herring-roe-osechi-ryori/
And, don’t take our word for it, as The Stranger’s Tobias Coughlin-Bogue says,
“What the fuck, America? The rest of the world loves this fish—for good reason—yet we’re not eating it”.
Well….In these dark, fish challenged months, let’s get on it!!!!!