Cape Ann Fresh Catch

Contact Information

Email: 

CapeAnnFreshCatch@gmail.com

Phone: 

(978) 2832504

Mailing Address: 

Gloucester Fishermen's Wives Association
Cape Ann Fresh Catch
PO Box 831
Gloucester, MA 01930

Morse Delivery for 2/8 Cancelled

Looking to Join our Next Season Starting in May 2010?

Click here.

Winter Season '09/'10 Week Six Update:

Well the weather finally took a break for the boats and we were able to have a great run of deliveries over the last two weeks. We know it's wishful thinking but we hope this pattern continues through the end of the season.

As for this season, we've had to make a tough decision about new shareholders. We're sorry to say we're no longer accepting new subscriptions for the current season. To help keep in touch with those interested in our program, over to the right is a link to join our mailing list. Adding your info to the mailing list is the best way for us to communicate with you about future seasons. (This mailing list won't be sold or shared. It'll only be used for communications regarding the Cape Ann Fresh Catch CSF.)

Speaking of future seasons, we've been focusing more and more of our energies on next season. Many details have yet to be determined. So, before we make any announcements about the future, we want to nail down those details. We can say one thing though and that is our next season will start in May.

You might ask, why May and the long lapse between seasons? There's a couple of major factors. First, the groundfish fishery is closed for the month of April. No fishing, no fresh fish. The second factor is that March is a particularly cruel weather month for the boats and their crews. We don't want to put any added pressure on the fishermen to put themselves in harm's way.

With that being said, we hope you're enjoying the fruits of the fishermen's labor this winter season. A personal favorite discovery has been fresh shrimp roe. At first, five pounds of shrimp looked daunting. Yet, it was quickly learned that with the right set up--a colander full of shrimp under the faucet with cold running water and a bowl each for tails and heads on either side--de-heading the shrimp was a pretty quick endeavor. But then those little turquoise jewels sang a subtle siren's song. Culinary curiosity heeded that call. Now, my shrimp cleaning productivity has plummeted. To help regain time lost to savoring shrimp "caviar", I remembered a low country cooking tradition, the shrimp boil. The magic part of the shrimp boil is that you shouldn't de-head the shrimp. It's also a one-pot wonder so there's little clean up in the kitchen. (The dining room table might be another story though, make sure there are plenty of towels or napkins on hand.) There are tremendous variations on how to make a shrimp boil that can be found easily with a search on the web. We do have a couple of suggestions though, use red creamer potatoes, the small boiling onions, and andouille sausage (kielbasa or any smoked sausage works too).

Hope you folks are enjoying your shrimp and fish this winter season. We certainly know we are. That's all for now, and as always, we look forward to seeing you at the truck.

Winter Season '09/'10 Week Four Update:

The first several weeks of this Cape Ann Fresh Catch CSF season have been exciting. Aaah, the excitement.

We've received some great press from boston.com, Saveur Magazine, and Concord Magazine. It's from you, our shareholders, and the fishermen you support, that's made all this goodness happen. 

As some may know, we've had some email glitches too. This challenge gave rise to our Daily Catch phone line, 978-283-7304. There you can hear about that day's catch and/or its delivery status.

And then there's the weather...

So far this winter season, Mother Nature has unleashed her wrath on the fishermen. In turn, for the shareholders, she's been equally cruel. These first four weeks we've had to cancel way more deliveries than we expected. We expected some weather cancellations, but not this unrelenting battering of gale force winds and waves that kept boats in port 50% of the time this last month.

With this increase in cancellations, and likely more on the way, we'll probably have to adjust how we deliver shares to meet contractual obligations. We've received some email asking about this. We'll be emailing shareholders with more details how this will get resolved when making up those missed weeks becomes imminent.

We feel caught between a rock and a hard place and wish circumstances were different regarding CAFC deliveries. This has been a winter wonderland of learning opportunities for us. We thank you for your patience as we work towards resolving these challenges and those inherent when working in harmony with Mother Nature.

All the best and a Happy 2010 for you and yours...

Winter Season '09/'10 Week Two Update:

There's been some odd stuff that's happened with our emails from the listserv over the past week. Some people who've gotten our "daily catch" email and welcome letter last week didn't get this week's "daily catch" email. We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced from not receiving our daily catch emails.

Looking into this problem on our end, there's no rhyme or reason as to why this has happened. However, the internet in general has had some issues over the past few days with Facebook being hacked and Blackberry's email outages. We suspect the internet itself has had some indigestion and hopefully it will pass quickly and our communications to you folks will get back to normal.

(There is one semi-related email challenge we're aware of and that's aggressive filtering by Yahoo's mail servers. Folks who have Yahoo email accounts often have our listserv messages filtered out. By checking their spam filters and allowing our emails to arrive, Yahoo account shareholders can correct this problem.)

Up until this week our email notifications had worked very well. This past week's challenges made us recognize we need a back up plan for communications about the daily catch besides email. To this end, we'd like to introduce the Cape Ann Fresh Catch "Daily Catch" phone line. The number is 978-283-7304 and we hope to have it operational by Monday 12/21. This will be a pre-recorded message of that day's delivery, the message will reflect that particular day's catch and/or its delivery status.

We've been through a couple of learning opportunities with the start of the winter season and thank you for your patience as we move forward. It's our sincere hope these new communication tools will provide more flexibility for informing you about each day's delivery and the daily catch status.

With a whole lot of gratitude,

Your Cape Ann Fresh Catch CSF Staff

 

Winter Season '09/'10 Week One Update:

Whew! What a week! We're happy to say that the whirlwind of a new season's first week is behind us. Here are some of the highlights of the post below: shrimp shares; new members; and our newest newsletter.

We wish Mother Nature had been more cooperative for you shrimp only shareholders. This past week's weather has been a challenging one for the fishermen. The seas have been very heavy all week and it has prevented some the boats from safely reaching the shrimp. In fact, we were only able to deliver shrimp shares on Tuesday and Wednesday. For those shareholders who missed out on their deliveries, we'll be making up this missed delivery in the upcoming weeks.

As for new members, we're happy to say that you can still join the program. Here's our Winter Season '09/'10 Contract.

Depending on where you'd like to have your shares delivered, it would be helpful to either fax in a copy of your contract and check or email as an attachment a scanned copy of your contract and check. This way we can get you into the program while your mailed original contract and check arrives at our offices. 

As of Sunday 12/13, unfortunately it's too late to get anyone on board for the Monday 12/14 delivery to Morse School in Cambridge as the order has already been placed. If that is your delivery site of choice, please prorate the share cost to reflect an eight week season and we'll see you Monday 12/21. For the Tuesday, Wednesday, or Saturday deliveries in JP, Harvard Sq., Acton, Lincoln, or Ipswich, prorate your share cost for a nine week season and we'll see you this week. For Marblehead, Gloucester, or Newburyport deliveries on Thursdays and Fridays, it'll be a seven week season because these sites have deliveries which fall on holidays and we won't be delivering on 12/24, 12/25, 12/31, or 1/1.

You can also download our latest newsletter here. (Many thanks to shareholder Sean Sullivan for his efforts!)

We hope you enjoyed your shares this past week and we're looking forward to getting you more fresh, local seafood in the coming weeks.

All the best,

Your Cape Ann Fresh Catch CSF Staff

Winter Shares are Here!

Looking to sign up? Here is our Winter Season 09/10 contract. We would appreciate if you were to mail it back to us by December 1st--this is not a deadline--as devlieries are scheduled to start on December 7th and will run for 10 weeks.
The pdf file of the contract is interactive, you can use Acrobat Reader or Apple's Preview applications to fill out the contract and then print it for mailing back to us. Of course, you can also print out a blank copy and fill it in by hand.

Listening to your feedback from our shareholder survey, we have a few new share types. First and foremost--and for winter seasons only--we'll have Shrimp Shares. These will be 5 or 10 lbs of whole, head-on, native Northern Shrimp. Second, there will be alternating Shrimp and Fish shares. These shares will feature shrimp one week and alternate to fish the following week. We will also have our Fish Shares that you've come to know and love from our previous seasons. We will be delivering to the same locations at the same times as previous seasons. We are also trying to develop new stops in Framingham, Weston, and Watertown.

As for the shrimp we will be delivering, they'll be 50-70s in size. (Shrimp sizes are measured by the average number of shrimp in a pound). In January and February a new type of gear that has been developed by UNH SeaGrant will be used. This new gear is designed to minimize the volume of juvenile shrimp that are caught in addition to an improved escape mechanism for finned-fish by-catch.

Our deepest gratitude for making our inaugural foray into Community Supported Fisheries such a success! We look forward to your continued support of our local fishermen and their stewardship of our oceans, empowering our local economy, and reducing the carbon footprint of bringing dinner to the table.

Are Cape Ann Fresh Catch Fish Sustainable?  We get that question a lot.  Read the latest newsletter by clicking on this link for more information on where we stand on sustainability, status of cod stocks, and more.

Filleting videos.  Check out this great cod filleting video thanks to how2heroes.com. Now you can learn how to fillet from the comfort of your kitchen! And here is a filleting video for flounder that was posted on our facebook page by shareholder, Kristen Whalen. If you prefer, here are some tips for preparing whole fish .

Recipes. We sent our teenage intern Anna on a hunt for recipes that kids and teenagers might like.  She found a bunch that appealed to her palate.  We hope your kids will like these recipes, too. 

Gutted vs. ungutted fish.  We've been sending many of you home with some whiting and yellow tail flounder this past week, because that's what our fishermen are catching, along with cod. Due to their delicate nature, these fish are not gutted. We'll talk you through how to deal with the gutting when ou get home. It's very easy and painless; and, does not require any expertise. Just a sharp knife.

 

Locations

See map: Google Maps See map: Google Maps See map: Google Maps See map: Google Maps See map: Google Maps See map: Google Maps See map: Google Maps See map: Google Maps See map: Google Maps

CSF info, Cost and Pickup info

Types of Seafood Available: 

The focus of the winter shares will be locally caught, wild shrimp.  Those signing up for alternating weeks of shrimp and fish shares or just fish shares will get whatever the fishermen are catching. 

• Single Shrimp Share: 5 lbs of whole shrimp @ $2.50/lb = $12.50/week = $125 for the 10 week season
• Double Shrimp Share: 10 lbs of whole shrimp @ $2.50/lb = $25.00/week = $250 for the 10 week season
• Fish Single Share: 4-6 lbs of whole fish @ $4.00/lb = $20/week = $200 for the 10 week season
• Fish Double Share: 8-12 lbs of whole fish @ $4.00/lb = $40/week = $400 for the 10 week season
• Shrimp and Fish Single Share: Alternating weeks; 5 lbs of whole shrimp one week, 4–6 lbs of whole fish the next week @ $3.50/lb = $17.50/week = $175 for the 10 week season
• Shrimp and Fish Double Share: Alternating weeks; 10 lbs of whole shrimp one week, 8–12 lbs of whole fish the next week @ $3.50/lb = $35.00/week = $350 for the 10 week season

 

Pickup Information: 

Pick ups are scheduled for at the following locations and times:

• Cambridge—Mondays, 4–6 p.m. at Morse School, 40 Granite Street
• Jamaica Plain—Tuesdays 1–6 p.m. at Community Servings, 18 Marbury Terrace
• Harvard Square—Tuesdays 4–6 p.m. at the corner of Oxford & Kirkland Streets
• Acton—Wednesdays 1–3 p.m. at Butter Brook Farm, 982 Main Street
• Lincoln—Wednesdays 4–6 p.m. at Codman Community Farm, 58 Codman Road
• Marblehead—Thursdays 4–6 p.m. at St. Andrew’s Church, 135 Lafayette Street
• Gloucester—Thursdays 4–6 p.m. at Fishermen’s Wharf, 37 Rogers Street, next to Latitude 43 Restaurant
• Newburyport—Fridays 2–4 p.m. at the Newburyport Waterfront Trust Property, 22 Merrimack Street
• Ipswich—Saturdays 10–12 p.m. at Appleton Farm, 219 County Road

(If you would like an additional stop added for your community. Please list your community below.)

Attachment	Size
CAFC_Dec_newsletter_final.pdf	199.23 KB
CAFC_winter_contract_09-10_www.pdf	133.36 KB
Cafcnewsletter31Aug09.pdf	284.66 KB
CAFC_Sep_newsletter_final.pdf	208.45 KB
CAFC Consumer One Sheet_t9.pdf	1.78 MB