Sustainable fish farming: A love story

Check out this fantastic TED talk by Dan Barber, foodie, scholar, and 2009 recipient of the James Beard Award for Outstanding chef.

http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_barber_how_i_fell_in_love_with_a_fish.html


As many of you know, we consider ourselves pescatarians-- we generally stick to a vegetarian diet but also will eat certain seafood, trying to ensure, though, that it is as sustainably harvested as possible. That last part, the finding "sustainably harvested" fish is becoming more and more of a challenge. As society's demand for fish has increased, we have depleted 90% of many of those great fish species we love to eat, tuna, salmon, etc. We have begun to do to oceans what we have done to forests; as Dan Barber points out in this talk, we're essentially clear-cutting our oceans. But in this TED talk, he shows one example of how one fish "farm"/bird sanctuary/water purification system has, not through amazing new technology, but rather by going back to eons old ecological principles, might be giving us some hope, not just for those of us who love our wild salmon, but also for all types of agriculture. It's a fantastic biology lesson wrapped up in a love story. I think you'll enjoy checking it out.

March Dinner on 12th Ave.

Yes, I'm a bit behind on my posts. I'm a bit behind on everything right now. But despite this busy time, we still slowed down enough to enjoy another lovely evening of food and conversation with friends. Here is what was on the menu...

Spring Asparagus Risotto
Wild greens, strawberries, pecan, and smoked blue cheese salad
Trusty, crusty bread with olive oil and balsamic
Individual flourless chocolate tarts with hazelnut mousse.

Spring is here and the garden is starting to show signs of life. The asparagus are creeping their heads out of the ground, the favas and peas are starting to stretch upwards, and our garlic patch is starting to look like a field of young corn stalks. All this means that our Dinner on 12th Ave gatherings will soon benefit from the bounties of our local spring fare. We were able to go about 9 months this past year on serving mainly things either from our garden or from other local small farms. February and March were a bit more of a challenge but things are looking up. So please do consider joining us in the coming months. It's usually pretty darn good food and always fantastic conversation.