Fish-O-Gram! Fresh Corvina! Halibut 10 Day Countdown! Divers Got Talent, Illustrated!

Dear March 14th Customers,

This is a week of reflection and anticipation as we prepare ourselves for the oncoming flurry and excitement of halibut season.  Eastern Fishes have been granted a fishing-free reprieve as the Eastern seaboard is slammed by storm after storm.  Local fishes are drying up a bit as everyone pulls back to prepare for halibut.  A bright spot is beautiful Corvina, available whole or filleted.  We do have some lovely whole Petrale from Oregon, as well as Rock, Truecod and Dover.  Also, new this week is Poke grade tuna, suitable for, Poke, we guess.  Pink Scallops roll onward, with excellent abundance and quality.  Hold On! Halibut Is Almost Here.  

Just 10 short days.....

In honor of the Anticipation we have Hold On, by Sam and Dave for the JFF Song of the Week.
https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=Fowldx4hRtI

Milestones.

Our $5 bill is now Stapled to the Bathroom Ceiling.

Fish-O-Gram Hits Seattle.

Yesterday, your Fish-O-Gram correspondent and Mikuni's Kevin Mock were lucky enough to be the first paying customer at the new, super-sized Babirusa yesterday in the formerly Ghetto-Fabulous Kushibar Space (now all cleaned up).  We had drinks and spuds before heading off to an oyster tasting at the White Swan.  Congratulations Charles and Rene, what an achievement! we couldn't be more pleased for you and your crew.  Incidentally, the consensus favorite oyster of last night's White Swan oyster tasting was the Church Pt. from Rivera Shellfish.  The Church Points were full without being overwhelming, with a wonderful finished, polished, texture, a slightly astringent foretaste with a little bit of underripe persimmon.  But the real thing was the finish. A long, lingering, complex but elusive lineup of flavors.  The best comment was that the Church Pts taste like Nostalgia.....

Congratulations Noay and crew!

JFF Product Highlights, 3.14.18.

Corvina, Mexico

Refresh Troll White King, AK

Fresh Whole Petrale, OR

Giant Pacific Octopus, AK

Pink Scallops, Salish Sea

Pacific Oysters, All Shapes and Sizes, Salish Sea.  

Fresh Albacore, Fiji

Time Strapped Chefs Turn Back!!!  Onward to Regular-Form Fish-O-Gram!!!

Like it is Like It Was.

Halibut Dreaming.  

Springtime is in the air...A chef's thoughts turn to a magical flatfish.  These past weeks we have seen increasing availability of Black Cod, true cod and other western delights.  But these are just crumbs, and from a piscine/sales vantage point we are still chugging through deep-winter.  All this changes in 10 short days.  March 24 marks the first day of halibut season coast-wide.  The center of gravity of the halibut fishery, of course is Alaska, with over 17 million pounds of halibut landed.  Canada too is a mighty player in the halibut game, with a 2018 quota of better than 6 million pounds. 

Our Home Seas Grow Mighty Flatfish

Last in line is a tiny Oregon/Washington fishery, with a quota of barely more than a million pounds.  A subset within that subset are the hundred or so thousand pounds of that million caught in the island studded waters of the Salish Sea.  These fish are our March Madness. our glory, and it is our privilege to be the vehicle by which this extraordinary sub-population of fish are transported to a lucky sub-population of chefs. 

Home is Where the Water Flows.

It's the Water...

Salish Sea waters are some of the best flushed, most lively marine waters in the world.  However, the basin also boasts a myriad of small sweet bays where the swirling Pacific currents slow down, warm up, and yield an explosion of marine life, from phytoplankton all the way up.  This unique state of affairs means that everything from the Salish Sea just tastes a little better.  As for the Salish Sea Halibut, they have a sweetness, density and depth of flavor unmatched by any other halibut.  Cut-Out yields on the Salish fish are substantially higher than from Alaska or Washington Coast fishes, shelf-life is superior and the eating experience is unparalleled.  Also, the inside fish enjoy a much higher percentage of the larger 20/40 and 40/60 fish sizes than these other areas. 
A few years back we did a systematic investigation of the stomach contents of these halibut.  We found them stuffed with Spot Prawns and soft Dungeness Crab, explaining definitively why these fish taste so good.

A Flatfish Like No Other.

It's the love...

Commercial harvest from Inside Waters is limited to specific Treaty tribes, namely the three S'Klallam tribes plus the Suquamish, Tulalip, Swinomish, Nooksack and Lummi tribes.  For a handful of soul-stirring days each spring the mosquito fleets of the tribal fishery convert crab boats to longliners to chase halibut.  Most of these folk are year-round fishers and for many of them Halibut is the annual highpoint.  Every fish is individually handled, gutted and iced on board, landed on shore and brought to you as a gift and a blessing.

One of our favorite Crews.

Seeking Good Homes for Extraordinary Fish.

Over the years the vast bulk of these fish have gone into commodities fish outlets--in many cases pawned off as Alaskan fish to a misinformed public.  Starting a few years back, we, and a handful of other small-time fish brokers have steered more and of these fish to appropriate and appreciative markets.  This new order has led to some interesting rumbles on and off the water, but the general trend toward more specific marketing of this fish is very positive.  This year JFF, Lummi Island Wild and Mikuni Wild Harvest have ceased competing, declared a Millennium, and have joined forces to purchase, represent and showcase these peerless fish. 

All Together Now.

Salish Sea Halibut and You.  

Subject to the ever-surprising variables of weather, tribal politics and, of course, the uncertainties of any wild fishery, we expect the first fish in Seattle Sunday Morning the 25th.  Depending on subsequent openings, we are expecting to be flush with local halibut from March 25th through early May. Reserve yours today!  Accept No Substitutes!  

We are Counting on You.

Weekly Pink Scallop Feature.  Lovely, Fluted and Seasonally Appropriate.

Courtesy of Mona Johnson.

Craft Corner. 
Past Fish-O-Grams have generally painted commercial harvest divers, on whom we rely, as a shiftless, substance-loving and heavy users of the criminal justice system.  This is unfair.  Part of this reflected reputation is a relic of the old days in the industry, part of it is intended to be good-humored banter and part of it is, well, true, depending on the makeup of individual divers.  Like every corner of the seafood business, diving does have it's share of desperate characters of varying stripes.  Plus, for those born with dubious impulse control, long-term exposure to compressed air does no good at all.

Outlaws No More.
Mostly, however, commercial harvest divers are dedicated professionals engaged in an extraordinarily taxing profession.  Our scallops divers are wonderful folk, and we salute them.  Joe Littlefield, our top-producing diver, is not just a Dedicated Father, Mighty Hustler and  Superman of the Undersea, he has a whole secret life off the water. 

Tools of the Trade.

Armed with a glue gun, soldering iron, and strips of paper mache, Joe spends his sleepless nights crafting amazing functional artworks.  With his permission, we are delighted to share them with you.  

Until Next Time, We Are Your Corvina Selling, Poke Chopping, Restaurant Opening, Oyster Shucking, Sam and Dave Jamming, Halibut Holding-On, Mikuni/Lummi Wild Partnering, Scallop Extolling, Art Appreciating, JFF Crew.  

Call or Write, We Promise to Write Back!

N&S

Fish-O-Gram #32! Nor'Easter Hits! Urchin YES! Winter Surprise! Black Cod Resurfaces! Oysters Approach Annual Prime! F.O.G. Government Affairs Desk--Lobsters Rejoice--Switzerland Outlaws Live Boils! Mandates Hamster Socialization!

Dear Storm-Lashed Customers

Sunday Evening at Jones (Shellfish) Ranch.  

Wizard Of Oz Time. 

These latter days at Jones Ranch have been frosty and wind-swept.  We thought we were in line for an early spring but we were wrong.  Sunday's blow knocked oyster tanks off of cribbing, scattered trays and plumbing supplies, smashed up our small boat fleet and launched a 20' long drying rack a couple of hundred feet in the air.  Nor'Easters are a legendary and feared force in the San Juan Islands.  Cold air comes roaring down the Fraser River Valley and blasts the islands--really bad Nor'Easters are rare, but when they come the results can be apocalyptic.  In deep winter the ground is generally saturated with water.  A hard freeze limits the elasticity of tree roots and heaves the water-saturated ground.  In the right conditions trees can come down like Pixie-Stix.  One story from way back concerns a Lopez Island pioneer Bat Clancy.  Bat owned a forty acre tract of old-growth timber across from his house.  He steadfastly refused to log his forest, long after old growth had been scalped from the rest of the island.  Melvin Graham, neighbor and County Commissioner at the time approached Bat one more time to ask about logging the parcel--Bat's trees were shading one of Melvin's fields and making it impossible to cure hay on a wide swath of the field.  Bat Again refused.  That next winter a Nor'Easter came up and laid down every stick on that forty acres.  So Melvin got his sunshine, Bat got a lifetime supply of firewood and planted a small orchard in the middle of his formerly-treed 40.  Decades later we leased   Melvin's field from his daughter and the resurgent forest on what had been Bat's 40 shaded the southern portion of field to the point that curing hay was next to impossible.  Plus ca change....

 

A Platter Named  Desire....Pink Scallop Photo of the week.  Note the Olys snuggled in the ice....

Courtesy of Louis Morales, Pioneer Square Taylor Shellfish Bar

Winter Surprise at Jones Ranch!

Early Springers.

Precocious Goats

Some weeks ago, while feeding the goats on a normal January day we came upon a freshly born goat kid.  In the days following we welcomed another 50 more.  This was a surprise of several fronts, normally we schedule goat breeding in order to produce goat kids in late March or early April-once spring grasses are fully on and available.  This past year we put the buck in, as  usual, November 1.  Given a five month gestation, this should have yielded goat kids on April 1.  Unbeknown to us, a young goat buck escaped castration last spring, and goats being the precocious animals they are, successfully bred the entire herd.  On the whole is has been an extremely successful kidding--we only lost one mama and a few babies.  As of now we have two vigorous kids, Banjo and Lucky, living in the house with us, while the rest of the herds prances around the rocks behind our house and consumes incredible amounts of hay.  In a week or two we are going to move them down the road, but for the moment we are entertaining a steady stream of goat-phillic visitors.  Come one come all!
See Videos attached below, check out our goat video-centric Instagram Page!. 

Fish-O-Gram Government Affairs Desk--Switzerland Outlaws Live Lobster Boils!

Just Get Me to Switzerland. 

Too Much Time on Their Hands

While American Government degenerates into a reality tv horror show, our friends across the pond are getting down to business.   As of March 1, lobsters will enjoy special protections in the landlocked nation of Switzerland.  Live boiling of lobsters will be illegal, with penalties of up to three years in prison for boiling a lobster without first stunning or killing it.  Furthermore, lobster may only be brought across the border in conditions approximating their natural environment, namely in large volumes of seawater.  Further investigation reveals that Switzerland already imposes criminal penalties on pet owners who keep only one hampster, or do not allow domestic cats daily interaction with their own kind.  Left unsaid are the rights and privileges of Langustines, Crayfish and Crab, but that can only be next. 

Tell it like it is. 

Switzerland going all-in for the lobsters reminds us of a Seattle PI report, years back, on a PETA confrontation therapy campaign dubbed "Fish are People Too", an effort to get sports and commercial fishers to contemplate the error of their ways.  PI reporters tracked Seattle Salmon Purse Seine skipper Paul Matson for commentary, "I stalk them, surround them, kill them and sell the flesh,' he said while sitting on a bar stool at The Highliner, the bar at Fishermen's Terminal. 'And I couldn't care one little bit what the rest of the world thinks about the hierarchy of sentient beings.'"   https://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/PETA-Fish-feel-so-don-t-eat-them-1159722.php

Switzerland, Imelda Marcos and Moral Hypocrisy

We here at Jones Ranch try to take a more politic tone when dealing with misguided activism--for years we sold meats and seafoods at the Orcas Farmers Market and could generally count on at least one weekly confrontation with a militant vegan and so developed a full roster of firm-but-gentle rejoinders. Beyond the comedy of granting rights to crustaceans--after all, think of what they would do to us if the tables were turned?--lie deeper issues and trends--for one thing, this is a fine case study in the absurdities of claimed moral high ground from a nation that owes it's prosperity to helping kleptocratic billionaires hide their money from justice, or the spectacle of lobsters making asylum claims, or legislators and police wasting their time on the finer points of Hamster-to-Hampster interactions.  But none of this matters to the high-minded, tempeh-scarfing set.  

Imelda Sez, "Thank God for the Swiss"

Today Cuttlefish and Lobsters, Where will This End?

Some weeks back we reported on European Union legislation granting rights to Octopuses, Squid and Cuttlefish.  Taken together, we see this as indicative of a disturbing trend of applying abstract human values to the natural world, stemming, we think, from the ever greater remove of humans from the land, sea and the glories of food production and nutrient cycles.  With yeast-based, tank-raised faux burger now hitting the market and en ever-larger segment of the population adopting unwholesome vegan and vegetarian lifestyles, we are probably in sight of a day when foodie diehards are forced to smuggle live crab in trenchcoats and real meat is outlawed.  We promise to kick, scream and fuss, but this sort of societal meta-trend is probably unstoppable.  (See Matt Ridley blog on meat eating http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/meat-eating/.)  When that day comes you, our customers, have our solemn pledge to go underground and carry on.  Husbandry, stewardship, and real foods are the rock on which we Jones Ranchers stand.  If that makes us outlaws in the eyes of the Swiss, the Vegans and Jerry Brown, so be it.  

We Embrace the Outlaw Lifestyle.  

Until next time we are your Storm Surviving, Product Listing, Urchin-Season Extending, Black Cod Selling, Spring Oyster Extolling, Lobster Boiling, Food Freedom Loving, Swiss-Horrifying, Hamster-Handling JFF Crew.  

Call or write....We promise to write back!

N&S

Dear Un-Prohibited Customers,

Silly Laws Create Creative Outcomes. 

Ninety-eight years ago Nebraska today ratified the 18th amendment to the Constitution, pushing it over the top and outlawing the manufacture, sale and consumption of alcohol.   Washington State had already banned alcohol, both through "local option" laws and a 1918 "Bone Dry" statewide measure.  San Juan County had gone dry some years prior, following a visit from famed evangelist Billy Sunday.  In San Juan County, alcohol was illegal between 1911 and 1933.  Banning hootch was a dreadfully earnest endeavor, the notion being that boozy fathers would buck up and spend their times and money on family rather than swilling rotgut and pinching barmaids.  The reality of course was nowhere near the ideal.  Folks drank just the same but the liquor trade went underground.
San Juan County, being a boundary county between puritanical, dry American soil and a decadent and licentious Canada, became a hub for bootlegging and rum running in these years.  Islanders of that era were a web-footed bunch, many of them growing up on and around the water, and those who took to to smuggling did so as ducks take to water.  Early smugglers started with row and sailboats, and quickly moved onto more and more powerful motorboats.  

Let the Games begin.

Billy Wilson and the Black Pup.

Coast Guard and other law-enforcement agencies did their best, but local knowledge of these twisting waterways and the profit motive generally won out over  under-powered Federales.  For many years the primary enforcement boat in the Islands was the steam powered Scout, nicknamed the "Black Pup", with a top speed of 6 knots--about the speed of a well designed rowboat.  Billy Wilson, a farmer, blacksmith, bootlegger, smuggler and former owner of Jones Ranch, did some hard time in the McNeil Island Penitentiary for smuggling during those years.  He and his crew got caught hauling whiskey from Vancouver Island to Lopez and stashing the goods in various barns on the extreme South End of the island.  

Stately but slow. 

Lessons Learned.

As students of history and avid drinkers ourselves, we view Prohibition through the lens of the ongoing American push-pull between High-Minded Totalitarianism and Reality, with the entrepreneurial and unscrupulous ever-willing to rush into the breach.  Perhaps the greatest lesson of prohibition is that a state that chooses to criminalize normal behavior effectively normalizes criminal behavior, with all sorts of nasty long-term consequences.  Above all, despite any madness any government can throw at us, prohibition is an object lesson in how the human spirit, and the desire for alcohol, always triumphs.  This tension plays out to this day.  In local terms, prohibition was a glorious canvas on which people played out games of intrigue, gain and risk.  Prohibition also marked a high point in Island prosperity.  For Billy Wilson and the boys, the good times came to a crashing halt on December 5, 1933 with passage of the 21st amendment, repealing the 19th amendment.   After his release his former associates gave him 40 acres on Iceberg Point--one of the most beautiful places on earth- in gratitude for not squealing.  Billy Wilson spent his latter days brewing and drinking his own, working the dying trade of blacksmithing and raising sheep, including a purebred flock on his Iceberg Place.  We treasure the last few buildings standing from his era, and maintain a large and growing collection of Billy Wilson artifacts, including agate marbles, various hand-forged tools, and a full selection of horseshoes.  We do our best to carry on in his place and in his name. 

Billy Wilson, JFF Salutes You!  Never let local, state or federal governments get between you and your tipple of choice!

 

Wedding day at Jones Ranch, 1915.  

Crab Troubles.

The long-awaited West-Coast Dungeness opener has opened with a whisper, and not a bang.  The headline Washington Coast, Oregon and Central/Northern California Crab seasons all finally opened on Monday, following a prolonged wait for the meat percentage to reach acceptable levels.  Typically these fisheries open in early-mid December, in time to maximize holiday sales.  Southern California has been turning out a few crab, as has the ongoing Puget Sound fishery, but catches have been slow and pricing high.Crabbers are afraid that dropping millions of pounds of product on a soft market will crash pricing.  The big boy processors have been firing up their freezers to take the expected onslaught of product, but given the timing of this all, the offer prices are low compared to the past few years.  Southern California has been turning out a few crab, as has the ongoing Puget Sound fishery, but catches have been slow and pricing high.  Now the marquee fisheries are open, but the weather has kicked up and the crabbers are semi-striking.  So pricing is still awfully high, though extremely volatile, and crab brokers are running the thinnest of inventories in order not to get hurt when the volume finally hits and the price does tumble.  Troubled times in crab world..... order and we'll do our level best. Stay tuned for updates!!

Scallops.

Eating Pink Scallops is one of the best things about being human.  Our ancestors ate grubs and bashed each other with sticks so that a blessed few of their descendants could prance around on the seafloor scooping up scallops and the rest of us could enjoy Deep-water treats for the first time in human history.  If you are not currently serving them, why not? 

 

Courtesy of Erik Johnson Photography.

Urchin Bonus Round.

The state quota has been definitively thumped, but our Swinomish and Lummi friends are now hacking away at the tribal quota on urchin.  Between storms and other fisheries, urchin supply is fitful, but any urchin after the first of the year is a gift.  The urchins are getting closer to spawning--watch for white extrusions from the uni.  JFF is firmly convinced that Uni is on a one-way track to culinary glory, that urchins are the Puget Sound version of Truffles, caviar, or, well, Puget Sound Salmon, Pink Scallops and more, but in a punchier formulation.  We eat uni at every chance.  You should too. 

 

It's 2018 and still swingin'.

White King and Farewell to A King of Our Hearts and Plates.  

Some months back Jon Rowley, a man we are proud to claim as a mentor, cheerleader, and friend succumbed to kidney disease.  Jon defines an era of Northwest seafood and the development of a Seattle-Specific culinary sensibility like no-one else.  He drove and  embodied the change from a volume, commodities-driven fishery to the joyful, quality focused and and sustainable fishery we enjoy and celebrate today.  All of us today in the business who aspire to do anything worthwhile are Standing on the Shoulders of Giants, namely Jon.  Those interested in Jon may find more information in a handful of excellent articles profiling Jon, includinghttps://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-magazine/jon-rowley-promotes-the-tastes-we-come-to-crave/.

Sunday, greater Seattle gathered to mourn his passing.  Yesterday a smaller group gathered to enjoy a meal in his spirit.  We were lucky enough to furnish the salmon for this meal-- spectacular FAS Queen Charlotte Islands Ivory King Salmon.  Last night we enjoyed Kevin Davis' version of this fish, prepared for Jon Rowley's memorial dinner.  The fish is everything we could have hoped for, and a fully fitting for Jon's farewell meal. The most special of fish for the special-est of people.  We have a limited volume of this fish available as frozen or refresh, H&G or fillet.  Don't let these fish slip away without offering them on your plate!

 

The best of the best.

Diatoms to the Rescue. 

While the rest of the nation labors under snow and storm, we West Coasters have been enjoying an uncommonly sunny winter, reminiscent of dimly remembered Washington winters of the early 1980s.   At Jones Ranch this means the winter grain is shooting up and the elderberries are leafing out.   At the shellfish farm we have seen the first algae of the season, the slimy, ground-swelling chain diatoms.  This is about three weeks earlier than usual.  What this means is that algae eaters, including oysters, are getting an unexpected gift of food and flavor-boost.  To you, this means that all Washington oysters are developing the high, glory flavors of early spring early this year.  We can already discern the high, lingering flavors of spring in the animals.  It has been a long, long time since we have seen an early spring here.  Every winter puts northern folk to the test and every spring is a gift and a joy, whether it comes in January or in April.  Here's to the oysters, here's to the weather, here's to the single celled photosynthesizing critters who make it all happen.  

Algae Eaters, and Eaters of Algae Eaters, give thanks.  

JFF list Highlights 1.16.18.  

Pink Scallops, FAS Ivory King, Nisqually Oysters, Monkfish, John Dory, Giant Pacifc Octo,                            Lopez Island Smelt, Quinault Steelhead, AK Spot Prawns, OR, Brine Packed.    

Until Next Time, we are your Bone-Dry-Voting, Proudly-Tippling, Black Pup-Dodging, Crab-Troubling, Scallop-Extolling, Uchin-Encore-ing, Rowley-Waking, Oyster-Loving, Plankton-Identifying, JFF Crew.

N&S

Call or write! We promise to write back, especially if you place an order!

FISH-O-GRAM #29. Fish-O-Gram!! PINKS TO THE PEOPLE!!! SCALLOPS STORM BACK TO THE PLATE!!! JFF Goes Low on Albacore Loin! Christmas Coho! More Sturgeon! Oyster Of the Month! Razor Clams 2-U. Urchins--Get Them Now! Science Corner--the Echinoidea Edition!!

All Pinked Up in Bellevue!!!  Bake's Place Posts First Scallop Photos of the Season!!

Pink Scallops Hit Bake's Place in Bellevue! Thank you Nicholas!

Dear Fish-Hounding Customers, 

It just doesn't have to be this way....

Dive Deep, Look Hard.  It's all out there.  

These dark and stormy days call for extra-vigilance in searching for exceptional seafoods.  Some distributors have resigned themselves to Farmed Salmon, Panko-Breaded Ocean Pout and Arkansas Chicken--But you don't need to settle!  We here at Jones Ranch  are hard at work keeping wild and wonderful offerings in front of you.  Pink Scallops are back for the duration, oysters are prime right now and Urchin is well and available.  Look for daily flashes and updates on Sturgeon, Steelhead, Razor Clams and East Coast Fishes.  Also, please consider.....

West Coast Albacore Loin.

We do it funky and pass the savings on to you.

For years one of our favorite products has been the West Coast Albacore.  Fresh season runs from July-September annually and we enjoy, sell, and promote as much of this fish as we can in fresh form.  West Coast Albacore is flavorful, deep and has a much more complex taste than the warm water or Fiji product typically seen in the business.  To us it is one of the true glories of Northwest Seafood, right up there with Pink Scallops, Salmon and Black Cod.

Most of the fish are bled and blast frozen at sea, or FAS, as the industry terminology goes.  This is a terrific thing for the albacore--they do not hold up well fresh, over a few days their flesh goes grey and begins to gap.  The flavor remains, but the fish becomes challenging for center-of-the-plate presentations.   Bled and Blasted Albacore retain the superlative properties of a truly fresh West-Coast Albacore.  

Back in the day, most West Coast product was re-shipped and canned--largely in American Samoa.  In the past few years a new product has developed--a sashimi grade vacuum packed, 100% usable meat loin.  This product is produced by band-sawing the whole fish in sub-zero conditions, trimming skin and bloodline off with grinders and then glazing and vacuum packing the finished loin--all while the fish is still frozen.  The effect of all this is to produce a finished, 100% usable product that has the integrity of a FAS fish--unlike many tuna options, the fish is never thawed.

FAS Albacore loins are good enough to be served raw, and showy enough to be a star center-of-the-plate.  They are MSC certified, the only tuna fishery to earn this distinction--Albacore trolling has effectively no bycatch and the resource is strong and growing. Plus they are extremely convenient-zero waste, zero shrinkage. 

The past few years have seen a down cycle for Albacore fishing in our waters.  The fish have been farther off-shore than usual and our West Coast fleet has struggled to maintain production.  Consequently, pricing on this product has risen year-by-year and the primary producers of the product are always oversold.

We have been offered a volume of these loins at a very nice price.  Our motto here at Jones Ranch is, "We do it funky and pass the savings on to you."  Come and get them!

Christmas Coho.

 

A Rare and Seasonal Beast.

A little known joy of Washington fisheries is the secret run of Coho that trickle in after Chum salmon have been and gone.  Returning in small numbers to rivers throughout the basin, this is an extremely low-volume, Tribal-Only fishery.  The flavor is more subtle than summer/fall coho.  It holds the Coho delicacy and fattiness we all treasure, but with a hint of melancholy mixed in-- a fish to remind us of pleasures behind and pleasures ahead.  Christmas Coho. 

Wild Sturgeon, By and By

Bit by Bit, we will keep you fed. 

We expect another shot of wild sturgeon for Monday.  Order Now!!! These fish never last long!! Available in 30# average bullets and filet. 

Oyster of the Month

Congratulations to Miss December!

Our Oyster of the Month for December is the Calm Cove.  A light, supple oyster, the Calm Cove is the Queen of Hood Canal Oysters.  This oyster has slowly grown on us and has become our own Happy Hour Oyster of Choice.  Grown by the same folks as grow the Hammersley, the Calm Cove benefits from the same attention, care and passion.  Beach finished, the Calm Cove is well polished, retains liquor and has an inimitable, quintessentially Hood Canal finish, light and clean but with the rounded depth and richness of a fully finished oyster.  Special Pricing for the Month of December!!

Razor Clams In the House!

Cutting through your winter blues.

Our Coastal Clam Digger friends are taking advantage of the clement weather and low tides this week to make some traction on razor clams.  We expect to have live razors available Thurs/Fri. and for an extended spell thereafter.  

Urchin Update!! 

In spite of last weeks' foul weather, our intrepid divers made it out midweek and we are delighted to have abundant urchin for the end of the week and beginning of next week.  Quotas are winding down and the fleet has voted itself reduced weekly catch limits to feather out the end of the season.  At this point we expect to have urchin through the New Year, but we are definitely on the back side of the season.  In honor of the beginning of the seasonal wind-down of the Mighty Urchin, we have dedicated this weeks' Science Corner to our spiny friends.  The least you can do is dedicate a corner of your menu to this Hometown Hero.  

Science Corner--All Hail the Echinoidea!! 

A Lovely, Curious Animal.

The Lusty Urchin

Here at Jones Ranch we have a special place in our hearts for Urchins.  Uni is one of our absolute favorite foods, and we anticipate the opening of Urchin season each fall with bated breath and sweaty palms.  We have two commercially-harvested species in these waters.  the Green and the Red.  Worldwide some 950 species creep around the seafloor.  Urchins are to Northwest Cuisine as truffles are to French cookery--the ultimate, ephemeral, essence food.  The edible portion of an urchin is the Uni, or gonads and quality improves through the fall, with the ripening of the gonads.  Sometime in late winter, based on some temperature or environmental cue, the urchins spawn and the uni is spent and no longer desirable.  Urchins have a very long and involved free-swimming larval stage, they can swim for as long as 50 days, during which time the key development is growth of ever-increasing numbers of arms, during which time they feed on microalgae, or phytoplankton.  Eventually they settle and begin life as baby urchins as we know them.  Well-Fed urchin seem to spawn yearly, but success of the spawn, as measured in recruitment of baby urchins is highly iffy--sometimes years and years will pass without successful urchin reproduction, though a year with prime conditions for larval and settler Urchin can yield fantastic numbers of babies.

  

The promise of Tomorrow.

The Edible Urchin.

We primarily sell urchin live and whole for table-side dismemberment.  We also do offer, from time-to-time, a fresh-shucked uni tubbed in salt water.  Shelf-life on fresh uni is around 5 days in the shell and maybe 10 days tubbed in brine.  Most processors treat uni with alum, which changes the flavor, stiffens up the uni and extends shelf-life to several weeks.  The alum-treated uni is a fine product, flavor-wise, but is different enough from the fresh to qualify as an entirely different thing.  Frozen is even more so. 

The Real Thing.

The Resilient Urchin.

Uni quality varies wildly year to year, area to area and even among a given group of urchins--this is a major point--inexperienced or heedless divers can pick huge volumes of urchin, but to pick quality product is an art and a science.  Urchins are one of the toughest and most resilient of sea creatures.  Their primary diet is kelp and rooted seaweeds.  They can plow through phenomenal volumes of sea foliage when conditions are right, but when conditions turn against them they can live for years in a sort of fugue state, subsisting on micro-algae and rock.  During these spells the Uni, or urchin gonads become almost non-existent.  When kelp returns they get right back to work, though it is generally a few years before the Uni quality is back up.  Something like this is happening right now in California.  El Nino conditions destroyed kelp beds along vast expanses of California coastline.  The urchins are fine, but their uni is so degraded as to be un-harvestable.  Now, kelp is making a comeback and the California urchin should be back on point in a year or so.  

The Immortal Urchin.

This capacity to go dormant is just one Urchin Fun Fact.  The bulk of living tissue is around the outside of the shell, in a undulating, living skin anchoring and animating the spines along with tens of thousands of tendrils with suction cups.  These suction cups fasten and release to allow the urchin to scuttle along at speed.  They have a unique, five-ways symmetry with 5, 2-fold vascular systems feeding the living skin covering through thousands of pin-prick holes through the shell.  The urchin mouth is suspended at the center of the bottom of the shell in a remarkably mechanical-looking arrangement, and is made up of five self-sharpening teeth.  This is known as an Aristotle's Lantern.  These teeth can chew through rock.  In some areas urchin will excavate little cubbies for themselves out of live rock.  Urchins are highly coveted by predators and are subject to a variety of diseases.  Outside of that, however, urchin have no physiological reason to die.  They do not age or degrade.  Urchin can regenerate themselves indefinitely and as such are theoretically immortal.  

Aristotle's Lantern. 

The Talented Urchin

Our diver friends tell of urchin behaving like a herd animal far beneath the surface--they move together in coordinated groups.  Experienced divers will target urchins for quality at specific points around the herd--middle of the pack animals tend to be poor.  While Urchin typically haunt the photic zone--the top 8- or so feet of the seabed where macro algae grows, herds of urchin are known to descend to depth to cross to greener pastures on the far side of big water.  Urchins have played a significant role in various forms of applied medicine and science, given their unique, but easily observed properties.  The cutting edge of human longevity research is focused on studying Urchin, and modern In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) techniques developed out of observations of Urchin fertilization, much of which research took place at the Friday Harbor Labs, just across the water from us.

  

Otter Eating Urchin.  How the competition does it. 

The Storied Urchin.

Eating urchin was long a staple of Coastal natives and the ever-adventurous Japanese, Urchins were neglected and scorned by Puget Sound settlers and Fisher-Folk.  Fur-trade driven eradication of Sea otters Coast-wide led to a gigantic boom in Urchin abundance.  Urchin in their turn largely eradicated kelp forests.  This is the reality that pioneer-era water-folk experienced in Puget Sound.  Then in the late 1960s something odd happened.  As Japan pulled itself out of it's post-war wreckage and began to become rich, a desire for traditional foods pushed Japanese buyers to alien shores.  Early urchin fishers used rakes and dip nets along with some disastrous attempts at dragging for urchins.  Then eager trainees in the new discipline of SCUBA diving figured out that there was money to be made in prancing along the sea floor, picking up urchins, in tandem with this, kelp beds came roaring back, fueling another boom in urchin abundance.  By the mid-80s the urchin boom was in full swing, with bonanza volumes and pricing.  Maine has a robust urchin fishery, as does Atlantic Canada.  On this coast California has always been the center of gravity for Uni production, with a small fishery in Oregon, a robust resource in Puget Sound and fitful production in Canada and Alaska.  This was an exclusively export-oriented business with huge money.  Your Fish-O-Gram correspondent remembers when urchin divers were the high-rollers and big-spenders of the San Juans fisher-folk.  Then the Japanese economy crashed in tandem with a down-tick in the resource.  For twenty years or so the urchin fishery settled down to a low murmur, with a handful of die-hard divers plugging away at very low prices.  Quotas were never filled, instead the fishery would taper off late winter when the urchin spawning began, and in Puget Sound the tribal quota was fished little if at all.  During this spell a robust domestic market gradually developed.  Starting with sushi bars and spreading ever-outward in the fancy food world, West Coast Uni is now primarily consumed domestically.  

The Coveted Urchin.  

Onward to the Middle Kingdom.

These last four years urchin pricing has roughly doubled, one year to the next.  Divers are now making real money for the first time in decades.  Puget Sound Quotas are now fully subscribed, both for state-licensed and tribal fishers.  California production has slowed at precisely the moment Uni has gone mainstream.  We are delighted to see Urchin get the acclaim and menu space it deserves.  Looking forward we expect decent abundance through mid-January, mostly from tribal boats.  Urchin are the ultimate distillation of the Salish Sea, their variations and inconsistency an endless pageant.  Even their fickle nature makes part of their appeal--urchin refuse to adapt to living in tanks--when we or others try to hold urchin in tanks, even with abundant kelp for food, the uni quality degrades within a matter of days.   Right now the Salish Sea is well stocked with harvest-size urchin and from our perspective, the uni has never been better.  Looking ahead, our divers report that recruitment has been poor these past few years, indicating lean years ahead--this is strictly cyclical, not indicative of any long-term trends--they will be back.   Alaska urchin fisheries have collapsed with the resurgence of Sea Otters, as have California urchin fisheries in otter-colonized areas.  As such, we expect urchin to become ever more precious, expensive and sought-after. Further, Chinese buyers are now getting in on the action.  China has zeroed in on Urchins in the same way China now hoovers up fine cognac and prime beef--Uni is now identified a prime luxury food from the West.  Several new Chinese -owned brokerages have set up shop in Seattle recently with the notion of mass-exporting reds.  This new trade route will be in full swing by next year and will likely put a serious hurt on local urchin supply channels.  Right now, urchins are readily available, quality is phenomenal and pricing is still reasonable.  Salish Sea/Puget Sound Urchin is as good as it has ever been, and will ever be.  These are the days when......

Oyster Tasting December 5 Franks Oyster House.

Please join us Tuesday at Franks Oyster House for an oyster/scallop tasting.  5 pm 'till the bivalves are gone.  

Until next time, we are your Scallop Friending, Chicken-Eschewing, Albacore Hounding, Calm-Cove Shucking, Christmas-Coho-ing, Ugly-Fish Cutting, Urchin Researching, JFF Crew. CALL OR WRITE TODAY!!!

N&S