by Kirk Ross
Seafood
Last week, North Carolina Sea Grant and Saltwater Connections put together a Local Catch Summit to help the state’s nascent local catch networks learn better ways to get their message out. Set up to support local fishing families and preserve fishing traditions on our coast, the catch groups function much like agricultural co-ops. The focus has been on trying to get consumers to be more aware of the quality and variety of local seafood. They’ve also worked to encourage restaurants, especially those along the coast, to feature the local catch. In the Triangle and beyond, the groups have tried to improve distribution with the creation of more community-supported fisheries like Walking Fish and Core Sound Seafood.
North Carolina’s local catch movement began in Carteret County in 2005 and has since spread to most of the coast. Since then, Carteret Catch has been joined by Brunswick Catch, Outer Banks Catch and The Ocracoke Working Watermen’s Association. An umbrella group, North Carolina Catch, was recently formed to try to find ways to combine some of the local groups’ efforts, particularly getting the products out to the rest of the state and beyond its borders.
There are interesting parallels between the sustainable-agriculture movement and what’s happening now in commercial fishing. The challenge for both small farms and small fishing operations is the same – connect with consumers willing to pay a premium for something that is healthier, is better for the environment and strengthens traditional foodways.
Barbecue
It was one of those mild winter days, this one a little damper and warmer than most due to an early-morning shower. Traffic was light on U.S. 70 and I was making good time on my way to the seafood summit in Morehead City. By 8 a.m. skies were clearing and the patches of fog burning off. When I pulled into Wilber’s parking lot, the hickory smoke mixed with damp air was overpowering. But at Goldsboro’s famed barbecue joint, there was no wrangling anything other than a biscuit, which turned out to be pretty darn good. They don’t start serving barbecue until 10 a.m., and when they do, they serve a lot of it.
Wilber’s is one of a dwindling number of places that still cooks whole hogs over hickory coals. Their ’cue has a lot more variety, crispy bits and smoke flavor.
If you look around back you can usually see a set of old coals smoldering in the ash pile and an open fire of hickory logs ready to be tapped for fresh coals. They still had a pretty good fire going when I stopped again that night on the way back home.
State scores big in food grants
Chapel Hill Creamery was one of 10 agriculture operations that scored big in the recent round of value-added product grants awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The farm, just west of Carrboro, received $180,000.
Owners Portia McKnight and Flo Hawley plan to use the funds on improvements and equipment to expand their growing line of cheeses.
In all, North Carolina farms received more than $1.3 million to produce and market value-added products from strawberries, honey, wine, native plants and trout.