Hi there!
We've been receiving a lot of emails about Salmon all fall. Well, it's finally available.
About the Salmon availability: This year, we were only able to get half as much fish as last year. There is a chance we get a second shipment later this winter as Heidi's bottleneck is the processing of the fish she caught. This might sound strange, but the fish is actually processed (cleaned and packaged) months after the harvest. The fish are frozen right out of the water in Alaska and shipped to Seattle for cold storage. There, they are further processed and packaged. This is probably unnecessary to point out, but there are labor shortages out there too....and well, the fish is just chilling. Literally.
Holiday Hams: Adam and I (at Ohio City Provisions) spent the last week busting our tails after the Thanksgiving rush to get hogs cut and hams brined, tumbled, and smoked. Well, the first batch of hams are in the smokehouse now and will be packaged just in time for this week's Fresh Fork delivery.
The nuance of ham orders: Ham orders, due to our inspection at OCP, are placed directly thru OCP and offered with free delivery on a Fresh Fork truck. Your ham order is just a deposit. The actual weight and price of the ham will be on the ham when you pickup. There will be additional paperwork at the back of the truck.
And lastly, if you missed our Open to the Public Meat Bundles, Holiday Gift Bundles, and More, here are the details and a link to the order form: Holiday Bundles For People
Thanks for letting us feed you!
Sincerely,
Trevor, Allyson, Lauren, and the Fresh Fork Staff.
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The Wild Salmon Co. is a family-run business based in Asheville, NC, and we heard about it through some of our subscribers several years back. Heidi lives 9 months of the year in Asheville, but grew up in Seattle, and her family has always fished salmon in Alaska. When she was 15, her dad bought her a commercial fishing permit for one of the fisheries, and she has fished every summer since.
Their fishery is internationally certified as Sustainable from the Marine Stewardship Council, and they go to great lengths to make sure their fishing, packing and shipping practices are environmentally responsible. All the fish is packaged in center-cut fillets and IQF frozen.
What makes it special. I have to admit, before meeting Heidi I didn't know much about fish. She's passionate about it and is meticulous about quality.
Heidi's fish are frozen the same day they are caught. They catch the coveted Sockeye as they swim upstream to lay their eggs. She brings the fish to shore where their co-op freezes them and sends them to Seattle for cold storage until further processing. The fish are then graded, cut, and packaged in individual, center-cut portions before being shipped to Fresh Fork.
About the salmon portions. The portions are all approx 5.5 to 6 ounces, and a 10# case has usually between 26 an 28 pieces in it. There is a savings on buying the whole case.
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SALMON: Full Case (10 lbs)
$200.00 (~26 pieces)
SALMON: Individual Pieces
$8.35 (~6 oz/piece)
All pricing is subject to 3% credit card processing fees. So the real price is $206 and $8.60, respectively, after credit card fees.
Sadly, we need all orders to be paid in advance and there is no way to avoid the credit card fees this time.
DELIVERY:
Week #5 of Winter CSA (this week, Wed Dec 15 thru Sat Dec 18)
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I raise hogs and I eat a lot of pork. And it isn't hard for me to point to a favorite "cut." I like smoked ham.
Smoked ham at one point was defeating to me. For a butcher, it is one of the more difficult products to make. The cut is really quite easy - saw through the last vertebrae, cut out the aitch-bone, and clean up the ham to remove excess fat. The hard part is the brining.
Brine, for a smoked product, is part chefery and part science. The chef part is figuring out the flavors. We start with salt and sugar as a base - classic ham requirements - and put out twist on it by including Ohio sorghum and a spice blend ranging from allspice and clove to coriander and red pepper flake. The brine is strongly aromatic, and it has to be, as only a hint of it comes through in the finished product.
The science part of the process is understanding food safety, cook/chill requirements, and the use of nitrates. Nitrates are important for reducing the spore forming component of C-Bot, and nitrates come in many forms. We choose to avoid synthetic nitrates like sodium nitrate (Cure #1) and go for the cleaner version, a concentrated celery powder. The science part is then understanding the desired parts per million of cure into your product and how to get there.
Combining the two in a unique recipe means doing a lot of math and measuring your inputs. We have calculated a brine that delivers the right seasoning (salt, sugar, and spice) to get a balanced taste, with the right parts per million of nitrate to produce a safe product. We cook up our brine then strategically inject it into each ham on a scale. We know when we are done based on the "gain" of each ham. That means that I'm measuring how much weight it gains. Because each ham has a different weight, this means running the same equation over and over again for each ham. It's time consuming.
OK, so I'm done chatting about the boring part. You can probably tell what part of this job I have.
A this point, Adam takes the hams and nets them up nice and tight. This gives us a good shape and even cook. The hams are then hung in the smokehouse where he monitors the internal temperature and adjusts the temperature and humidity of the smokehouse to achieve a ham to our liking - juicy with a darky, smokey sweet fat cap that you'll fight over!
Our hams are smoked and ready to eat. "Cooking" them means simply reheating them in the oven. We suggest skipping the orange juice and maple glaze that your grandma used; instead, place your ham in a roasting pan on a rack with a bit of water. In a 250 degree oven, cover in foil and bring up to approx 110 degrees. Uncover and bring the oven to 350. Roast until internal temperature is approximately 140. Pull and let rest until carving.
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With hams and salmon this week, we figured we'd see some new faces or returning faces from our summers season.
Whether you are stocking up your own freezer with meat bundles or sharing the gift of flavor and health this holiday season, we have some cost saving bundles available for you.
Bundles: cheese bundles for entertaining and gifting, meat bundles for the freezer, canned goods, and more
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