By Amy Paradysz
Gulf of Maine Sashimi buys sustainable seafood directly from boats to deliver it to its customers—high-end restaurants—as fresh as possible. But, when the COVID-19 crisis hit the restaurant industry like a tsunami, this subsidiary of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute began offering haddock, cod, mackerel, redfish, flounder and squid directly to home consumers with touchless, curbside pickup.
“Traditionally, 70 percent of seafood in the United States has been consumed outside the home,” said Gulf of Maine Sashimi President Jen Levin. “But, people are definitely cooking more, and our customers are becoming more familiar with local fish like pollock, hake and monkfish that they may have never had before or certainly hadn’t cooked fresh.”
While wholesalers like Gulf of Maine Sashimi tried to stay afloat by becoming retailers, lobstermen turned to Facebook to try to offload what they could no longer sell to restaurants. As a temporary measure, Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association (MCFA) took over administration of two Facebook pages—The Maine Seafood Connection and Maine Fish Direct—and Mainers responded generously in the first few weeks of the pandemic, buying lobster as a novel way to do something positive. As the tide of tourism begins to turn, off-the-boat lobster sales continue.
“This is a chance for Mainers to get to know their Maine lobstermen a bit more than they did before,” said Monique Coombs, an MCFA employee (and wife of a lobsterman out of Orr’s Island). “Our state depends on lobster for jobs, which extend beyond lobster themselves to bait, fuel, trucking and, of course, restaurants and tourism.”
Coombs says that off-the-boat sales are not the time to dicker.
“Fishermen having to peddle their own product puts more strain on the business,” she said. “And, if the price of lobster gets too low, there may not be a lot of lobstermen out fishing for lobster.”
“Not all fishermen want to be salesmen, so we connect the dots,” said Joshua Edgecomb of SoPo Seafood, which started offering home delivery in April and curbside pickup at farms and breweries in May. “We were gearing up and preparing to do a reasonable amount of business with restaurants this summer, but with the shutdown we pivoted.”
In contrast to seafood harvesters that were restaurant-focused, Emily Selinger of Emily’s Oysters was already delivering oysters to customers’ homes every Friday, harvesting just what she needs to fill orders. Her farmshare customers have the option to pick up at the Portland Farmers’ Market on Wednesday or the Bath Farmers’ Market on Saturday. “Either way,” she said, “I’m literally the only person who touches their food before they touch it.”
Farm to table
Farmers’ markets are a tried-and-true method of buying fresh produce—and meat, seafood, eggs, cheese and bread—from the people who produce it.
“The food you buy will be freshly picked—no more than a day or two in advance—and may have only passed through one or two sets of hands,” said Jimmy DeBiasi, director of programs for the Maine Federation of Farmers’ Markets.
Maine’s 115 summer farmers’ markets are in outdoor spaces where maintaining some personal space isn’t much of a challenge. But, even farmers’ markets look a little different this year: Vendors are more spread out, and they are wearing masks. A lot of the food is pre-bagged and behind tables. One-way walking patterns are encouraged. Credit and debit cards are commonly accepted, and vendors are using cash buckets—one for incoming bills to be sanitized and one for sanitized bills to be given as change.
Farms that offer community-supported agriculture (CSA) memberships saw increased interest this year, which is helping to fill in the gaps where farms would have otherwise sold to restaurants.
Daybreak Growers Alliance, which delivers boxes of farm-fresh food to community sites in Central and Southern Maine, saw farm share sales jump up 75 percent over last year. The 40 farms that Daybreak buys from are only able to meet that surge in demand because their sales to restaurants are down.
“Daybreak has provided another way to reach consumers who weren’t eating out as much or shopping in stores as much,” Bahner said. “There has been a big shift.”
Amy Paradysz is a freelance writer from Scarborough who loves fresh local food.
