TF now has Wild Alaskan Seafood!! 🎉🐟

I CANNOT overemphasize my excitement about this.

I love, love, love seafood but hate, hate, hate fish CAFOs (commercial animal feeding operations). Based on early death percentages they are even worse than pig and beef CAFOs. So, no farmed fish for us, thank you.

And I try not to think about how polluted the Great Lakes are (what an absolute travesty). ☹️

But if you go out to eat at fish frys or go fishing in the Midwest you should DEFINITELY be thinking about it. And, as you read the DNR guidelines, remember: 

• They are only testing for a tiny fraction of contaminants.
  • The US has 40,000+ chemicals allowed in our food and water that have NEVER gone through any regulatory review for safety or lack of harm.
  • We know almost nothing about the individual chemicals and even less about interactions between them OR when they bioaccumulate in us or animals. 
• Some of the DNR people I know (I used to work there) will not eat any fish from the Great Lakes, despite what the DNR’s guidelines currently suggest. 
• The guidelines assume your body is getting rid of the mercury, PCBs and PFAS*.... but is it really?? 
• The situation is constantly changing as spills happen, new testing is found, new chemicals are discovered, etc. 

And, most importantly, you are what you eat eats.

A grizzly bear getting his Omega-3s from wild sockeye salmon in Alaska.

A Pink "Humpback" Salmon is landed.

Let’s look at just one thing quick. What are PFAS? The following is an excerpt from this 2023 article:

PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are used widely in consumer products ranging from nonstick cookware and water-repellent sports gear to stain-resistant carpets. They're also a key ingredient in fire-extinguishing foams. They can accumulate and persist in the human body for long periods, and exposure may lead to cancer and other health problems, the Environmental Protection Agency reports.

According to the study, "even infrequent freshwater fish consumption can increase serum PFOS levels," also known as perfluorooctane sulfonic acid levels.

One fish serving was reported to be "equivalent to drinking water for a month at 48 [parts per trillion] PFOS." By comparison, the EPA issued new guidance last summer stating the concentration of chemicals in drinking water should not exceed 0.02 parts per trillion for PFOS, saying the chemicals are dangerous even at undetectable levels.

PFAS compounds have been found in all five Great Lakes — Erie, Huron, Michigan, Ontario and Superior. They don't degrade naturally in the environment and move freely in water, unlike contaminants such as PCBs that stick in sediments, Christy Remucal, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Wisconsin, told the Associated Press earlier this month after a similar study found high PFAS levels in Green Bay.

😥😥😥😥

Well, after reading that none of us probably want to eat fish anymore.😭

But don’t despair! We now we have another option!

As luck ☘ would have it, I connected with Captain Mark, a commercial fisherman who lives in Wisconsin but fishes in Alaska.

He harvests wild salmon, halibut, and other fish in Alaska’s Dutch Harbor, immediately processes them in Alaska, vacuum seals the filets and then flash freezes them for all of us back in his home state to enjoy.

Captain Mark’s exceedingly small fishing company is called Bering Bounty and most of his fish is down in the Madison area. Together Farms will be the only “northern” source and one of the only (maybe the only?) one that ships AND has a storefront.

We worked it out so the Farm Store will carry 6-ounce boneless, portions of 7 different Alaskan fish, all caught in the pristine waters of Dutch Harbor in the Bering Sea, along with a few other items: 

• Salmon (Alaska has 5 wild salmon species, we're starting with 4 of them for a nice taste & price range)
  • Sockeye 
  • King 
  • Cohoo
  • Pink
• Halibut 
• Sablefish aka Butterfish
• Cod
• King Salmon Caviar in 4-ounce glass jelly jars
• Large filets (the whole side of the fish. Available for local delivery or Farm Store pick-up only because it’s so long and would require special & expensive packaging to ship.) 

All were "hunted down in Alaska's crystal waters - the Bering Sea, the cradle of storms." How cool is that?!

Cooked Wild Alaskan salmon is not only delicious, but incredibly high in Omega-3 fatty acids, essential for good health. Best of all? We teach you how to bake it right from frozen (to keep all that moisture locked in) in mere minutes!

Not sure where to start? Or want to try them all? (I do!) We got you covered with our Wild Alaskan Fish Sampler Pack. 

Each sampler pack contains a 6-ounce boneless portion of:

• king salmon
• sockeye salmon 
• coho salmon
• pink salmon
• sablefish
• halibut
• cod

And recipes are included! 

And, to kick off this awesome collaboration, we’re offering a 25% discount on the sampler pack! This way you can try one of each of these new fish and see what you and the family like best. 

The regular price for this bundle is $108.65, but during this special introductory sale you can get the sampler bundle for just $79.95 ($28.70 savings). 

It's as close as we can get to giving the first one away for free (you might become addicted but it’s NOT actually drugs–never take the “first one is free” deal kids!). So, we do have to charge something. 😊

Full wild-caught fish fillet makes an impressive main dish for dinner parties or an economical choice if you like to meal prep for the week.

Unlike farmed salmon where buyers can purchase year-round from fish pens, wild salmon are seasonal, like Wisconsin-grown tomatoes. Once the season ends for wild salmon, that's it.

Thank God for freezers (and in the case of tomatoes, canning) but this means we all need to plan ahead and purchase when it is available if you want to have wild Alaskan salmon all year round.

Which means NOW is the time to order.

Beautiful raw Wild Alaskan salmon caught in Alaska's unspoiled Bering Sea.

And if you’ve never had Wild Alaskan fish (the good stuff), whooo boy! Hold onto your hats because it does NOT even compare to the factory stuff. AND YOU ARE ENCOURAGED TO EAT THE SKIN! It’s the absolute best part. 

So, there will be some “retraining” if you’ve been eating fish according to the DNR rules, which basically consider the skin & fat of Great Lakes salmon a biohazard. 

😳 Yikes! 

But when eating Wild Alaskan fish, you have NO reason to fear the fish. NO MORE FISH FEAR.

Wild Alaskan Halibut is the premium whitefish of the world bar none.

Because we’re just getting set up for all this amazing new product, we have no idea what demand will be like, and we want to keep our own freezer stocked so we’re offering this mini pre-order. We make our first wild fish pick-up on Thursday, March 21 and we have to consider these factors:

• What if everyone wants the same thing? Order now and help us know what kind of order ratios to expect so we don't end up sitting on a ton of King and immediately sell out of Halibut and then everyone sits waiting for a Halibut restock.
  
• This delicious wild fish will be available in the store year-round as much as we can restock it. BUT there is a large expense to picking up so we want to be efficient and pass those efficiencies on to you! (Captain Mark doesn’t ship 📦, he only captains one. 🚢)
  
• We also have extremely limited cash flow this time of year as we get ready to open Burger Night (only 58 days to go!) so we will NOT be able to order much extra. (Again, expect things to sell out so order now and help us know what you guys want!) 
  
• I told my girls they can eat as much as they want. 😳 Soooo, seriously, ask me to set some aside for you, you have no idea how much they love it. 

This is why we strongly encourage you to pre-order your sampler bundle and/or your individual portions before Sunday, March 17.

ALL ordering will close Sunday night, so you must get your order in before then.

Sablefish has the most Omega-3s of all Alaska fish, is perfect for smoking, and is almost impossible to overcook.

Any orders that include fish will be delivered after Thursday, March 21 (or available for farm pick up after March 21). 

We have SO much more information about the types of fish, their flavor profiles, how to cook them, and more on the website, so head over there if you have questions or curiosity. 

I know you are probably thinking that I’m blowing this all way out of proportion and am just a little bit too excited about this but what we are offering you here is quite possibly the 

  Healthiest food on the planet 🌎

Wild-caught Alaskan cod is lean, high in protein, versatile & kids love it!

And, yes, even better than our organically raised, 100% grassfed beef because, unless you want the beef or pork to taste fishy from all the kelp we’d have to feed them, we’ll never hit the Omega 3s that this fish has ON TOP of having all the things we do have like Vitamin D, the B vitamins, trace minerals, etc. 

Okay, okay, I’ll stop. I just want you to know that I have been looking for someone like Captain Mark for years and hit so many dead ends or crazy high price tags, that we could never do this.

Until now. 🎉🎉🎉

Make your own fancy deviled eggs at home with our King Salmon Caviar, retrieved from sustainably caught King Salmon in Alaska's pristine Dutch Harbor!

I hope you’re as excited about the Best. Fish. Ever. as I am, and I want to put any hesitation or questions you might have to rest, or, you could say, to sleep with the fishes. 😂

Your farmer, fish finder & friend, 
Steph

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