Going to the source

A fisherman can sell product right off the wharf,” says A. Estelle Bryant, senior planning and development office for the province’s department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Aquaculture. She goes on to tell us that a number of Nova Scotia fishery businesses are set up with retail operations right out of their factories. It may seem almost quaint in this day and age, but in order to guarantee a local future in fishing, buying fish from the source makes all sorts of sense. A good place to start, of course, is at your local farmers’ market. A good example of going to the seafood source at the Halifax Farmers’ Market is Evan’s Fresh Seafoods, located in Pubnico, Nova Scotia and regularly delivering fish to Lunenburg, Mahone Bay, Liverpool, Dartmouth and Halifax in refrigerated trucks. If you’d like to order directly from them, call 746-0174 or visit their website at evansfreshseafoods.com. Select Nova Scotia has a very useful website that maps out participating fish suppliers and markets in the province. You can search by your preference in fish, including arctic charr, clams, cod, haddock, herring, lobster, mackerel, mussels, oyster, pollock, salmon, scallops, shrimp and trout. Contact information for the fishers is included, and Select Nova Scotia recommends contacting them directly as not all will be set up to offer fish directly to the consumer. Visit selectnovascotia.ca, click on Local Products, and then Seafood, to see the variety of fish available locally.