Cape Ann Fresh Catch... In Reading?

Welcome to You Ask... Patch Answers where we answer readers questions. We recently received questions about a Cape Ann Fresh Catch delivery spot coming to Reading. Patch readers want to know if this could potentially happen. Here's your answer.

Reading resident Michael Bean picked up fresh fish, provided by Cape Ann Fresh Catch (CAFC), in a Melrose restaurant last summer. He recently found out that CAFC is considering opening a pick up location in Reading, possibly at Calareso's, but they need at least 40 people to participate. Would you like to pick up fresh fish in town?

CAFC is a Community Supported Fishery (CSF) that, according to their website, helps local fisherman "put their sustainably-caught seafood straight onto your dinner plate through a direct-to-you distribution model."

How does it work?

You can join online and select your distribution site. You can also pay online and choose your share, whole fish or fillets.

Whole fish and fillets are the two basic share types and you can choose how often you pick it up.

According to their website, at weekly delivery sites they offer: 
(W) Whole Fish: four to six pounds of whole fish for $22 per week 
(F) Fillets: two pounds of filleted fish for $26 per week
(ALT) Alternate: fillets one week, whole fish the next for $24 per week

They also offer a bi-weekly delivery.

Other options include shares that influences the species that are delivered. You can select a Kosher Household share which will eliminate monkfish or other non-kosher/fin-fish species from your share. Or, a Scrombic Intolerance share, which will eliminate species from the Scrombidae family such as bluefish, mackerel, or other familial species. 

Bean and his wife were both pleased with the fish last summer.

“It's off the boat in the morning and in your hands in the evening," he said.

They received haddock, pollock, and red fish, to name a few, in their shares. They picked up the fish at Turner's Seafood Grill and Market in Melrose. CAFC will send you an email the day of your pick-up to let you know what you will get hours later.

"This would obviously be a mutually beneficial relationship between local fisherman and the residents of Reading and surrounding communities," Bean said. "For a bi-weekly delivery, they need a minimum of 40 people to participate to make a new site economically viable. For weekly deliveries they need a minimum of 80 people."

Where would I pick up my fish?

Calareso's could potentially be the delivery/pick up site, and they are looking forward to working with CAFC. Calareso's Manager Joe Musgrave said that the store has had an amazing amount of positive feedback relating to CAFC.

Calareso's would not have a space indoors for the pick-ups, they would simply allow CAFC to drop off the fish in the morning to be stored in their walk-ins and then CAFC would return later in the day to distribute the fish from a truck in the parking lot.

"We hear from them on a regular basis," Musgrave said. "I think they are waiting to fill the quota before they set it in stone."

Are you interested in picking up fresh fish at Calareso's? Tell us what you think in the comments section and email: reading@capeannfreshcatch.org to let them know you are interested and help them fill their quota.