As much a I try and pass myself off as a non-city boy, let's face facts here and admit that I've either lived in or directly outside of a major metropolitan area for more than half of my life, including the past 15 consecutively...
I can hardly consider myself Natures Son with numbers like that.
Now, admittedly, I pine for more nature in my life.
I've often stated that I feel stuck in New York and wish more than anything to escape to a more nature-friendly major metropolitan area in California or, say, Basque Country. Anywhere else with less than 10 million people stuck in a bee hive would do. Take your pick, I'd rather be there...
But one of the things that I've come to realize more and more with each passing year-in-purgatory spent in New York, is that first of all, the city is not the center of the universe as most New Yorkers like to imagine it is. And second, that there is a full, nature-rich history just out our back door, and most of us are too self absorbed to realize or care about it.
Case in point: The Shad fish.
Before, say... 6 1/2 years ago, or whenever it was I met Liz, and therefore her parents, I had never heard of Shad fish.
Most people haven't.
Most of the people that I speak to, even in the restaurant industry, have never heard of it.
In fact, we recently had a demo at school given by Andre Soltner where he made Shad Roe, and very few people there had ever heard of Shad Roe, much less eaten it. This was at a culinary school filled with future and working chefs...
Turns out that it, like many other things that most of us city folk don't pay any attention to, is an important player in our "beloved" city's Natural History.
Much like Salt Cod was a key component in, though not often talked about in regards to the discovery of North America by the Basques centuries before John Cabot claimed Newfoundland as both "new" and "found" by him, Shad is a key component in, though not often talked about in regards to the history of our fledgling Nation, and New York City.
Don't believe me? Well, read this.
So what's my point with all of this?
Well, it's amazing to me that 20 minutes past the city there are whole histories unfolding, and a good majority of us aren't even aware of them.
What's worse is that that these histories are disappearing right in front of our faces, and most of us don't even care.
The Shad fish, one of the most important fishes in our Nation's history, is almost gone, and most of us never even knew it was there in the first place...
Isn't that a little bit sad?
We've become so dependent on not knowing our food sources or caring where where our food comes from that most of the oceans and rivers are almost extinct and we don't even stop eating the most endangered of the fish, despite being warned repeatedly by the fishermen and Agencies that care.
Springtime used to mean great Shad runs that would feed thousands of people and was marked with great festivals and celebrations.
This year the people who buy the fish for the few remaining celebrations aren't sure there is going to be enough fish to have more than a couple.
What's worse than even that is that it may be too late to do anything about it.
Between pollution and over-fishing, the Shad are pretty much gone, and no one really knows what happened to them, much like the Atlantic Cod.
So.....
With that in mind, here's a fun springtime post about a Shad bake that I attended recently!!!
I swear I don't sit down intending to write these doom and gloom posts, but there's something inside me that needs to get out I guess...
So, Shad Expert Pretend aside, I went to my first Shad Bake probably about 6 years ago. In a frequently increasing coincidence in my post lately, Chris Letts, Mr. Environmental Educator/Sous Chef himself, just happens to give spring and summer Shad Festivals as a pretty big part of his "environmental educating" for the Hudson River Foundation.
Back then there wasn't often a thought of not being able to get enough fish.
This wasn't that long ago.
So these are fun family affairs that are thrown up and down rivers along the East Coast, and there's usually some educating, there's always some fish to eat, and more often than not, a good time to be had (usually) down by a river.
Chris has become synonymous with these things up and down the Hudson, and it's been a great pleasure to go to them and help out in some way, or just bring a kid or a dog or two along to hang out and see Pappa at work.
If you can make it to one, I obviously recommend it, especially if it's one of Chris'.
This day, however, Nancy forced him to impress her friends for her by having one in the driveway of their home.
Mission Accomplished.
I even got to use the coals for my own devices, however more chicken-y they were. And you'll get to see these exploits next time, as something tells me if I want to sell this story, I'm going to have to disassociate it with the albatross of a bummer that this first half has been...
So fear not, intrepid reader-o-mine, I got a bright and sun-shine-y day right around the corner...
In the meantime, just, you know, think about what you've done and all that...
Loves and kisses,
n*
