Healthy Cooking Oils

Macadamia Oil - You may have noticed that we are cooking with Macadamia Oil in all our recent recipes. Yup, we sell the oil! But there is a more important reason; Macadamia Oil is simply the healthiest and most versitile cooking oil avalable. Macadamia is a nut oil that is expeller pressed from newly havested, shell on nuts. This process is calledc"cold pressing" when referring to olive oil.

Macadamia Oil has a shelf life of 20 months after opening and needs no refrigeration. Lastly in the debate between Omega 6 (bad fats as we consume too much in our diet) and Omega 3 (good fats that we generally need more of), Macadamia Oil has the lowest ratio (3:1) of Omega 6 to Omega 3 fatty acids. This ration is 4 times better than olive oil (8:1) and almost the same as canola oil (2.6:1). (Every other cooking oil is off the chart, in fact none except corn oil at a 61:1 ratio have ANY Omega 3's at all!)

Seafood True Species & Weights

There are a lot of articles about Seafood over the past week. Yesterday, the FDA reported it found "short weights" in 17 states of various Seafood products. In one instance a 2lb bag of "shrimp" was 37% ice by weight! (I will bet it was farmed shrimp, it thawed, the water came out of the shrimp and then it was re-frozen)

Wednesday an article in the Seattle Times titled "Food Fraud", various food items are shown to be mis-labled, from Honey to Grouper. We have to shake our heads when a grocery store Seafood Manager cannot figure out what kind of fish is in the display case! Grocery Stores are focused on volume and price when purchasing seafood, less on quality.

We see some of this activity from time to time. Because most of out products are pre-portioned by weight and vacuum packed, our customers are protected from buying "ice" instead of Seafood. In the case of items we do not process ourselves, we have many years of history with our partners. The families that own these businesses have reputations literally decades long of maintaining quality standards and fair weights and grades.

Work is picking up in the Salmon Fleet. The trip north usually begins around Fathers Day for most of the Bellingham & Blaine WA based vessels. Right now, pre-haul out maintenence is being done to the gallys, refrigeration and rigging. Most of the seine net tenders are having their preventive maintenance as well. Over the next 6-7 weeks, most of these boats will complete their haul outs and Coast Guard inspections.

Wild King Salmon AKA "Springers" should start running the Columbia River this week. As we bring these fish in, look for them on The Fresh Sheet.