First ever Purple Sea Urchin Festival rocks West Coast Tastebuds and Saves the Environment
The United States’ first ever Purple Sea Urchin Festival* took place on the Mendocino Coast recently. Fort Bragg, the largest city on the Mendocino Coast, is one of the biggest producers of sea urchin in California, and with the overabundance of the urchins in the waters these past few years, there is no better time to celebrate this sea delicacy.
Why a focus on urchin now? And why purple urchin? The chefs, educators, and residents of this area are deeply passionate about the interwoven ecological web of the beautiful and mysterious ocean that makes up the landscape of their daily lives on the Mendocino Coast. Abalone has long been a unique part of Mendocino – with local campfire cooking, seasonal tourism boosts, and signature festivals celebrating it as a delicacy. With the collapse of the sea star population, the exponential growth of purple urchin, and the subsequent decimation of the abalone population, residents are constantly looking for eco-friendly ways to resolve these intertwined issues and reduce the impact of this invasive species.
“The current circumstances have given us an opportunity to experience uni from these less-popular but equally-tasty purples,” states Cally Dym, 5th generation owner of Little River Inn. “Fort Bragg has long been a major producer of sea urchin in the United States – but virtually all of the product has been shipped out of the area, and until recently not a single restaurant offered uni on their menu. With a growing understanding of local food sheds and local food webs, we think now is the perfect time to ‘Taste the Place’ and expand our understanding of the purple sea urchin.”
During the three-day festival, some of the most beloved and iconic local hotels and restaurants along the coast, including The Harbor House Inn, Little River Inn, Noyo Harbor Inn, Glendeven Inn & Lodge, The Inn at The Cobbler’s Walk, Elk Cove Inn, Princess Seafood Market & Deli and Izakaya Gama in Point Arena, served urchin-focused menus and specials. Select inns and hotels also offered deals on lodging and other services.
The weekend also had a strong educational component, with the Mendocino Area Parks Association, Watermen’s Alliance, Noyo Science Center and Freedive Shop providing instructional demos and hands-on experiences. Urchinomics, a restorative seafood company, played a part in the festival by supplying select restaurant partners with purple urchin (‘uni’). Urchinomics is a company dedicated to restoring kelp forests by removing overgrazing barren sea urchins, feeding them on land, and selling them on to distributors and restaurants.
Examples of the weekend’s Urchin tasting activities include:
- Outdoor demo and 5-course purple urchin tasting menu presented by Urchinomics and Chef Matthew Kammerer at Michelin-starred The Harbor House Inn.
- Uni demo and educational talk at Van Damme State Beach; sample fresh uni on the beach. Josh Russo from the Waterman’s Alliance and international free dive competitor Greg Fonts of The Freedive Shop demonstrate how to open and clean urchin. Participants learn how to harvest urchin, the impact purple urchin has on other fisheries and innovative solutions to the problem.
- Sake Seminar at Little River Inn. Sake expert Kerry Tamura of World Sake Imports walks attendees through the best sakes from seven different Japanese prefectures, highlighting the features of the terroir in the glass. Guests also learn about urchin while sampling uni snacks.
“As a chef in today’s world, it is my job to choose more sustainable ingredients and showcase them to the public,” states Matthew Kammerer, Executive Chef at Harbor House Inn. “Chefs have more of a role in today’s food scene, where education about products, including why and how to use them can help shape the public’s dining perspective and have a positive outcome on future generations. Purple sea urchin has been on our menu since day one. We are proud to serve all local products but this one has extra meaning for us. Not just its flavor, but to help remove some urchin numbers from the ecosystem that is on the verge of collapsing.”
Continues Dym, “Urchin is delicious and that in itself is a reason to create an urchin festival. What fascinates me is the role purple urchin plays in the ecosystem of the Northwest Pacific Ocean and telling that story to festival goers.”
TasteTV’s TASTEABLE Journal Volume 3 Debuts with Commerce, Culture, Concepts and Cuisine
TasteTV’s TASTEABLE JOURNAL, VOL. 3 is here!
This stylish publication provides a curated collection of insightful content on Culture, Concepts, Commerce and Cuisine. This issue features a photography exhibition of recent PHOTO AWARDS Finalists, as well as one on one interviews with personalities such as Chris Knight (CEO, Gusto TV), Rocco Gaglioti (Founder, FNL Network), Podcaster Yorm Achuaku, Ian and Ana of The Other Side Vlog, Michelle Harris (Alive & Well TV), Darley Newman (Equitrekking and Travels with Darley), Dandy Wellington, Diane Kochilas (My Greek Table), Lisa-Renee Ramirez (Recipe.TV), and up and coming musicians Jon Mullane, Mavenne, Harrison Tinsley, the Christopher Brothers and Nathan Witte, plus chefs, restaurateurs, artists, perfumers, and wines.
TASTEABLE is a bi-annual and annual journal that presents a curated collection of insightful content on Culture, Cuisine, Commerce, and Concepts as reported by TasteTV and TCB-Cafe Publishing and Media. Includes celebrity and leadership interviews, delicious recipes, exciting tech, cutting edge fashion, well-known tastemakers, successful entrepreneurs, tasty wine picks and the year’s best chocolate and other culinary finds.
Available everywhere on Amazon.
Real Oyster Cult Makes Good on Promise to Deliver Delicious Live Oysters to Your Doorstep
Fresh oysters are a delicacy that require one main ingredient, and that’s freshness. So when we heard about seafood company Real Oyster Cult, that says they will deliver fresh oysters across the country to you, and guarantees that they are actually fresh, we had to take a look at it. Fortunately, we found that this promise was in fact delivered upon 100%.
The oysters that we received were all tightly closed within their shells, proof that they were not only alive but also determined to remain that way, with their freshness and sea water inside. Not a single one had even the slightest hint of an open shell. The overall reviewers’ verdict on their taste was an A+.
Real Oyster Cult is one of several national or local firms that have moved into the area of bringing sustainably harvested seafood directly to people’s homes. These oysters arrive live in an insulated cold storage device, which allows them to be stored in a home refrigerator for up to 10 days without a problem.
Of course, who is really going to keep live oysters in the refrigerator for 10 days without eating them? But it’s good to know that you have the option, as long as you keep them on ice.
Real Oyster Cult says that this entire idea came to them because they are already oyster farmers, and they were in the habit of throwing great parties on their floating workspace above the oyster beds, a perfect place to concoct this new business model.
Seems like they did a great job with that idea. Not only do they send the oysters that they cultivate themselves, they also now include the opportunity for seafood lovers to taste oysters from over 70 different farms from across North America. The 20 oysters that we received in the Real Oyster Cult Gift Bundle package were of three different types, and this was from a possible curated selection of over 20 varieties oysters available. The package can be increased by 20 oysters at a time, and they can send a bundle of 40 or 60 oysters, depending on your needs. The Gift Bundle also includes a free shucking knife and rubberized non-slip gloves, which are not just practical and safe, but also a delight to use. They definitely speed up the process if you don’t have an oyster knife and gloves already available. If you don’t eat oysters on a regular basis, the gloves can alternately be used in the garden.
On top of being a tasty luxury, oysters are known for having multiple health and wellness benefits. Furthermore, apparently being an oyster farmer is more than a delicious occupation, although tiring. It also helps keep the natural environment clean. Oysters clean the ocean and can filter nitrogen from 25 to 50 gallons of sea water every day. Too much nitrogen is not good for the ecosystem, and oysters contribute to keeping it balanced. Real Oyster Cult says that helping to support this balance is part of their overall mission.
In addition to the several varieties of oysters available, Real Oyster Cult also has seasoning sauces and hot sauces (called Mignon-Nips), wine and whiskey pairing packages, caviar, Maine Lobster, and Jonah Crab Claws. The Gift Bundle starts at around $69.
Find out more at www.realoystercult.com