by Jenny Peterson/Louisiana Seafood News
Faithful Catholics throughout Louisiana choose seafood every Friday during the 40 days of Lent leading up to Easter Sunday. Luckily in Louisiana it is not hard to find the freshest and best tasting seafood in the world.
Clara Gerica, who sells her husband’s fresh caught seafood at three farmer’s markets each week, says that Catholics aren’t the only ones who are coming by her booth this Lenten season to buy seafood.
Good Friday is the biggest day for crawfish sales, sellers say order early to ensure you have some on your table. Photo: Ed Lallo/Louisiana Seafood News
“There are a lot of people who aren’t necessarily practicing Catholics,” she says, “but they use the no-meat excuse to cook and consume seafood on Fridays. The tradition of not eating meat on Friday is supposed to be seen as a penance, but my customers say, ‘I’ll sacrifice like this anytime!’”
This Lenten season business owners of all sizes are finding more opportunities to get people in their stores and restaurants to buy and eat fresh, local seafood. It offers an opportunity to explore new types and varieties of seafood, and many faithful are finding that local seafood has the best value and taste.
This year, Clara and her husband Pete are again taking part in a program that allows customers to pre-order a portion of their weekly catch; it’s similar to programs that offer pre-ordering of fresh produce each week.
“Many times we sell out of seafood, if you don’t get there early,” she said about her marketing efforts. “A lot of people don’t think to call and order. They get to the market and plan their meal, and I don’t have anything to sell them.”
The pre-ordering program solves that problem while increasing seafood business for the local fishermen.
“The people who run the Crescent City Market came up with the idea,” Gerica said. “We do Thursday markets, and they said this might be a way to get more people to the market on Thursday.”
Shares of the catch may include black drum, flounder, wild-caught catfish, speckled trout, crabmeat, whole shrimp, or even peeled and deveined shrimp. The program is ongoing through March 30, and Clara said customers can expect a variety of fresh seafood form week to week.
“Today’s catch included a quarter-pound packs of drum filets, and half-pound portions of peeled and deveined shrimp,” Gerica said. “We try to get enough in a packet for two people to eat well, maybe three people. Since we’ve started we’ve expanded to all three farmer’s markets.”
Called the Community Supported Fisheries, the fishermen guarantee shoppers locally caught seafood during the Lenten season while also giving them the opportunity to invest in and support a local fishing family.
The Brandhurst family -Four Winds Seafood – and the Gericas are both participating this year. Prices that vary daily are posted on the market’s website - CrescentCityFarmersMarket.org – or at fishermens’ booths at the local farmer’s markets.
Any publicity is good publicity
This year, the local fishing community is also noting – as well as chuckling about – the fact the Archbishop of New Orleans has deemed a 4-legged seafood as “certified seafood for lent” – the Louisiana alligator.
New Orleans Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond said “The alligator is considered in the fish family. God has created a magnificent creature that is important to the state of Louisiana, and it is considered seafood.” Photo: Archdiocese of New Orleans
New Orleans Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond has officially designated the reptile genuinely acceptable seafood for Lent.
Responding to an inquiry from Jim Piculas, from Insta-Gator ranch and hatchery, Aymond wrote: “The alligator is considered in the fish family. God has created a magnificent creature that is important to the state of Louisiana, and it is considered seafood.”
Piculas posted the letter onto his Facebook page, and it quickly went viral.
It’s not hard to find seafood in Louisiana with a huge community that has come back strong, healthy and safe following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill nearly three years ago.
Lent offers the perfect opportunity to explore new types and varieties of seafood. The Catholic faithful, as well as others using the Lenten excuse, are finding that local seafood has the best value and exceptionally good taste.
Louisiana fishermen are now the modern seafood apostles, spreading the word.
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