CleanFish and Slow Food Boston, along with our host, Chef Greg Griffie, held a debut of a new local and sustainable Haddock. Blackburn’s Day Boat Haddock are caught using practices that prevent discarded bycatch and the harvesting of juvenile fish. These low impact practices along with good fishery management, have helped haddock stocks rebound in the past decade.

The restaurant 606 Congress, just steps away from Boston's fish pier is home to some very talented staff as this event demonstrated. Chef Greg Griffie and his staff served dish after dish of this delicious fish, showcasing itsversatility and his kitchen's skill. Get there before themonth's end and you can enjoy this featured fish.

Tempura fried

Herb-dusted with a celery sun-dried tomato slaw

As you can see, the individual fish are tagged, offering traceability to the source. When schedules allow, I'll be visiting with one of these fishermen to see firsthand how these magnificent fish are caught and what measures are being taken to protect their longevity.

Look for it by name at your fishmonger and stop by 606 Congress before the end of the month to try this New England delicacy. Chef Griffie will be offering specials through the end of the month.

True Food Chat on Tweetchat a component of twitter that temporarily narrows your view of tweets to those that include the topic you choose preceded by a hashtag (#).

- you may recall Twitter was something I joined after the Povo blogger panel I was asked to speak on. I was a little skeptical but another panelist was so negative on the concept that it made me want to try it. I'm sold. I've met tons of solid citizens, gained new readers, learned new things and been moved to tears by stories people share by linking to their blogs. People I never would have found otherwise. I know it's helped me find readers I would've never found without it. So even though it can be flaky, the search function stinks and occassionally there hiccups, I'm a firm believer in its utility. Who knows what happens when it's monetized. But for now, I'm in.

True Food Tuesdays

I think it started True Food Tuesday when I read yet another piece on the subject of High Fructose Corn Syrup. Too much bickering and not enough stepping back, not enough analysis.

So I started Tweeting about it and got lots of interesting responses. Including unsourced propaganda from my new follower The Corn Refiners Association. I invited them to share the "data" elsewhere. And I decided that my Twitter stream could be used to talk to real people, about real food, real questions and share True Food stories. Let's talk about the realities of day-to-day food choices we make. Let's celebrate sensible sustainability and sensual sustainability.

In a very short time, I and my lovely Tweeps got people stirred up for #TrueFoodTuesday and then I/we decided it should be a shorter hashtag so as to allow more dialog in the 140 character format. Then I found out #TFT was already taken and used by others. Also some folks didn't get the memo, so missed half the chat. (No, there wasn't really a memo.) Sorry for that SNAFU!

First things first: much thanks to my partner in this endeavor, Traca Savadogo, AKA Seattle Tall Poppy. @SeattleTallPopp on Twitter. Among many other things Traca does well is to jump in and help out when she can. She is also passionate about many of the same things I am: good food, the folks that grow it, cook it, talk and write about it.

She saw my #TrueFood tweets and naturally thought I was doing a chat...which I didn't know how to do. Turns out it's not really so hard, the trick is that if you have say, 40+ people chiming in and you're trying to welcome each person, as well as guide the discussion and answer questions, ask questions...well, you can see it gets exponentially harder to mind the manners and stop and welcome folks in real-time.

So we are co-moderating for which I'm grateful, THANK YOU TRACA! Please stop over at Traca's blog, Seattle Tall Poppy and have a read. Promise you you're in for a good read, timely info, and great shots.

Lessons Learned

• Shorter is better for a hashtag, unique is also better. Our Hashtag is now #TrueFood. Simple enough, not too long.
• People have great enthusiasm for these topics.
• Some people cannot get away during the weekday hours to spend time on a Twitter chat.
• Links and questions fly. The transcript is an unwieldy PDF.

Next Week

1. We'll use #TrueFood as our handle.
2. Co-moderators are good. Traca said yes.
3. Timing - we'll try 9 PM EST on Tuesday May 25 allowing for West Coasters to join after work and East Coasters after dinner
4. I will email the PDF if anyone wants it, and roll up the specific links shared here. (see below)

By the Numbers

1. We had roughly 45 Tweeps  join in the discussion or point others our way by using the hashtag during the chat period.
2. Tweeps were scattered coast to coast.
3. Some chefs, some food writers, come home cooks, and more.

Links for you

We explored what each of us would define as "TrueFood". We questioned whether the pork in home-made sausages would have to be from a named source or a farmer we knew. We talked about Pollan's Rules and especially Rule #19 If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was *made* in a plant, don't. We talked about canning and the @Canvolution and making food from scratch whether it's beans, bread, or sausage. Foraging and teaching each others and teaching children, serving under-served neighborhoods. We also discussed humane animal welfare practices, and reducing food waste.

• Gina Rau shared great bean recipes - you can find them here @ Change Becomes Change.
• Langdon Cook, author of Fat of the Land (which you can find and purchase on my Powell's Bookshelf) - shared his recipe for first of the season salmon with wil sorrel sauce.
• Mary Reilly the intrepid @SavoryKitchen shared her sausage-making setup (see her Flickr photostream here.)
• @BarefootAmy shared an upcoming her friend's summertime workshop @ Boston Center for Adult Ed about cooking form the farmer's market: http://bit.ly/cxxHGj.
• I shared @RichardPF 's Teriyaki recipe with @MrRon9
  
• @Mandylipka shared this timely post on being a weekday vegetarian
• @FormerChefBlog shared this beautiful post about her homemade sausage
• @SeattleTallPopp shared a resource The Encyclopedia of Country Living, a book that rocked her world

And the winner of the cookbook, Cider Beans, Wild Greens, Dandelion Jelly will be announced at the beginning of this upcoming chat, tune in to see if you've won. See last week's post True Food Tuesday to find out more about how to enter.

If you care about where your food comes from, if you want to see what young farmers are doing, and to hear from Suffolk University's Environmental Club...Or, if you just want to score a free ticket to the screening of this terrific new documentary: mark your calendars now. The New York Times called FRESH "a brisk indictment of industrial farming" by the filmmaker who it deemed "less judgmental than many good-for-you filmmakers" - - this event is for anyone who cares about the food we eat and how it finds its way to our plates.

Sure to be an eye-opening film and a thought-provoking kick-off event, come join me at Suffolk University's Function Room (120 Tremont St.,) on Tuesday June 1 from 6 - 8 PM.

We are fortunate to have at this special event, several local ground-breakers:

• a screening of “Planting for Peace,” a 20-minute film co-written and edited by Mike Cermak and Boston-area youth;

• discussion with thirteen-year-old Orren Fox on raising chickens and beekeeping;

• a discussion with Kristin Alvarez, incoming president of the Suffolk University Environmental Club;

• and Drew Love, intern for the Real Food Challenge, will speak about changing on-campus food.

Of course, we'll aslo see the FRESH trailer and get FRESH film vouchers good for the Brattle Theater screenings June 18-23.

Tickets can be purchased online at www.FRESHthemovie.com, at http://bit.ly/dceEFI or at the door. A portion of the proceeds from the kick-off event will benefit local sustainable food efforts.

• Can't make but still want to know what you can do? How about incorporating these 10 FRESH Actions?

Here are my slides from this afternoon's panel discussion at the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. Along with the Tufts University Alumni Association, the Food for Thought: Tufts Food, Wine and Culture Series has included famous alumni like Dan Barber. Tonight's panel discussion on Sustainability was a thought-provoking and fun event. We were billed as "leaders from the restaurant industry and local farms" who (would) explore the challenges and opportunities of bringing sustainable practices to what we eat."

For my part, I was delighted to participate and scribbled notes while my co-presenters spoke. Peter McCarthy spoke of his commitment to whole animal utilization, to Pete & Jen's Backyard Birds (and bunnies and pigs) as well as his progress toward LEEDS certification at EVOO.

Jennifer was entertaining and managed to cover a lot of information on the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project. What a terrific program they have at this school!

Panelists:

I look forward to continuing the discussion started this evening, and I really enjoyed the lively chats with many of the attendees during the reception.

Please email me or drop a comment here if you want more info on the slides, the books we discussed or if you have any further questions!

All photos are mine except for the gorgeous fish dish on slide three, that's Matt Wright's entry into last year's Teach a Man to Fish event, and the NASA photo on the Issues to Watch slide.