Fish & chips served at the Catchbox festival…
The Fish Factory Worthing was delighted to be asked to host the Catchbox Festival on Saturday 7 February. The aim of the festival was to get all 53 Catchbox members together, along with local Worthing fisherman and the Sussex Wildlife Trust to find out more about local marine wildlife, the daily work of small scale local fisherman, to exchange recipes, to discuss the future of Catchbox in Worthing and to enjoy a lovely, fresh, local fish dinner of course! The event was a success as was our fish and chips.
Some of the Catchbox members at the festival held at The Fish Factory, Worthing…
How does Catchbox work? Do you think responsible fisherman should be paid a fair price for their catch? We do and so do all at Catchbox.
Catchbox is a type of cooperative known as a “Community Supported Fishery”. They are a type of food buying group that work with small local fisherman, who use responsible methods when fishing, so that we can all enjoy locally caught delicious seafood. They are a not for profit community co-op completely run by unpaid volunteers.
So basically they pay for a share of the fisherman’s catch and then over a 10 to 12 week period they get a regular supply of seafood straight from the fisherman. They choose whether they want their fish whole, enough for one, two or a family and if they want the fish on a weekly or fortnightly basis.
Obviously Catchbox cannot specify to the fisherman what fish they wish to receive as it all depends on what they catch that day. What they can guarantee is that the fish will be fresh, local, responsibly sourced and absolutely delicious.
If you would like to know more information about Catchbox or you would like to volunteer and you live in Brighton and Hove, Worthing or Chichester & Emsworth please get in touch by emailing info@catchbox.coop. If you are thinking of volunteering it does not have to be every week, but it is a great way to meet new people in your area, share skills, ideas and experience and to be a part of strengthening bonds in your community.
At The Fish Factory we try to help and offer our support to our local community and fisherman where we can and by holding the Catchbox Festival at one of our restaurants this is one way of giving something back and offering our support.
Another way we have been able to offer our support to Catchbox is by holding FREE fish filleting courses at our restaurants. We have so far held one at Food and one at The Fish Factory Worthing and the feedback was that the course was very helpful and worthwhile continuing with.
More information about Catchbox and their great work can be found at www.catchbox.coop.
