Back in the summer, Michael and I took a day trip down to Palacios, TX to check out Lonestar Aquafarms—quality purveyors of sustainably produced redfish—to get a feel of their operation and meet the owner, John Turner.
Turner has been running his operations since 1992 (it began as a grad-school project in a garage, much like the origins of our brewpub) and has consistently harvested 25,000 pounds of redfish every Monday, which he sells to seafood purveyors in Houston, New Orleans, Austin, Dallas, and other places far and wide in Texas. We were turned on to Lonestar Aquafarms by one of our member-owners, Sarah Harper, a fishmonger at Quality Seafood, who sells Turner’s product.
Having been to fisheries and hatcheries when I was a kid, I was impressed by the scale and cleanliness of Turner’s operation; that he was obviously passionate about his craft—he was like a proud child or parent when he showed us a thirty-six-hour-old redfish (which was basically a dot and a line suspended in brine), the plankton they eat, and the magnificent specimens that are used for brood-stock for the entire operation. Any one of those thirty-five pound monsters would be any angler’s dream!
We found this place to be somewhat serendipitous. We had thinking for a while about sourcing for our fish and chips, which will probably be a popular menu item, and what our options for Texas sourced, sustainable fish would be. We knew we didn’t want to go down the catfish road, and tilapia is rather ubiquitous nowadays—so when we heard about Lonestar Aquafarms we were excited. Texas redfish fish and chips anyone?
Colette from the Kitchen Team shows off a Texas Redfish raised by Lone Star Aquafarms
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Alan says:
If this is this fish you have been using, as a patron I have to say “Good choice!” Such a light fish but flavorful; I really enjoyed the fish-n-chips.
Gardenatrix says:
I am blogging about Black Star Coop while at Black Star Coop. How meta is that?
http://www.gardenatrix.com/2010/09/adventures-in-local-black-star-co-op.html
Barbara says:
That Texas Redfish looks fantastic! And glad to see my good friend Colette so happy and ready to cook it. Congratulations on your operation and hope you have great success in the future! I will definitely visit on my next trip to Austin.
Diane says:
I am of the understanding that all Farm Raised Fish is done with antibiotics & things. How can this be healthy? Am I missing something here?
Dana says:
Johnny and Michael visited Lone Star Aqua Farms and asked a similar question. Our kitchen is committed to seasonal, quality, local ingredients and chose the Texas Redfish from Lone Star Aqua Farms accordingly. Please read more about them here: http://www.lonestaraquafarms.com/quality.html.