With the first day of October came the last day of a Lummi Island centuries-old tradition: the reef-net salmon fishery. The last three of the boats and gear were pulled onto shore for idling until Summer ’14.
But the salmon never stop running in our kitchen. The two months or so of reef-netting is very crucial for our chef staff. We process hundreds upon hundreds of sockeye salmon during that time in preparation for our year-round smokehouse. Beyond that, we harvest and then cure the eggs from even more hundreds of chum – the silvery salmon.
Salmon-processing behind the scenes involves late, late nights and intense, precise preparations, mostly after dinner service during the climax of salmon season. We talk about fresh a lot; here’s one reason: Sometimes the salmon get to us so quickly that the fish are still in rigor, and we have to wait a day to process them.
This purposeful methodology turns into a centerpiece of our menus: The alder-smoked salmon and the cured salmon roe have become two of the most talked-about presentations we make in the dining room.
Yet, all of the skills in the world would go for naught if not for the world-class method by which the local salmon are caught, cared-for, and freshly delivered. A product such as this, from generational fishers whose dawn-to-dusk passion for reef-netting is unparalleled, inspires us.
As one chef put it, “It’s an amazing opportunity to have such pristine and elegant resources right at our back door.”
That’s our way of life at The Willows Inn on Lummi Island.