Stanley Larsen has seen countless people come in for lobsters and oysters during his more than two decades running the Menemsha Fish Market.
But from his perch in the fishing port, he’s noticed a shift in the culture. While Mr. Larsen learned to cook from his years at sea – poaching fish he caught in seawater on his boat’s manifold – many of the next generation wouldn’t know the first thing when it came to cooking black sea bass or tautog.
“I think a lot of [younger] generations haven’t kept up with techniques of cooking fish,” he said. “We get a lot of people coming in that ask us how to cook it.”
A new Island cookbook aims to help people learn to prepare Vineyard sea fare and support the fishing industry on-Island. The Sea Table, produced by the Martha’s Vineyard Fishermen’s Preservation Trust and published in September, shares the histories of fishermen like Mr. Larsen and educates readers about the Island’s fins and shells.
Shelley Edmundson, the executive director of the trust, said the idea to create The Sea Table was born from selling fish at the West Tisbury Farmers’ Market. She said her organization started to collect recipes when people came up to the trust’s stand saying they’d never heard of a certain catch and didn’t know how to cook it.
“We wanted to give people the tools to try species they weren’t necessarily used to cooking,” Ms. Edmundson said.
The book has 75 recipes for 19 of the Island’s native finfish, shellfish and crustaceans. It’s also an education on each species’ lifecycles, how they’re harvested and how they’re traditionally eaten.
Ms. Edmundson said when more people value local seafood of all stripes, it helps keep the Island’s markets afloat.
“I think it’s nice for people to see the diversity that we have here,” she said
The trust received an Environmental, Economic and Innovation Fund grant from the Division of Marine Fisheries and the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture in 2023 to put on the project. It took almost two years to compile.
The Sea Table comes at a point of growth for the organization. Next summer the trust plans to move out of its headquarters next to Larsen’s Fish Market and into a three-building property in the former Poole Fish Plant and Chilmark Chandlery. The new space will give the nonprofit offices for the first time and more space to process fish and shellfish.
Ms. Edmundson said The Sea Table helps communicate the organization’s mission of supporting the Island’s fisheries and raises awareness about the work done to ensure that commercial fishing can continue into future generations.
“All the work that goes on behind the scenes to make sure this fish is here for you to eat is hard to explain in one tiny interaction at a table,” she said.
The trust recruited Catherine Walthers, a private chef on the Vineyard and cookbook author, to be at the helm of putting The Sea Table together.
“I really appreciate even buying fish,” Ms. Walthers said. “When I cook for people, I will go to the fish market and usually buy what’s local… because I know it’s the freshest.”
She gathered more than 50 recipes from people across the Island, such as a scallop ceviche from Kristine Scheffer of Larsen’s Fish Market, conch fritters from Chef Deon Thomas and stuffed striped bass from Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) cook Kristina Hook. Billy Sweeney’s recipe for Clamgilli, a vinegar and clam concoction, is printed in the Vineyard fisherman’s own handwriting.
“It’s a real Vineyard cookbook. It’s all the fish of the Vineyard – there’s no salmon or shrimp,” Ms. Walthers said.
Ms. Walthers also donated more than 20 of her own recipes, such as red curry coconut and lime mussels, and scup filets with lemon, capers and chili crunch. She developed many from fish she caught recreationally with her husband on the Vineyard.
The book encourages cooking fish whole in its recipes. Ms. Walthers researched how in recent decades Americans have been turned off to the idea, intimidated by bones and accustomed to buying fish from markets or grocery stores where it’s already fileted.
“The combination of that good flavor and a different, maybe softer texture from cooking it whole is really amazing,” she said.
The Sea Table is a capsule of the Island’s fishing culture and Ms. Walthers said she hopes it reconnects people to their local fishmonger.
“If we want to continue to have really good fresh fish, we have to support our industry, our fishermen and groups like the Preservation Trust,” Ms. Walthers said.
The Sea Table can be purchased on the Martha’s Vineyard Fisherman’s Preservation Trust website and at their stand at the West Tisbury Farmers’ Market. It is also sold at Menemsha Fish Market, Beetlebung Farm, Bunch of Grapes Bookstore, Edgartown Books and Seven Sisters.
Excerpts of the book can be found in Martha's Vineyard Magazine.
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