The season has begun and Wild Kenai is selling 2010 salmon! It is absolutely beautiful! You will not believe your luck in getting your hands on this product. It cooks up and melts in your mouth like butter.
We offer a start-of-season promotion, selling 25 lb lots of fresh or frozen Sockeye salmon for the wholesale price of $12.50/pound! Submit your orders for wholesale salmon here. We can ship it anywhere in the states, or get it to you locally in Anchorage, Homer, or anywhere in between.
Of course, you can also find all our other great products on the site as well.
Email graham@wildkenaisalmon.com with any questions you might have.
Be well,
Grahahm
We are stoked to have new product on the market very soon! Keep an eye out in the next days and weeks for more information. If you would like to be on our mailing list to get the most up-to-date scoop, please send an email to graham[at]wildkenaisalmon.
Thanks!
The Wild Kenai Team
In February, the Anchorage Daily News published a nice article on icing Bristol Bay salmon. According to the author, Laine Welch, “The drift fleet delivered 60 million pounds of chilled salmon to processors last summer [in 2009], nearly double the 2008 delivery.” Chilling salmon while in storage and transit to processors produces a better end product, usually in the form of fresh and frozen salmon fillets.
Salmon kept cold in slush ice or refrigerated seawater garner a “10 cent ice bonus” as a rule of thumb, says Jonathan King, the lead author of the report funded by the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association. He noted that the ice bonus on last year’s catch conservatively added 2.7 – 3 million to permit holder’s end-of-year earnings.
Later in the article, Tom Sunderland, the marketing director for processor Ocean Beauty Seafoods, is quoted as saying “Icing on the grounds has a bigger impact on product quality than any other action we can take in Bristol Bay.”
Bristol Bay is changing, and changing fast. More and more people see the value of pushing for higher quality product. We at Wild Kenai are extremely excited to see and help pioneer this development. From the beginning, Wild Kenai has committed to the highest quality in salmon production. We will never swerve from this commitment, and look forward to seeing the industry continue to change in positive ways.
In the April 1 issue of The Dutch Harbor Fisherman, we read a fantastic article written by Margaret Bauman about Copper River Seafood’s Salmon College.
The article begins: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to bleed and chill a fish properly and you can feed a village.” We commend Copper River Seafood for working to do just this. CRS has created a seafood industry handling school to train individuals in proper fish handling and processing. Their goal is to raise the standards for processing throughout Alaska – therefore raising the overall quality of Alaskan salmon and and price garnered for that salmon.
The article goes on to speak about CRS’ work to train villagers in Togiak. After the training and with CRS as their market, the villagers were suddenly able to sell their salmon catch at $1/lb, nearly twice the price point of some previous years. Such a change immediately changed the economic outlook of the village and its people. Buying Wild Alaska salmon means supporting families across the state.
Wild Kenai Red Salmon, like CRS, only works with small-scale, quality-oriented, family-owned fishing operations. That said, this coming year, WKRS looks to pay over $2/lb for its whole salmon for its premium catch. This is again double what CRS will pay, which further ensures positive local economic repercussions and premium quality. Working with WKRS means everyone ones – the fishermen, other growers and producers, WKRS workers, and the customers who get the highest quality money can buy at a reasonable price.
In the March 2010 issue of National Fisherman, we found an article about Bill Webber, Jr. of Cordova, who works as a fisherman, designer and manufacturer of equipment for producing top-quality salmon.
For some time, he has worked with a live-immersion bleeding process. Industry standard for bleeding invloves cutting the salmon’s gills and letting them bleed on deck (referred to as dry-bleeding), which removes approximately 25% of the salmon’s blood, according to Webber. Blood, in contact with air, coagulates; consequently, the fish dies slower. Using live-immersion bleeding, the salmon’s gills are cut, then Webber shuttles it into a seawater tank, where it continues to bleed, losing up to 75% of its blood, and then dies.
Recently, Webber has taken it up another notch, beginning to explore intravenous pressure-bleeding after researching it on salmon trollers in Southeast Alaska. In this process, he removes the salmon’s head and then plugs a pipette into the salmon’s dorsal artery. Pressured water then pumps through the salmon’s circulatory system, resulting in a 99% blood removal.
The process does have its drawbacks. If not monitored, extended pressure in the salmon’s system can cause it to swell. Webber notes that efficiency is also a problem, as the process takes about a minute for a medium sized fish. That can double the processing time for a fish. To address these issues, Webber installed four stations on his boat, two for himself, and two for his crew-member. They each simultaneously work two stations, processing two fish a once. Each station is also set up with a timer to help ensure the process doesn’t take go on too long.
Webber said he starts limited production on these systems to sell to other boats this year. In addition, he is exploring how the system can work for black cod and halibut!
You can find the article referenced here:
WKRS salutes Bill Webber and anyone who continues to explore new methods for improving the quality of the Alaskan salmon catch! We are excited to explore if intravenous pressure bleeding is a suitable process to employ with our own processors.
It’s spring (according to the equinox) and Wild Kenai Red Salmon is well under way planning a new production season. With a successful first year under our belts, we plan for significantly increased production and distribution in the 2010-11 season!
Here are a few of our plans for the coming year:
- Become the first 100% organically brined wild Alaska smoked salmon on the market
- Work with local Alaska farmers to grow as much of our brine ingredients as possible
- Further reduce our environmental impact by exploring innovative means for waste “disposal”
- Unveil our plans for an exciting new way of thinking about business and the resources that make our business possible
- Revamp our logo and look
- Grow distribution in Alaska and on the East Coast
- Continue to produce and sell the highest quality smoked salmon on the market
What an exciting new year to come! We invite any and all comments, suggestions and ideas – help us be the best we can be!
Thanks,
graham and Charles
Wild Kenai recently received attention and a review on the San Francisco Food blog Blame It On The Food. Check it out!
Also, we are already gearing up for the 2010 season, and are taking pre-orders for frozen and smoked salmon. Either place your order online or email graham[at]wildkenaisalmon.com.
We recently found this video demonstrating a “salmon slide” that some gillnetters are using in Alaska to improve the percentage of #1 salmon that make it to shore for processing. We applaud Dave Hansen and the Eskimo Viking for their innovation and dedication. Implementing salmon slides of this kind in a widespread manor across Bristol Bay would do wonders for the quality of the yearly salmon catch.
It is important to note, though, that we at WKRS prefer to see even greater care put into the salmon catch that we procure and produce. In particular, we process fish that are bled and iced immediately after coming out of the water. These two practices, along with minimal net time and extreme care in handling ensure consistent salmon of the highest quality, which we bring to you.
We continue to seek out new innovations in fish handling and processing to further increase the quality and freshness of our frozen and smoked salmon. We will let you know as we encounter these, implement them, and grow. Please send us any ideas or links you have.
It has been a successful year for Wild Kenai Red Salmon! We have recently finished selling through our frozen salmon for the 2010 season. While some of our vendors will continue to have stock, we ourselves are currently clean out. It has been a successful first year!
In addition to the our frozen salmon, our smoked salmon stocks dwindle. If you have been waiting to make your order, we recommend you put it in soon, before we run out!
From here on out, we will be taking pre-orders for our 2010 production season. Fresh Kenai salmon should be available in early July. 2010 smoked salmon will arrive, hot from the smoker, shortly after.
If you wish to make a pre-order for 2010, please email graham@wildkenaisalmon.com.
Take care and be well,
the Wild Kenai Team
Garlic Ginger Teriyaki Salmon Medallions
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 1 fillet frozen salmon – thawed and skinned
- 2 cloves garlic – minced
- 1 large ‘thumb’ ginger (1-1.5 in) diced
- 6 Tbsp (wheat free) soy sauce
- 4 Tbsn red cooking wine.
- 2 Tbsp honey
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
Cut the fillet into medium sized pieces. Cut and peel garlic and ginger. Fry ginger at medium heat until it begins to soften – about 2 min. Add garlic. Turn heat down to low. Pour soy sauce into pan – do not allow to boil. Add honey. Add wine. Add salmon. Cover and let cook for approximately 2 minutes. Turn fish and cook another 2 minutes or until opaque and flaky.
We often serve this with rice and vegetables, but be creative!
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Wild Kenai in the Bay Area
Wild Kenai recently received attention and a review on the San Francisco Food blog Blame It On The Food. Check it out!
Also, we are already gearing up for the 2010 season, and are taking pre-orders for frozen and smoked salmon. Either place your order online or email graham[at]wildkenaisalmon.com.