Well Preserved

I’m humbled to announce that I have been named ‘Ocean Wise SeaFoodie.’  I hope that the ultimate winner is Ocean Wise and their message of sustainability and our oceans.

Here was our final video:

There is a certain irony that I’ve spent the last two days lying on the couch and my stomach turns at the thought of food (something that I never remember encountering in my life before).

A giant thank-you goes out to so many people – more than 200 voted, more than 50 tweeted and about the same shared across their Facebook profiles.  A similar thanks goes out to the restaurant that hosted us (Starfish) along with our hosts (Chef Kyle Deming and Shucker Paddy).  I’ve known Kyle for some time and continue to be blown away by his approach to food and sustainability in all that he cooks.  We had met Shucker Paddy several times but this was our first chance to hear him sound off on his passion of Oysters and Sustainable Seafood.  We will definitely be going back to Starfish.

Our video featured the 3 key questions around sustainable fish:

• Know what type of fish you are eating
• Know where it was from (or farmed)
• Know how it was caught

There is a great guide that our main competition, Cherlyn (an amazing advocate of sustainable seafood) shared on the site.  It’s a useful tool and is also complimented by a free Smart Phone App to help make the most educated choices.

For those who have been following us for any time you’ll know that fish was largely out of our diet until a few months ago when Hooked opened in our neighborhood.  We’re fortunate to have the option to have all 3 questions answered any time we walk-in and my experience with Dan and Kristen definitely was part of the inspiration for entering this.

Another thanks goes out to Chateau Des Charmes – they sponsored this event and provided wine for the dinners.  They did this very quietly and continue to be ambassadors to the local and/or sustainable food scene.  They are one of the few ‘larger’ Ontario wineries who have never lost the family/ community touch and we were spoiled by enjoying their wine with our dinner at Starfish.

A thank you goes out to Laura at Cubits who offered some seed packs as prizes without asking and helped spread the word about our entry.  Laura and her seed-supplying genius will be a feature here in the coming days because we just adore what she does and her pure entrepreneurial spirit in deciding to walk away from the dependable world of 9-to-5 and decided to sell and spread the message of organic, rare and heirloom seeds.  We’ll be distributing prizes by the end of the weekend and will announce here as well.

I hope I’m not sounding pretentious thanking everyone – the truth is that I (and Dana who was a significant part of this team effort and spent hours working on the titles in our little ditty) are both thrilled – and humbled.  So a final thank you must go out to each of you who participated, voted and shared – friends, family, strangers and bloggers alike.

Thanks for your support – and for making us smile.  We’ll continue to share the message of conscious food choices and am thankful to be part of a community who is so passionate about doing the same!