Gone Fishin'

Last Friday I had a totally out of character experience… I went fishing! I joined a couple of my coworkers for a little road trip up to Wisconsin, to visit Rushing Waters, the trout farm where Whole Foods stores in my area source trout. We all planned to have the same day off work, and went up to tour the farm and learn more about the whole process of raising trout. I was surprised by how beautiful the place was… I had pictured lots of huge plastic pools of fish, and a much more industrial vibe. In actuality, it was a lot of small ponds full of trout, on a farm surrounded on three sides by national forest. It was so interesting to hear about the process of raising fish, and to see the in-site facilities where they process and smoke the fish.

We got a guided tour of the farm, and then had the chance to try to catch some fish for ourselves. The demo pond, where people are allowed to fish, was full to the brim with trout, making it really simple to catch them. The harder part was getting some of the fish off of the hooks; they must have been hungry! While the guys in back processed the fish into nice clean fillets, we sat outside enjoying the spring weather and some awesome trout spread and smoked fish. It was a relaxing and interesting day out of the city, and I left feeling good enough about the whole experience to consider suggesting a fishing trip idea to Joe. The pan fried trout we made for dinner the next night sealed the deal—there just might be another fishing trip in my future! 

The harvest pond. So pretty, and not at all what I expected for a fish farm!

They start out in the hatchery, when they're little baby fish.

Look what I caught!

Rushing Waters processes and smokes all the fish on site, so it's incredibly fresh.

We got to sample smoked trout whole and in a spread and two kinds of smoked salmon.
It was delicious!

At home, we pan fried the trout, and made a simple lemon and caper sauce.
Simple and so fresh tasting.