In May 2013 Dr. Nancy Emerson Lombardo spent some time down on Boston Fish Pier 15, Boston MA 02210 with Red’s Best, a local seafood market and fishmonger business, and was enchanted by the ambience, energy, innovations and activities. For fun, watch our YouTube Video for Wisdom to Wellness show on Red’s Best and Fish are Brain Food…. and how to choose freshest, best fish! (Click on “Read More” to get to link) Just outside this small space, tons of fish and seafood are unloaded every day from trucks carrying catches from various Massachusetts seaports, primarily on the South Shore and Cape Cod and surrounding waters. Everything arrived chilled from the moment of being put on the trucks, either in refrigerated containers or on ice. In the small shop, fish, giant sea clams, squid, scallops, razor clams, and many more items are repackaged and prepared for shipping to customers all over the U.S. Certain fish are filleted quickly and expertly by 2-3 highly skilled men in a small cool room, and then quickly packaged and labeled in clear plastic bags, labels include QR codes. Fish we observed in just the few hours of our visit were cod, haddock, scup (aka as porgies), hake, flounder.
For fun, watch our YouTube Video for Wisdom to Wellness show on Red’s Best and Fish are Brain Food…. and how to choose freshest, best fish!
Red’s Best was founded by Jared Auerbach who started his fisherman career after graduating from college, working on commercial vessels in Alaska and Cape Cod, MA. Jared became enraptured with the life of a fisherman and decided to stay connected with the small boat fisherman community by starting a business to facilitate their selling their catch and getting a good price, while making high quality fish and seafood available to restaurants and customers nation-wide.
When buying from Red’s Best you are supporting the small boat fisherman whose livelihood depends on each and every catch.
Jared explained the details of the business operation, its origins and many good stories. Prize winning film director and editor, JoJo LaRiccia filmed all our conversations with Jared as well as the various activities happening inside and outside the shop. The purpose of our visit was initially to film material for an upcoming cable TV show in a series produced by Michael McCarthy, called “Wisdom to Wellness.” Shown on SCAT TV as well as on youtube. Michael McCarthy is the founder and owner of Budibar, a health bar designed to improve emotional health of those who consume it.
The visit to Red’s Best was to be another show on brain foods, to include clips of Dr. Emerson Lombardo talking about why all fish and seafood are among the most important “brain foods, “ as well as the attributes of some of these fish. But because the whole operation at Red’s Best was so fascinating, that may become the subject of its own documentary in Michael’s series.
The most delicious part of the adventure was experienced by Nancy Emerson Lombardo and Michael McCarthy, when Jared personally prepared and introduced us to a whole series of delicious sushi/shashimi (raw fish/seafood). We experienced several different parts of the giant sea clam, very highly prized in California where tons were being shipped that very day, yet practically unknown here in New England, their origin. Also yummy were the roe of the scallops, in addition to the more familiar round muscle of the scallop, razor clam, as well as the tentacles and body of squid, especially plentiful in NE waters during May when the trees are just leafing out (they swarm for mating season). Nancy’s favorite was the scup fish. She also took the rest of the filet home and sautéed lightly in olive oil for the most delicious fish meal in recent memory!
Nancy, Jo Jo and Michael were intriqued and impressed by the high level of professionalism and innovation represented by Reds Best and its founder Jared Auerbach.
Jared decided to figure out a way to facilitate sale/purchase of small boat fishermen’s catch. He needed to figure out a way to make it more affordable both for the buyer of the catch as for the small boat fisherman. Many costs and requirements per catch are fixed costs, the same irrespective of size of catch, making unit costs higher for fish/seafood caught by small fishermen. (Fixed costs include fees and time required for filing reports for each catch with departments of Public Health, keeping track of details of various fish/seafood in each catch, and accounting costs).
So Jared developed software and Smartphone apps that speeds the time of transactions, perform multiple operations simultaneously once key data are entered, and thus lowered costs to affordable levels.
Using software and QR codes also made it easier to trace the origin of any fish from time of shipping to final purchase. Each fish has a QR code on the label which tells you about boat/vessel name, boat captain name, fish/seafood species, fishing gear type, and port of origin. This QR code adds value to your fish as it has zero transaction costs between fisherman and seafood buyer.
Please support this amazing seafood market at http://www.redsbest.com/shopreds/index.php/
