Stop by Snapper’s Fish Market on Sunday [April 18] between 1:30 and 4:30.

263 Durie Street, two blocks west of Runnymede, just north of Bloor

I’m cooking up Laurie’s rainbow trout and serving it with chayote salsa. Recipes to go.

Celebrate local food with this gorgeous Ontario fish, and come and say hola to Laurie Hamilton, my favourite fish monger and good friend.

A few words worth mentioning about farmed Ontario rainbow trout.

Despite the bad rap farmed fish has been getting over the last few years, there’s a lot of good news out there.

Ontario’s aquaculture is highly regulated and closely monitored for both nutritional quality and environmental soundness. Check out these factoids excerpted from a recent piece by Stephanie Ortenzi of Pistachio, who writes about local food for Savour Ontario.

Aquaculture has been traced back to China 3,500 years ago, but here in Ontario, we’ve only been doing it 100 years. For the last 25 years, the industry has used cage culture in the Great Lakes, in the North Channel of Lake Huron, off Manitoulin Island and in Georgian Bay. Ontario aquaculture is widely recognized to have a clean environmental record and produces mostly rainbow trout.

Caged operations, immersed in a lake’s natural habitat, account for 80 per cent of the province’s farmed fish. The industry is heavily regulated and closely scrutinized by government agencies and the agro-scientific community.

Trout’s beautiful colour comes from naturally occurring pigments called carotenoids, which also give salmon and crustaceans their orange-red hues. Carotenoids are made by the plants and micro-algae that constitutes the trout’s natural diet.

Last August, the Northern Ontario Aquaculture Association released its Strategy for Sustainable Aquaculture Development in Ontario. It calls for maintaining environmental safety and further development of an industry that contributes $65 million a year to the provincial economy.

Here are some shots from those cage operations, with thanks to the Northern Ontario Aquaculture Association.

Yours in good fish,

Carlos