In this issue of the Co-op Spoonful, you’ll find a coupon for 50 cents off your purchase of any Native Harvest sustainably managed wild coho and canned wild steelhead.

The salmon are battling their way up rivers, streams, and even tiny rivulets in our pacific northwest, to renew their existence. Some also make it to our tables. The Co-op offers this delicacy through members of the Quinault Tribe, including Sonny Davis, who formed Native Harvest for buying and distributing some of the finest of the tribal catch. Sonny sells directly to chefs at restaurants, and wholesale and retail grocers, and Olympia Food Co-op carries Native Harvest smoked salmon, and whole pieces of canned steelhead. Davis also sells halibut spot prawns, and high grade caviar which makes up the majority of the sales.

The tribes have developed sustainable practices over a thousand years and their treaty rights give them co management of salmon habitat with Washington state. Davis encourages his fishers to take advantages of fish handling workshops in order to continually increase the quality of their offerings. Rooted in the rich salmon gathering tradition of tribes throughout the northwest, this family business continues their deep and ancient connection to harvesting and honoring their food.

Just as salmon runs have seasons, so too the harvesting. In the winter are steelhead from Quinault on the Olympic Peninsula and ocean king from Makah at Cape Flattery, and in the spring are salmon from Yakima on the Columbia River. From Sunday through Tuesday, Sonny can be found driving from Olympia along the Washington Coast to buy wild caught seafood straight from licensed tribal fishers.

Sonny makes clear his cultural inheritance and the foundation for his business when he says, “I love the simple act of sharing amazing seafood with people. It’s at the heart of our culture and it’s at the heart of my business.”