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Most farmers don’t have to worry about the tides. The carrots and tomatoes tend to mind their own business on solid ground, always available for a look-see.
But if you wrangle oysters for a living, the ever-changing moods of the ocean are front and center. Low tide is your time to work. You’ve got to make those precious hours count. Sure, the oysters aren’t going to run away, but they need love and attention along the lengthy journey to market size.
This was just one takeaway from an action-packed Harwich Conservation Trust (HCT) Oyster Farm Tour, a splendid outing on a beautiful evening, with the tide rolling out and the sun sweetly sinking into Cape Cod Bay.

To create the documentary “The Hand that Holds the Line,” Geoff Bassett and Kim Roderiques spent more than a hundred hours with Cape Cod’s commercial fishermen, capturing life on the water, the impact of difficult weather, long hours, variable markets and onerous regulations. One thing stood out:
“They all have a love for it,” said Bassett. “That’s fantastic to see, the majority of the film is people smiling.”

A table stretched a few hundred feet on the L-shaped end of MacMillan Pier in Provincetown, draped with white linen, set with a dazzling array of plates and wine glasses. While attendees enjoyed hors d’oeuvres, Mike Chute held the evening’s menu above the expanse to take a picture before guests were seated.

With 400 people gathered under a party tent on an August night, one would expect plenty of noise, but during John Pappalardo’s speech there was silence.

“We are here tonight because we belong to a place—a real place. Cape Cod is not an idea or a brand,” Pappalardo, CEO of the Fishermen’s Alliance, told the crowd. “It is a stretch of coastline carved by time and tide, filled with working hands and living stories. The men and women who fish its waters have done so not for fortune, but for sustenance, for dignity, and for the hope of passing something along.”

The audience wasn’t quiet when Lisa Whelan began describing what she made for that night’s Meet the Fleet.
The recipe includes an Asian sweet and spicy sauce, said the owner and chef at Dancing Spoons, to a chorus of “mmms” and “mmhmms,” with wild onions and the leafy green tops of vegetables from her garden. Then came a round of “yums.”
Long-finned squid, also known as Loligo, was the centerpiece and received the most oohs and ahhs of all.

Cataumet Fish is committed to buying and selling local seafood and oftentimes uses social media to share the name of the boat that brought in the catch of the day. But owners Patrick and Jenny Ross have found an old-school approach works wonders as well; a sandwich board set up right outside the Bourne market with fish specials highlighted in bright-colored chalk.  
“The chalkboard is effective even for regular customers,” said Patrick, adding it works even better if they pair specials with a recipe.
Business owners and fishermen across New England have been working for years to get more local seafood onto plates, a difficult challenge for a variety of reasons.

Steve Gennodie, in a checkered button-down shirt and grey jeans, stood in biting wind outside the Fishermen’s Alliance to talk to close to 100 people as they left the building.
He held a plate of furikake, also sprinkled on ahi tuna and avocado mini tacos many were munching as they left the first Meet the Fleet of the year on April 16. The heart of the savory Japanese spice blend was kelp from a farm just a few miles down the road.
“You have a little treasure in Chatham,” Gennodie told everyone.
Gennodie, who owns Chatham Pier Fish Market, had joined Jamie Bassett, Richard Curtiss and Carl Douglass from Chatham Kelp to talk about his business (which opened for the season that day) and how he hopes to sell local furikake.