Hill St farmers' market

It was my first visit to the Hill St Farmers' Market yesterday.

First thought: So that's where the organic vegie stall has gone to from the Victoria St market.

Second thought: Hmm, it is a bit of a chichi, high-end market, aimed at the eco-affluent rather than a dirt-under-the-fingernails farmers market (stalls with chocolates, cupcakes, olive oil etc. rather than earthy vegies and half sides of sheep).

Third (excited) thought: Fish?!

And there it was: Splashzone, a van selling fish caught locally off the Wairarapa coast. They say they're a family business and catch under the quota management system.

I asked and they said they catch the fish either with lines (for hapuku and one other species) or with nets. What kind of nets? I asked. They looked at me like I was a little crazy and said they had nets with different-sized holes for different species.

I guess I was thinking: gillnet? purse seine net? They didn't really give me quite enough information to know, but from the photos on the website it's clearly a small boat with small nets, so I'm thinking this isn't bottom trawling or one of those operations with nets so big you can fit a fleet of aeroplanes through the mouth. So I reckon it's probably not too bad as commercial fishing goes.

And they gave me a scoop of chipped ice in the bag to take my smoked lemonfish home in. Nice.