Community Smokehouse
Inspired by the communal village ovens of yesteryear, the Community Smokehouse is an oak barrel smoker designed to operate in different locations, offering everyone the right to traditionally preserve their own food.
The Community Smokehouse is a not-for-profit community venture, made possible by your donations.
Until not so long ago, each village dotted along the coastline would have its own smokehouse, built to process the catch of local inshore boats. In a time before electricity and refrigeration, the way to preserve this highly perishable food was by removing its water content and dry it with salt and smoke, rendering it a stable food.
Before we became too efficient and commodified our ocean’s resources, we would go out in day boats at the mercy of the sea, casting a net into the briny, and what would be caught was what was abundant that season.
What we are looking for is to offer a food that is wholly honest and simple, that connects us to the landscape which is true to the human traditions of the area before the required use of plastics, chemicals, suing culture and our subsequent disconnection from the oceans and natural processes. To enjoy the added value of things when you know their true provenance.
It is an artisanal method that is entirely passive using no fuel, electricity or plastic, which gently smoulders native hardwoods to preserve local fish. There is nothing quite like savouring the food you have preserved yourself, observing the whole process, reconnecting to the truths of real food from nature and a heritage that spans thousands of years.
The goal is to get you to look differently at the food you buy, its sell-by date, the plastic it is packaged in and how it is marketed to you, and ultimately, to reclaim the trust in your own judgement and spend time with your community as the smokehouse becomes a local hub for the time it is in operation.
CONTACT US IF YOU WANT TO BRING THE SMOKEHOUSE TO YOUR COMMUNITY
How do I use the Community Smokehouse?
Follow @uptherethelast for the location of the smokehouse
Bring your home caught fish (or bacon, cheese, whatever you want smoking) OR
Purchase fish at the local fishmonger to support local boats
It will be filleted, salted and put into the smoker with your name-tag and contact details
Enjoy tea, pints or snacks around the smokehouse table, which always leads to beautiful chats of traditions in food, or leave it with us for the day
When it is done, you will be contacted with details of a collection point to pick up your smoked produce, wrapped in wax paper
What’s the catch?
There isn’t one. The community smokehouse is run on donations, so you pay what you can afford. It ends up balancing out, so everyone gets smoking!
