Scheduling Christmas Orders

This holiday season is our busiest time of year when it comes to our shipping business. Seafood makes a great gift especially for those transplants who can't make it home to Maine for Christmas. It is also a popular choice to create a special Christmas Eve or Christmas dinner.

No surprise, it is also FEDEX's busiest season and with the extra workload and the possibility of winter storms there are sometimes delivery hiccups. 

So to help facilitate the successful delivery of your packages and the creation of a memorable holiday, I have a few tips for you.

1. If you are sending seafood as a gift, make sure the recipient is expecting it. Lobsters are a great gift but a terrible surprise. If the recipient is away for a few days when the box is delivered they might be returning to an unpleasant gift on their doorstep.                                                                                  
2. FEDEX does NOT deliver on December 25th or on January 1st. We are NOT open on December 25th or January 1st.                                                                                                              
3. The last delivery before Christmas will be December 24th. The first delivery after Christmas will be December 30th (or December 27th with a Saturday delivery).                                                     
4. The last delivery before New Year's will be December 31st. The first delivery after New Year's will be January 6th (or January 3rd with a Saturday delivery).                                                                     
5. We ARE open Christmas Eve and New Years Eve, we will be closing at 5 pm.                                  
6. Standard Overnight typically delivers around 4 pm but sometimes as late as 8 pm, depending on your local delivery routes. Deliveries also tend to be a little later during Christmas. If you are having a dinner party you should order Priority Overnight or even order a day early. Priority Overnight usually delivers by noon.                                                                                    
7. Live lobsters are shipped overnight and generally should be eaten shortly after arrival. However, cooked lobsters, lobster meat, scallops, chowders and other less perishable items can last a couple of extra days in transit or in a refrigerator. If you plan to ship these types of items you might consider shipping them early to create more cushion in the event of a shipping delay. For example:  
• You need 2 pounds of lobster meat and a pound of scallops for a Christmas eve dinner party. 
• If you schedule the delivery for the 23rd and for some reason FEDEX can't deliver on time, they will be able try again on the 24th. The product will still be perfect and the party will be saved.
• If you schedule the delivery for the 24th and there is a problem, FEDEX will not attempt delivery again until the 26th. Uh oh hotdogs for dinner and possibly spoiled product when it does arrive.
•  I am not trying to scare you away from shipping. I am just making you aware that FEDEX is a third party and there are sometimes complications outside of yours or my control, but there are ways we can mitigate risk simply by choosing a different delivery day.   
8. In the event of a mishandled box or a delayed shipment you are protected. We can submit refund claims for late deliveries or spoiled product. But FEDEX usually rejects weather related claims. So if you know there is going to be a wicked snow storm in your area we should probably reschedule the order. We do our best to watch the weather, but you are a lot more familiar with your local forecast . . .  so help us help you and send me an email at gurnetlobsters@gmail.com if you are concerned about the weather.                                       
9. I'm a pretty awesome person, but alas I am only one pretty awesome person. I do not have a team of pickers and packers standing by to process and ship your order. I receive the order from the website, create a shipping label, process payments, answer any questions, and then send instructions to our packer (who is also the commercial wharf hand). It's all quite manual and while not particularly complicated, it does take time. Generally, if I haven't created a shipping label by noon we won't be able to make our 3 pm FEDEX pickup.  Long story short, same day shipments are really tough. Please place your order at least the day before it needs to ship. The sooner you order, the better. An early order means more time for us to plan and pick out the best product we can for your delivery. 
10. FEDEX has announced a rate increase of about 5% for 2015. Our shipping calculator will not include this rate increase until January 1. Any orders placed prior to January 1 that are scheduled to ship after January 1 may be subject to a slight surcharge to account for the increase. We apologize for the inconvenience.  

By keeping these few tips in mind we should be able to get you some tasty seafood for the holidays. 

www.gurnettrading.com/shop

Nautical Knits

Winter is pretty much here which means Soper Ocean Services is on winter break, which is good since we ship most of our orders during the holidays.

With the extra spare time I have in the winter, I took up knitting last year. Naturally, my projects tend to have a nautical flair to them. 

This year I can win a gift card from Halcyon Yarn in Bath and help fund my habit by posting a link to my wishlist. So here's wishin'. Maybe my next project will be a lobby.

The Scallops are Coming!

If you're up on your Maine seafood news you will already know that there will be no shrimp season again this year. As sad as that makes me, at least I have some good news. There is a scallop season and it starts this week!

My dad's diving season starts on Wednesday, December 3. For the first three weeks of the season he will be allowed to dive Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Later in the season the days are earlier in the week (I will update you in a few weeks).  

Why do you care what day he is diving? Because if you stop into the store in the late afternoon on a dive day you will be in line to get the freshest scallops possible. Or if you want to have some fresh scallops shipped, you will want to plan the ship day to match up with a dive day or the day after.

In preparation for the coming season, I have compiled some lovely scallop pictures and videos:

Seared Scallops and Lemon Risotto (recipe at the bottom of the post)

Scallop Diving with Brian

Packaging Our Diver Scallops

Seafood Stuffed Scallops (Order Here)

Fresh Raw Dive Scallops (Order Here)

Bacon Wrapped Scallops . . . because everything is better with bacon

Scallops can vary in size

The top of a scallop shell is covered in marine growth and barnacles while the bottom is smooth and mostly bare

More Scallop Diving

Black Friday Discount

No need to fight. There is more than enough to go around. 

Get $20 Off Your GurnetTrading.Com Order

Enter TURKEY2014 at checkout

Place your Christmas orders now and have them delivered between 12/2 and 12/24

Offer valid 11/28 - 12/1. Excludes purchase of gift certificates. Offer only good online.

Happy Thanksgiving

Skip the Turkey, Stuff a Lobster

A nice stuffed turkey is very traditional. But where is the fun in traditional? Seafood is a great way to mix it up and take Thanksgiving beyond the usual trimmings.

The Fish King is a hardcore traditionalist. He squeals and throws a fit if we do anything other than a traditional turkey for Thanksgiving. We all find this especially amusing because he doesn't even really like poultry all that much; try to feed him chicken or turkey the rest of the year and he will scrunch up his nose and "suffer through." There is just something about Thanksgiving.

But that doesn't stop us from mixing it up every couple of years. Sometimes it is subtle, just a little seafood stuffing in the bird. One year we fried a turkey. Other years we have skipped the bird altogether and stuffed the lobsters.

Last year we did baked stuffed lobsters with a lemon risotto. It was definitely not your traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but we had a small group and things were a little hectic so a shift from the usual spread was a welcome change. Even though we skipped the bird and the dozen or so accompaniments that usual grace the table, it was no less of a feast.

Mixing up Thanksgiving dinner is a great way to build memories and keep track of the years. If nothing else it makes for a strong bookmark in the story of family gatherings.

"Remember the year cousin Jimmy broke his toe?"

"Was that the year we had turkey?"

"No, it was the other year we had turkey."

"..."

VS

"Remember the year cousin Jimmy got peas stuck in his nose?

"Yeah! That was the year we had stuffed lobsters!"

Any lobster can be stuffed, but it is extra special when you serve a plate piled high with a jumbo lobster. We currently have jumbo lobsters on our website that range in size from 1.75 to 2.5 lbs each. Jumbo Lobsters

We have also added our seafood stuffing (which contains scallops and shrimp) to the website. The seafood stuffing is great for stuffing clams, oysters, fish, lobsters, and mushrooms. Seafood Stuffing

Buying Seafood for Thanksgiving

Gurnet Trading Co. is currently open 9-6 Monday through Saturday. We close at 5 on Sundays. We will not be open on Thanksgiving, so pick up all your supplies on Wednesday.

If you want to have some seafood shipped, all orders must be placed by Monday, November 24th. We will ship orders on the 25th for delivery on the 26th. FEDEX does not deliver on Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving! And keep your eyes peeled for some up coming holiday specials.

Belons are Back!

I, for one, am sad to see summer over. The end of summer means the steady approach of my most dreaded month, November. I mean seriously, doesn't everyone just love 30 degree temperatures and rain. But one upside to the end of summer is the beginning of oyster season.

Gurnet Trading Co. sells farm raised oysters year round. But from September through June our owner hand harvests wild Belon oysters.

To celebrate the opening of the wild oyster season I have created a 15% off coupon code valid on our website until October 31st.

To receive 15% off your oysters all you have to do is:

1. Go to http://www.gurnettrading.com/shop/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=106
2. Order at least 24 oysters
3. Enter BELON14 in the coupon code field in your shopping cart.

Easy as pie. You can email me at gurnetlobsters@gmail.com if you do happen to run into trouble, need some help, or want to place a custom order.

You can see some of my past posts related to Belons here:

http://theflyinglobster.blogspot.com/2013/09/they-are-on-their-way.html

http://theflyinglobster.blogspot.com/2013/11/an-interactive-cocktail-party.html

http://theflyinglobster.blogspot.com/2014/01/december-26th-seafood-fest.html