Even before BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill created an ecological nightmare in the Gulf of Mexico, Michigan shrimp started appearing in Ann Arbor. Sustainably produced in saltwater tanks at Okemos’s Shrimp Farm Market, the half-dollar-size white shrimp showed up first in restaurants–the Grange Kitchen, Eve, Pacific Rim, and Arbor Brewing–then went on retail sale at Morgan & York and Arbor Farms.

Morgan & York sells them frozen in one-pound plastic containers for $14.95, not too much more than you pay for similar size shrimp from who knows where. Co-owner Tommy York says he was introduced to the Michigan shrimp in March during the Local Food Summit. Local businessman Bill Taylor of the farm-to-table outfit Eat Local Eat Natural offered to facilitate regular deliveries for retail sales. York thought it sounded crazy. “Then I tasted them,” he says.

He suggests preparing the shrimp simply, maybe grilled and with minimal seasoning, to best appreciate their delicate freshness. It was good advice–barely pink shrimp rarely taste so light and clean.