Ideas that quietly
re-make a reserve.
Research, field notes, member proceedings and long reads from the people who steward Bengal’s freshwater — published the same way we serve fish: measured, traceable, no rush.
Field notes & research.
From pond to plate: a QR tag's eleven-hour journey.
An anatomy of the cold-chain — hand-off by hand-off, hour by hour.
Reading a pond: a field guide to water profiles.
Hardness, dissolved oxygen, phytoplankton density. What stewards look for before they feed.
The Catla and Rohu polyculture method, revisited.
Why the 2:3:1 ratio still outperforms monoculture on flesh quality and pond health.
Antibiotic-free, by design — not by claim.
How a fully-traced feed protocol replaces the routine prophylaxis of industrial aquaculture.
Hilsa: the season we're honest about.
Why we restrict allocations, what overfishing has done, and where genuine Padma hilsa still comes from.
The carbon cost of marine vs. freshwater fish.
A measured comparison of food-miles, water and emissions across the major Indian protein options.
Matsya Mahotsav 2025: report of proceedings.
Allocations, harvest pairings, partner chefs and the four reserve-wide announcements made on the day.
Inside the Steward Programme.
Twelve families, four reserves, one shared standard. A look at the people who keep the water honest.
Why a four-hour cold chain changes everything.
On freshness as a function of time, not refrigeration — and the logistics required to honour it.
In the kitchen with our Chefs' Reserve.
Three Kolkata kitchens, three menus, one pond — when chefs cook from a single steward's harvest.
A new index for water quality at household scale.
Introducing the Reserve Water Index — eleven parameters, weekly samples, plain-language readouts.
A year in numbers — FY24 Reserve Report.
Households served, harvests measured, reserves protected. Our first year, told in data.
The yardstick we ask to be measured against.
Published standards, audited annual data and member-only proceedings — versioned and openly cited.
The Pond Club Annual Reserve Report — FY24
Households served, allocations honoured, water-quality indices and partnerships, told in audited data.
Bengali Freshwater Stewardship Standards v2.0
Our published, version-controlled standards for water, feed, harvesting and handling. The yardstick we ask to be measured against.
Antibiotic-Free Feed Protocols — Technical Brief
Composition, sourcing, batch records and the laboratory chain that lets us guarantee a clean protein.
Matsya Mahotsav 2025 — Proceedings & Allocations
A record of the day, the menu and the four allocations of the season — for members and culinary partners.
People behind the work.
Our research is written by the same people who steward the ponds, design the feed and run the kitchens. We don’t outsource our opinions.
Twenty years across pond stewardship in Bengal and Odisha. Edits The Pond Club's field standards.
PhD aquaculture. Designs the feed protocols and runs the water-index methodology.
Built the four-hour harvest-to-kitchen pipeline serving Kolkata and the suburbs.
Curates the Chefs' Reserve partnerships and the menus served at Matsya Mahotsav.
One letter, once a month, no noise.
A short editorial digest: the essay of the month, two field notes, one harvest report — delivered the first Sunday of each month.
Members of The Pond Club are automatically subscribed. We never share addresses; one-click unsubscribe in every issue.