...we are going crabbing this weekend!!!*
Hopefully we come home with YUMMY! And FREE yummy at that!
*depends on weather, may be postponed
Hopefully we come home with YUMMY! And FREE yummy at that!
*depends on weather, may be postponed
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Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
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Re: Crabbing!!
Anyone have good recipes?Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
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Re: Crabbing!!
Fun! Good luck and take pictures!
No recipes here...I've never had crab that wasn't in one of those little plastic can things at the grocery store.Comment
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Re: Crabbing!!
Wait, you mean like hiking along the shore or something and picking up crustaceans?
I wanna!!!
"Reason is not automatic. Those who deny it cannot be conquered by it." - Ayn Rand
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Re: Crabbing!!
Actually....its sort of like fishing....but without a hook.
See, blue crabs (which are the good ones) live in the bay, and they feed in the sea grass beds and otherwise wander around the bottom of the bay scavenging. So...unless you are crabbing with crab pots, you don't need a license (an if you own shoreline property, you don't need one for up to two pots on your own property), which is awesome. Instead, you use a technique called "chicken necking" (because chicken necks are a common bait), where you attach some rather thin line (rope for non-sailors) to the bait, which needs to be sizable, and plunk it into the water, wait for a crab to show up and then pull it up verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry carefully until you can catch it in a net. Or you can use a type of crab trap called a ring net which sits flat on the bottom with the bait attached and closes with a ring when you pull it up.
Sophie and I learned all about it at the Great Bridge park last week from some very boisterous and lovely grandma-types last weekend...and then I went home and checked the restrictions on Google. The park is a popular spot because its situated all along the canal, and most people take food home--fishing is popular there too, mainly for catfish.Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
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Re: Crabbing!!
I wanna go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Comment
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Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
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Re: Crabbing!!
4 hours of crabbing, 30 minutes to steam, an hour to clean and pick crabs, 20 minutes to cook...
...caught'em myself crabby patties
YUM!
(BTW, all that work only caught 6 keepers, though we proly got 2 dozen all thogether...and 6 keepers=3 crab cakes)
...helluva lot of work, but worth it!Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
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Re: Crabbing!!
Sorry, couldn't resist. My Grandad used to catch and sell crabs though. Crab sandwiches <3"The Germans do not think it in keeping with the divine majesty to confine gods within walls or to portray them in the likeness of any human countenance. Their holy places are woods and groves, and they apply the names of deities to that hidden presence which is seen only by the eye of reverence." (Tacitus, `Germania', 9)Comment
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Re: Crabbing!!
Other than keeping it?Originally posted by DeseretRose View Post
Legally, size---5 inches for a male or immature female, no size limit for mature females and 3 1/2-3 1/4 inches for peeler crabs (in the molting stage with a soft shell), depending on the date and location. Personally...also gender. We only keep males...one male can mate with multiple females, and there are always males around (partially because the females are a hot commodity)... Because female blue crabs only mate once, but spawn multiple times, we don't keep any females (even though they supposedly taste better), and we don't catch peelers (they take a different technique anyhow), which are usually maturing females ready to mate.Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
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Re: Crabbing!!
lol...that looks a bit messy...Originally posted by Ravenix View Post
Sorry, couldn't resist. My Grandad used to catch and sell crabs though. Crab sandwiches <3
...but yes, crab sammies are awesome!Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
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Interesting...I didn't know they changed when they were ready to mate!Originally posted by thalassa View PostComment
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Re: Crabbing!!
Yup, an immature female has a triangular apron, which is fused shut. When she molts, her apron takes on a bell shape (I generally describe it as looking like the dome of the capitol building), which is able to open to lay eggs. (pics @ the bottom of the page) Blue crabs molt around 20 times (a few less for females and a few more for males) after their larval stage, but since they only mate when the female has just molted (at that "puberty" molt) and is in the soft shell stage (and then the female never mates again, but will spawn multiple times after that single mating) I think it is more ethical to *not* keep females. There is a huge recreational and commercial demand on blue crab--crabbing cuts the crab lifespan by 2/3 from ~3 years to just 1...and females are the most desirable catch (think she-crab soup).Originally posted by DeseretRose View PostWonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
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Re: Crabbing!!
I'm going to do a follow-up on the cooking and eating of crabs...including the Good Eats episode on crabs:
Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryPagan Devotionals, because the wind and the rain is our Bible
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