All good tourists know to go to Maine for the best lobster, and to the Pacific Northwest for the best crab. When we discovered that our Arizona friends Doug and Jan were visiting their family in Washington, we jumped at the chance to find out all about crabbing. Yesterday we brought up the (empty) traps in Sequim bay then took the boat around the peninsula to drop them in Discovery Bay (see Gilligan's Tour blog).
About three hours later I had not recovered from my vertigo (aka motion sickness). This left Brock and (photographer) Duane to drive to Discovery Bay to join Doug and his son John to check the traps.
Once again Doug did the navigating while John pulled traps.
Yay! Crabs!
The crabs are taken from the traps and put into a cooler with sea water. These are Dungeness crabs, the only kind Doug keeps.
The crabs are very perishable and have to be processed right away. From the Bay they went to John's house. To process the crabs, the water is poured from the cooler into a steam pot and brought to a boil. The crabs are cut in half from top to bottom (a machete works well for this job.) The shells are taken off top and bottom then the insides shaken into a trash can.
The rest of the crabs, legs and all are put into steam pot, covered and cooked until they're done. As they cool, one gets eaten while one gets put into the refrigerator. Last night this process took several hours not including about an hour driving time. The guys left at 5pm and didn't return until almost 11!
When the traps are emptied, sometimes they are put back in--as they were last night. This morning Doug and John pulled them in again, along with another load of crabs. They had invited us back to the house to join them and other family members for a feast. When we arrived about 2pm, Doug had the last of the crabs in the steamer.
Chilly temps and light rain couldn't keep us from eating crab right from the pot while we waited for dinner.
While John was smoking pork ribs, chickens and brisket, Doug was preparing bacon wrapped quail for the grill.
Around 4pm the rain stopped and the feast was served: seafood boil, smoked ribs, chicken, beef brisket, and quail, with sides of stuffed mushrooms and stuffed jalapenos, pasta salad, and mac-n-cheese. Dessert was a chocolate mayonnaise cake with coconut frosting.
Jan (in pink) with granddaughter, John's wife Deana (sorry about the misspelling yesterday) and a cousin load their plates to join other family members--including daughter and husband, grandchildren and great-grandchildren--along with Brock, Leola, and Duane, outside to eat.
After several hours of stuffing face and visiting, we hugged our friends, waved goodbye to everyone, took our leftovers, and went home.
Early to for the boys,
Louise and Duane
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