Tag: Maine
I’m sold on Maine’s crab
Ours are smaller than the glorious Dungeness of the Pacific Northwest or Chesapeake Bay’s popular Blue delicacy, named for the color of their tips.
But that’s not to say Maine doesn’t have crabmeat that’s as sweet. Ours comes from two species.
Here’s some perspective.
- Jonah crabs are the slightly larger and more celebrated of the two. They’re reddish with large, black-tipped claws, and found primarily in deep waters offshore.
- The meat comes from the claws. When Jonahs show up in a lobster trap, a fisherman typically removes one claw and throws the rest of the crab back. The crab, we’re told, can survive on one claw while the other grows back.
- Jonahs are regulated by an interstate commission that places a 4.75-inch minimum size on keepers and prohibits the retention of egg-bearing females.
- Atlantic rock crab, or “peekytoes,” live in bays and tidal rivers closer to shore. These measure just five inches across and are the most commercially caught crab in the state.
- Peekytoes cannot be shipped live, presumably because they’re too delicate. Instead, they’re cooked and hand-picked before shipment.
- Both commercial and recreational crabbers require a license from the state and must observe strict limits on their take. At least, those specifically going after them. See the lobstermen, above, for a clue to exemptions.
- Locals in the know say that picking the meat from a crab is a nearly lost art. They admit they can’t avoid getting hard bits of shell in the tender flesh, no matter how carefully they try. Instead, as they advise, go to Betty’s in Pembroke or Earle’s down in Machias for your supply.
- Favorite dishes around here are crab rolls, crab salad, and crabcakes. Our house also celebrates a heavenly crab imperial. Others make them into a dip or spread. And, in some circles, Jonah crab claws make an appetizer served like a shrimp cocktail.
- They can be harvested year-‘round, though fall, when crabs are most packed with meat, is the peak season.
- Smaller, invasive, nasty green crabs have been proliferating as Maine waters warm, decimating other marine species and their breeding grounds. Some enterprising chefs, though, see tasty opportunity in some dishes to counter that.
Me? I haven’t yet had to complain of having too much. Now, please pass the Old Bay.
Fog rolling in
San Francisco has no monopoly. We are, after all, the City in the Bay.
Welcome to Cobscook Friends
As a small, rural Quaker fellowship, we’re especially happy to be worshipping together in one space every Sunday again, at least through the summer and early autumn.
Covid, of course, had us connected only by Zoom through much of the Covid onslaught and after that, coming together in a physical space on alternative weeks only. We do live at distances from the meetinghouse, so winter weather can often be a challenge.
Not so summer. We’d love to have others join us in our hour of mostly silent centering, beginning at 9:30 on Sunday mornings. The meetinghouse is in the woods along Maine Route 189 in Whiting – on the way to Lubec and many great outdoors trails.
If you meditate in some practice, you’ll fit right in – and if that seems foreign, it’s still a great time for personal reflection. I always find it renewing.
Me with what’s left of a three-pound lobster
Swimming hole
I’ll let others swing out on that rope.
As it says on the bridge.
You can even just sit in one of the little basins in the fish ladder and let the water rush over you.
Woodland trail, Shackford Head
Looking one one.
Or, if you turn around, the other.
A 17th century herb garden
Well, this is how it looked last September.
The English colonists knew their herbs and spices, as shown in the Pemaquid state historical site’s garden. The selection includes bee balm, betony (lamb’s ear), celandine, chamomile, chives, clove pink, crane’s bill, dill, evening primrose, feverfew, Johnny jump up, lady’s mantle, lavender, lemon balm, mint, parsley, sage, savory, tansy, tarragon, thyme, and yarrow. Many of these were grown for their medicinal applications.
We never had much more than salt and pepper back in the ‘50s, at least as I recall as a kid.
Dewy web
I looked out from the kitchen sink window and saw this:
With the Suncatcher House in the background.
Making the best of a break in the fog and rain
We’re feeling sorry for vacationers to our end of Maine the past two weeks. Especially those with children in tow.
It’s been cold – our furnace is still on – and very foggy and damp, accompanied by showers and thunderstorms.
It’s not what you’d want to run into on your well-earned summer getaway.
At least we’re getting a break, however brief.
Today’s forecast is for mostly cloudy, followed by two partly cloudy days. And then another solid streak of rainy days resumes.
Glimpses of real sunlight and blue sky will lift spirits, no doubt. I might even stop reminding folks of six straight months or so of this for people living in Seattle. (You know, it could be worse. We might even have to start watching movies in German.)
One thing you can also anticipate is the sound of lawnmowers the moment the grass dries sufficiently. Otherwise, a failure to mow in time can lead to an impossible task, as I remember when I had to learn to scythe back in Dover … and my vow to myself never to do that again.
For us, it also means doing laundry. We have a washer here but not a dryer. So we’re anticipating hanging wet clothes and linens out on the line to dry. There is a backlog to address.
Another must-do is a big round of grilling. Maybe even dining al fresco, if the temperature cooperates.
Well, as we’ve been saying all along, this too will pass.
