Softshell Crab Season Has Arrived From Georgia!
The season's first catch of Wild Georgia Softshell Crab has arrived! They're making their West Coast debut at Water Grill.
THE START OF THE SEASON
Spring is a wonderful time. For starters, we get more daylight (and eventually recoup the hour of sleep lost at the start of Daylight Savings Time).
That means little to Mother Nature though: the world continues to turn, and tilt on its axis, bringing warmer weather to the Northern Hemisphere. It’s here, in the Mid-Atlantic, where we begin to reap those rewards. Watermen take to their boats off the coast of Georgia and the Chesapeake Bay and prepare their traps for the blue crab harvest.
As water temperatures rise, these blue crabs begin to molt and shed their shells. It’s at this moment when the live crabs are harvested – at the peak of tenderness.
Learn more about their journey – from blue shell to softshell, and from the country’s largest estuary to one of our favorite seasonal offerings – here.
ABOUT BLUE CRABS
Who says Latin is dead? The language tells us a lot. Exhibit A: the scientific name for blue crab is Callinectes sapidus, meaning beautiful savory swimmer.
These crabs propel themselves through the water using their back fins, or swimmerets. You’ll find this species all along the Atlantic Coast, down through the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, and even to some northern parts of South America.
HARVESTING
Blue Crabs live anywhere from three to four years and reach maturity around one year to 18 months. Growth is very dependent on temperature. Mating occurs from fall through the spring and, interestingly, females can only mate once during their life but can spawn multiple times.
Females, especially those carrying eggs, prefer higher salinity areas and often migrate towards the mouth of nearby rivers to spawn. Males prefer lower salinity waters and can often be found closer to river mouths and estuaries.
Most of the season’s harvesting will happen in late Spring as water temperatures warm and crabs prepare for their summer growth. This is often marked by the first full moon in May. In some cases, like what we’re seeing out of Georgia, the water warms as early as the beginning of April.
A COMING OF AGE
Softshell crabs are blue crabs. They’re harvested throughout the East Coast by commercial crabbers when the hardshell blue crabs are deemed to be peelers, or crabs that are ready to molt.
Watermen will look for signs, such as white, pink and red colors on the shells, to tell which crabs will molt, and when. In fact, a red outline, called a “red sign”, on the swimming fin indicates that a crab will molt in less than two days.
These crabs are then transferred to shedding tanks where they are monitored until they molt. The tanks are shallow, and the water temperature is carefully regulated to emulate the crab’s natural molting habitat.
Once a crab molts, it is removed from the shedding tank as soon as possible before the shell begins to harden (which can take as little as a few hours). It’s at this moment when a blue crab becomes a softshell crab. They’re then carefully packed and arrive to us daily – directly from pristine coastline of Georgia, straight to our restaurants.
this moment when a blue crab becomes a softshell crab. They’re then carefully packed and arrive to us daily – directly from the Chesapeake to our restaurants.
FLAVOR
Iconic, sweet and earthy, softshell crab delivers a crunchy, delicate bite with olive-like notes imparted from the shell.
At Water Grill, our Wild Georgia Softshell Crab is prepared tempura-fried, served with pickled plums, Belgian endive and our house XO sauce
All this softshell talk got you hungry for more? Check out our menus and make a reservation!
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Packed Like Sardines - A History Equally Full of Flavor
What if we told you “It Happened In Monterey” was actually about tasting sardines for the first time?
It’s not. But Monterey, California is deserving of its own anthem for bringing the pelagic schooling fish into pop culture. Two Steinbeck novels, lyrics in a Bob Dylan song and serving as the backdrop to a Nick Nolte film aren’t enough.
Sardines are celebrating a resurgence, and it’s one that we hope is here to stay.
History
Long before Californians were swooning over sardines, Lisbon put them on the map. Chalk it up to another Roman “discovery”. Romans first settled Lisbon in 19 BC and discovered the fish in abundance along the coast. It quickly became a staple of the local diet and has persevered centuries later for the Portuguese.
Sardines have enjoyed a rich history ever since, with the innovation of canning – in France, by Nicolas Appert – taking them global. In fact, in 1836, it’s estimated that the Breton coast in Northern France was producing about 30,000 tins of sardines. By 1880, that number skyrocketed to 50,000,000 tins – each packed by hand.
It’s during this boom that sardines came stateside. But the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 pumped the brakes on imports. As necessity is the mother of invention, American entrepreneurs capitalized on the opportunity. Commercial canning on the East Coast began in 1875. (It was actually Atlantic herring, but let’s not get hung up on specifics.) Maine embraced the sardine more than any other state on the East Coast, with over 400 sardine factories at its peak. None remain in the state today.
While the East Coast had Sardineland (their word, not ours) and Atlantic herring, the West Coast had Cannery Row (in Monterey, California) and Pacific sardines. The season was bigger out West too, running from October to March.
At its peak from 1936 to 1945, the factories in Monterey were producing an average of 332,000 tons (over 13,000,000 tins a year). However, by the late 1950s, workers had left, sardine fishing had nearly ceased and the fish had all but disappeared. In 1967, the fishery was closed.
From 1967 to 1986, a commercial harvest moratorium on Pacific sardines was enforced. Restrictive measures were adopted in Portugal as well, as sardine stocks fell below target biological levels in 2009.
They’re back (and on the menu!)
Populations of Pacific sardines began to recover in the 1980s, thanks to strict fisheries management. Today, it’s regulated, and commercial fishing allowances fluctuate based on the population trends of the fish.
Tough measures in Portugal appear to be bringing the critical fish back from the brink as well.
Our dish at select Water Grill destinations is an homage to the “Sardine Capital of the World” in Monterey as well as the rich tradition and quality of tinned products in Portugal. We present the sardines on a wood board and accompany them with a traditional vegetable escabeche, preserved lemon-manzanilla olive relish, lemon slices, butter and toasted baguette.
Our sardines come to us from Conservas Pinhais, one of the oldest preserving factories in Portugal, which follows an artisanal canning method it developed over 100 years ago in 1920.
Further Reading
- Monterey Bay Aquarium - Meet the Pacific (California) Sardine
- Monterey Sardine Story
- Cannery Row
- Zingerman's Deli - The Surprisingly Rich History of Sardines
- Eating Europe - Sardines in Lisbon
