A Case of the Crabs
(Food • )
The shrimpers in Fulton still are confined by law to Aransas Bay, but they’ve begun scooping it out pretty thoroughly and are anxious for shrimp season to start on the Gulf side of the barrier islands.
The first two boats that came in this morning had some decent blue crabs, but their shrimp haul was small, the volume much less than their captains would’ve liked and their nets had scooped up a lot of grass.
With diesel at $2.30 a gallon, they can’t afford to make more than one run per day, a Cajun shrimper explained, complaining bitterly about high fuel costs, low shrimp prices and government rules and regulations that keep men with knowledge and equipment from shrimping.
The little one-man shrimp boats in Fulton launch an hour or two before sunrise, pull their nets back and forth across the blue-green bay waters east of Rockport and might be done with their run before 9 a.m.
If you can get to the wharf when the shrimpers dock, they’ll sell you their catch on the spot – fresher by two to four hours and cheaper than the seafood markets nearby. Some of the local stores are selling the large shrimp for $7 a pound, the Cajun said. But the markets are paying him $2 a pound for his catch. He could drive inland with a pickup truck full of shrimp and get a better price, but then who would man the boat for the next day’s catch?
Blues are a by-product of the shrimpers’ efforts, although given my choice I would opt for the sweet crab meat every time, even though you’ll expend almost as many calories shelling them as you gain back eating them. I bought the entire morning’s crab catch from a Vietnamese shrimper – 16 pounds worth which, with two bags of ice, filled up my cooler. The cost was a dollar a pound for some of the freshest and tastiest seafood to be found, and it is with renewed intensity that I envy my compadres living on the South Texas coast
→ B.Dunn, Jul 02, 2009, 03 59 pm
Food News Juxtipostion
(Food • )
1. Trent Loos, a one-man public relations armada exploding communications bombshells on behalf of the pork industry and other large-scale agriculture interests, sends me a missive taking aim at Chipotle Mexican Grill’s marketing message:
“On behalf of today’s food producers, Loos has asked Chipotle to immediately refrain from using the phrase ‘food with integrity’ out of concern for the future of the American farmer as well as the American consumer. He also is urging that consumers and farmers not frequent Chipotle establishments until the company is willing to change its ways and stop being disingenuous about its motives.”“Unlike that which is portrayed in Chipotle’s marketing campaign, Loos believes that modern agriculture and confined animal agriculture are sustainable. His advice to consumers is that, ‘If anyone attempts to tell you otherwise, they are probably trying to sell you on their product, and I suggest you double-check their integrity and true objectives.’”
Loos, who describes himself as a “sixth-generation U.S. farmer” who has “personally provided daily care for more than 1 million farm animals in his lifetime,” is, I suspect, trying to sell me on his product, as he recites praises about “today’s modern confinement pork production system, where comprehensive manure management plans are in place to protect the environment…”
2.
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it has found E. coli O157:H7 (a bacterium that can cause serious food borne illness) in a sample of prepackaged Nestlé Toll House refrigerated cookie dough currently under recall by the manufacturer and marketer, Nestlé USA. The contaminated sample was collected at Nestlé’s facility in Danville, Va. on June 25, 2009.On June 19, the FDA and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned consumers not to eat any varieties of prepackaged Nestlé Toll House refrigerated cookie dough due to the risk of contamination with E. coli O157:H7. The warning was based on an epidemiological study conducted by the CDC and several state and local health departments. As of Thursday, June 25, the CDC reports that 69 persons from 29 states have been infected with the outbreak strain. Thirty-four persons have been hospitalized, nine with a severe complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome. No one has died.
E. coli is commonly found in the digestive tracts of cattle, pigs and other domesticated and wild animals, such as deer and elk. It is most decidedly not commonly found in any of the ingredients normally included in recipes for cookie dough. Somebody at Nestle, I suspect, has some ‘splainin’ to do.
3. Last night we feasted on a large pile of fresh shrimp and blue crabs harvested earlier that day from the blue-green waters off San Jose Island, augmented by fresh sweet corn and new potatoes and washed down with Pacifico beer. I suspect I could eat from this limited menu for at least several consecutive days without any reason for complaint whatsoever.
→ B.Dunn, Jun 30, 2009, 07 31 am
Harmonious Blackberry Methodology
(Garden • Nature)
The thorniest canes produce the sweetest berries. Watch out! They are protective of their progeny.
Blackberries generally are ready for your bowl once they are large, plump, fully black and have passed by a few hours that stage of bright shininess.
Some berries want to become very large. Let them. If they don’t pop right off into your hand when you gently bump them with thumb and forefinger, leave them to grow for another day. Impatient pickers are rewarded with tart blackberries.
If you drop a blackberry on the ground, leave it there. Other less dexterous creatures crave the fruit, too, and God likes it when you share.
→ B.Dunn, Jun 28, 2009, 09 03 am
Crop Circles
(Garden • )
By now it’s clear that nature’s bounty has been whacked out of joint by the fiery sun this year and yet, amid today’s 104-degree heat and still more grazing tobacco hornworms, I found four large tomatoes, at least a dozen cherry tomatoes, three ripe, red and hot Guajilla peppers, six fruity-hot Mirasol peppers, two unidentified blunt triangular peppers that were supposed to be purple Serranos but are not, one very small eggplant and a mess of good-looking green chiles.
Damn good food, no cash expended.
And a major added bonus: The figs are on. Our enormous bush-tree in back, a Brown Turkey or Texas Everbearing offshoot, yielded a modest colander of fruit today – but yesterday nothing had really turned completely ripe yet. Tomorrow, judging from what I and about 15 mocking birds and cardinals observed and chewed on, a lot more will be ready. Whatever this exact fig variety is, it is terrifically acclimated to our weather. Even in the current baking drought, it is set to produce a bumper crop – a good thing, because the weather has minimized the blackberry harvest. We’re getting some, but haven’t been able to give them the moisture they need for a really good crop. By contrast, if anything the brown figs are slightly drier and noticeably sweeter than usual this year.
The now-matured young fig tree in the front also has a heavy crop ripening in the sun, and the birds don’t have a clue. I tasted the first few ripe ones yesterday and today, and they, too, seem sweeter than last year’s crop, likely because we’ve had so much less rain. Also an unknown variety, this tree produces green fruit that suddenly almost double in size and turn a subtle yellowish green just as they become ripe – a color that apparently triggers no hint of recognition in the local feathered fruit peckers. These figs are enormous when ripe – at least three times the size of the brown ones in back.
My 5-year-old daughter has insisted for months that she intends to be a chef. She has been watching the figs getting bigger on the vine, and sometimes when I’m working on the computer she comes and climbs into my lap and demands I do a Google image search for figs. Then she has me click on good-looking photos in the hopes that there will be a recipe attached. She’s found some good ones that way, and is really determined to try them out.
→ B.Dunn, Jun 27, 2009, 02 31 pm
