Post by Steve Sutton on May 2, 2010 14:35:20 GMT -5
Little Miss Judy’s Believe It or Not!
Photo by Captain Judy Helmey
These are cooked blue crabs. As you can see when cooked the crabs become reddish orange. To the top of the picture is a male crab. Right under the male is a female crab. I love to eat boiled crabs especially when eating them same day that you caught them. Since I have always had the cream of the crop when it comes to seafood I am spoiled.
As a child my father taught me a lot about crabbing. Since he loved blue crabs this schooling came easy to him. I became a great crabber catching baskets of crabs, which daddy cooked up in the evening. I will never forget when he taught me how to put a crab to sleep. The first thing when it comes to a live crab is the fact that it will “bite the tar out of you!” I really don’t know where that saying came from, because as you know we are not full of tar. My father would grab the live crab by its hind legs, which kept them from reaching under and biting him. Once he had full control of the crab he simply turned it over and would rub what might be called the stomach area. This automatically put the crab in a trance. Once you get them to this stage they won’t try and bite you unless you wake them up. As a small child I used to put a lot of blue crabs asleep, but I still kept my distance. My father said something many years ago that still sticks with me today. He said, “Once a crab or turtle latches on to you they won’t let go till lightning strikes!” Now that I think about it, I have to wonder where daddy came up with this stuff! There is one thing for sure “drinking could have been involved!”
My father loved to eat just about anything with the exception of beets. According to my father hog eat beets and he didn’t want any part of them. However, I must admit that he certainly did love a big pig picking, pork BBQ sandwiches, and pork anyway that you care to fix it. My father also loved fresh cooked blue crab such as these. When most people eat blue crabs they back them, (pull back off) pull out the surrounding insides, crack the body in half, and then they go to picking the meat out. However, my father didn’t see much success in all this picking. So therefore he would back his crab and crack it in 4 quarters. Then he would simply put the entire quarter of steamed cooked crab in his mouth, break it up, eat the meat, and then he would spit out the empty shells.
Now I have to say, “I have never seen anyone ever do this except for my father!” Most people would be scared to put all of these sharp shells in their mouth. I know I was! Once he had sucked all of the crabmeat out, he simply spit the clean crab parts out. I remember this like it was yesterday…daddy looked like he was spiting shells like bullets coming out of a gun. If you have been reading my stories you already know that my father was one of a kind. There will never be another one like him and I miss him more everyday!
Thanks for reading CAPTAIN JUDY HELMEY
Photo by Captain Judy Helmey
These are cooked blue crabs. As you can see when cooked the crabs become reddish orange. To the top of the picture is a male crab. Right under the male is a female crab. I love to eat boiled crabs especially when eating them same day that you caught them. Since I have always had the cream of the crop when it comes to seafood I am spoiled.
As a child my father taught me a lot about crabbing. Since he loved blue crabs this schooling came easy to him. I became a great crabber catching baskets of crabs, which daddy cooked up in the evening. I will never forget when he taught me how to put a crab to sleep. The first thing when it comes to a live crab is the fact that it will “bite the tar out of you!” I really don’t know where that saying came from, because as you know we are not full of tar. My father would grab the live crab by its hind legs, which kept them from reaching under and biting him. Once he had full control of the crab he simply turned it over and would rub what might be called the stomach area. This automatically put the crab in a trance. Once you get them to this stage they won’t try and bite you unless you wake them up. As a small child I used to put a lot of blue crabs asleep, but I still kept my distance. My father said something many years ago that still sticks with me today. He said, “Once a crab or turtle latches on to you they won’t let go till lightning strikes!” Now that I think about it, I have to wonder where daddy came up with this stuff! There is one thing for sure “drinking could have been involved!”
My father loved to eat just about anything with the exception of beets. According to my father hog eat beets and he didn’t want any part of them. However, I must admit that he certainly did love a big pig picking, pork BBQ sandwiches, and pork anyway that you care to fix it. My father also loved fresh cooked blue crab such as these. When most people eat blue crabs they back them, (pull back off) pull out the surrounding insides, crack the body in half, and then they go to picking the meat out. However, my father didn’t see much success in all this picking. So therefore he would back his crab and crack it in 4 quarters. Then he would simply put the entire quarter of steamed cooked crab in his mouth, break it up, eat the meat, and then he would spit out the empty shells.
Now I have to say, “I have never seen anyone ever do this except for my father!” Most people would be scared to put all of these sharp shells in their mouth. I know I was! Once he had sucked all of the crabmeat out, he simply spit the clean crab parts out. I remember this like it was yesterday…daddy looked like he was spiting shells like bullets coming out of a gun. If you have been reading my stories you already know that my father was one of a kind. There will never be another one like him and I miss him more everyday!
Thanks for reading CAPTAIN JUDY HELMEY
Attachments:
