Its Crabby Season Again!

Its winter on the Oregon Coast. The sky and sea have taken on the color of molten lead, and the wind whips up great whitecaps in the surf. Rain falls sideways, and seagulls hang suspended in the wind waiting for lunch to be washed up onto the beach.

And it's crab season too; Dungeness crab season to be exact. Actually, it is always crab season, but in winter the crab shells harden, the meat gets full and heavy, and the price comes down. This year the crab boats are getting $1.40 per pound and cooked crabs are selling for about $2.99 a pound. (In case you were wondering, only male crabs can be kept to ensure the survival of next year's crop.)

Many of the local crab boats go out of Garibaldi, which is located on Tillamook bay about 50 miles west of Forest Grove.

Crabs are caught by setting traps/pots baited with fish pieces, squid, clams, etc. (the smellier the better). The pots sit on the ocean floor and are connected by ropes to floats so that they can be located and pulled up. Commercial crabbers leave their pots our for several days at a time, but recreational crabbers pull their pots every hour or so in hopes that a big one will be inside.

From time to time, a float breaks loose and washes up in the surf to be used as a decoration by beachcombers.

Small private boats typically set their traps in the relatively calm bay waters.

The bigger commercial boats go out between the bay jetties and into the ocean. Their lights can be seen at night a mile or two offshore.

Crabbers are a hearty breed. During the prime winter season, the ocean can have 20 foot or bigger waves, winds gust up to 100 miles an hour, rains comes in sheets, and it can be really cold.

Although live crabs can be purchased for cooking at home, most people buy their crabs already cooked.

A good place to buy crabs is the Tillamook Bay BoatHouse in Garibaldi. (503 322-3600) Go north out of Tillamook for about 10 miles on Highway 101 and turn left just before the Shell gas station in Garibaldi. Then turn left again just before you go out onto the pier. There are signs to follow.

If you arrive at the right time, you can watch the crab boats unload their catch.

This is a day boat which means that the crabbers go out to set their pots and return to port in a single day. Then about 4 days later they go out again to empty the pots and rebait them. Larger boats might stay out for several days at a time and have many more pots to check.

It has been a good year for crabs. This load is headed for Ilwaco Washington by truck to be cooked and processed. Maybe some of them will even wind up in your grocery story after a few days (or more).

But why wait? The friendly BoatHouse people cook and sell crabs right on the spot. The process starts with live crabs, sometimes called green crabs. The green crabs are dumped into boiling seawater for about 15 minutes until they are bright red and then quickly cooled in ice water to stop the cooking process and keep the meat tender.

In goes the green crab.

Fifteen minutes later out comes the cooked red crab.

And then into the ice water.

From this point on, crabs are always kept on ice to keep them fresh. As with any seafood, the fresher the better, so the ideal situation involves going to the pier in Garibaldi, maybe watching your crab get cooked, and bringing it home on ice. If the weather is nice you can even find a picnic table and eat your crab on the spot with a great view of the ocean (and seagulls to clean up the scraps).

Most places that sell crabs will clean them for you. Often this is called "backing" because the back of the shell (actually the top) is removed, the insides are rinsed away, and, if requested, the crab is broken into two pieces along the midline. The crab meat is located in the legs and pincers, and in the body (sometimes called the crab lump).

Eating a crab requires cracking the shells with a small mallet or crackers to get at the meat. Some people use metal picks to pull meat from the shells but most just use the pointed tips of the crab legs for this purpose.

Some connoisseurs prefer to eat their crabs plain without any sauces, others dip crab pieces into melted butter, and still others like a seafood cocktail sauce (Heinz is really good with a little Beaver extra hot horseradish added). If you need some "crunch" with your crab, add a green salad with Blue Heron Blue Cheese Dressing (you can sample it in Tillamook) and a chunk of garlic toast.

If there is any crab left over after the big feast, it can be used to make an open-faced sandwich. Get some really sour sourdough bread (the San Francisco kind, not the wimpy Oregon kind), and lightly toast a few slices. Warm the crab in a microwave very gently if it has been refrigerated, and layer it on the sourdough toast.

Add some thin slices of Tillamook extra sharp cheddar cheese and broil for a few minutes until the cheese is melted. Top with paprika for color and enjoy with a chilled white wine from one of Oregon's great vineyards.

All of this good stuff is only about an hour drive from Forest Grove. And for those who are not wild weather lovers, it is common for bright sunny days with calm winds to follow coastal storms.

Even the gulls enjoy a respite from the wind and rain.

Oregon really is great place to live (and Pacific is a great school, too).

No Perks Disclaimer: All items described in this article were paid for in full by the author and nobody got any free crab for saying good things about the BoatHouse. Heinz didn't send any free cocktail sauce either.