A Good Day to Dine

Early summer harvests have been slow starting this year. Yesterday, two of them that we anticipate most finally produced yield. Yesterday was a good day to dine!

In the morning, Michelle declared our rhubarb ready to eat. She picked a few stalks that met our customary standards of length and girth, and stewed them up for breakfast.

We’d almost begun to think we wouldn’t get very much from our rhubarb patch, which normally feeds us so well at this time of year (see Rhubarb’s On its Way). However, both patches seem to be making up for lost time.

In the afternoon, I went out on the bay to check the crab trap. I didn’t go with much hope; neighborhood discussions tell us that no one’s getting any crab. We like to bait with fresh caught scrap fish (see Bless You, Charlie White!) but I haven’t been able to catch anything to put in the bait capsule. We’d fallen back on an old standard, canned cat food. Our cat, Spice, has grown extremely finicky, so there’s always a few cans of rejected “flavors” available to the unsuccessful fisherman.

I’d already used and washed out one can with no success, and anticipated dumping another one. Luckily, I carried a couple of fish I’d caught earlier, chopped and bloody, just like the crabs like!

When I pulled the trap, I found two nice crab, an inch or so larger than the legal minimum. I’d pulled up a feast for two!

I’ve been jonesing badly for crab these last few weeks. We have neglected this excellent, free food resource over the last few years. Aly got so much of it as a child that she lost enthusiasm for it, and we looked elsewhere for our meals. For some reason, the craving really kicked in this year, and the previous “skunkings” at the pot have saddened me. Now, perhaps, the crab are moving in. If they are, and if I can keep catching fresh bait for them, maybe I’ll have more than we can eat before long?

I can deal with that.

 

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