CrabbingInTheHood.com

This past weekend was one of the few ‘morning’ razor clam openings allowed by the WA Dept. of Fish & Wildlife this Spring 2009.

Of course, who were we to complain about the scheduled time for digging. Is there EVER a bad time to dig for Razor Clams?

We left the house around 4:30 in the a of m (Yikes!) and drove the 2 1/2 hours it takes to get out to the Coast. We stopped at the drive-thru Starbucks in Aberdeen for some badly needed Nectar of Life, and proceeded over to Copalis Beach where a GAZILLION other clamming enthusiasts shared the same idea.

We prefer Copalis Beach because its one of the few area beaches you can actually drive your car out onto without getting stuck in the sand (been there, done that, got the t-shirt).

The ‘pickins’ were what you would expect for this time of year. You definitely had to work a bit harder than usual to get your limit. The rain didn’t help matters any, making it somewhat challenging to see the clam’s “show.”

We ended up with about 45 or so, just enough for a good feed and a few left over to ’seal-a-meal’ for another day.

It takes just about as much time to clean the razor clams as it does to drive all the way out to the Coast and dig ‘em up. Fortunately, I had a couple of spare hands (thanks, Ben and Jerod!) and I was spared the ‘joy’ of cleaning these bad boys!

But, of course, I didn’t excuse myself from enjoying the fruit of our labors. After the boys got the clams all nice and cleaned, I dipped them in flour, egg, and cracker meal, then fried ‘em up golden brown. Some ketchup and horseradish mixed together makes the perfect sauce!

It’s a lot of work, but there’s few things in life more tasty than fried razor clams!

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Rich Jacobson is a licensed real estate professional providing empowerment and relentless representation for his clients of residential properties and vacant land throughout all of Kitsap County WA and portions of Pierce, Mason, and Jefferson Counties. You can also find him at KitsapLife.com and SOUNDBITEBLOG, or email at rich@windermere.com

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Yes, it’s true. I can’t deny it. I love crabs. And not just any ole’ crabs, mind you. But Dungeness Crabs. The delicious ‘mouth-watering’ variety that is plentiful here in the scenic Pacific Northwest.

When the crabbing season rolls around here on the Puget Sound WA, you can typically find me out cruising the deep, clear waters of Hood Canal in my trusty C-Dory, in search of the illusive ‘Dungies.’

As real estate professionals and blogging enthusiasts, we hear so much about ‘branding’ and how to effectively distinguish yourself from the masses.

In his book, “Realty Blogging,” well-know social media expert, Paul Cheney, talks about the importance of ‘Branding’ in your blog.

I’m wondering if using a crab may not necessarily be the most effective kind of ‘branding.’ Do I really want to be known as the “Crabby” real estate guy? Some crusty, hard-shelled bottom feeder? I mean, seriously, it’s nothing glamorous like “The Deadliest Catch.” About the most dangerous thing that’s happened to me is when I forgot to put the boat plugs in. I have the scar to prove it too!

I guess you can probably get away with such seemingly unprofessional ’branding’ on various social networking platforms like MySpace or Facebook. I’ve had a MySpace account for quite a while, but it’s not something I use for attracting business per se.

I know it may seem silly or unprofessional to some. But crabbin’ is one of my passions. There is something very primal and relaxing to me about being out on the ocean. All the stresses of my day quickly fall away the minute my boat’s in the water. The view of the massive Olympic Mountain Range rising up dramatically from the shore reminds me that there’s a much greater design and purpose behind this life that we live.

So yeah, I love crabs! It’s just one of the many reasons why I love living here on the Kitsap Peninsula in beautiful Washington State.

But you don’t have to worry. I doubt I’d ever go so far as to have a picture of a crab on my business cards. But I may just include a really great recipe for crab cakes in my next newsletter!

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Rich Jacobson is a licensed real estate professional providing empowerment and relentless representation for his clients of residential properties and vacant land throughout all of Kitsap County WA and portions of Pierce, Mason, and Jefferson Counties. You can also find him at KitsapLife.com and SOUNDBITEBLOG, or by email at rich@windermere.com

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Towards the end of this coming week, testosterone levels will be at an all time high as male bonding among the Jacobson men goes into full swing.

We’re talking March Madness and Razor Clamming! What a glorious combination!

As former residents of Lawrence KS, we’re avid/diehard KU Jayhawk fans. On Selection Sunday our brackets were skillfully filled out and proudly displayed on the kitchen refrigerator. Currently, Luke is in the lead, followed closely by brother, Elliot. Mom and Dad take a distant 3rd way tie.

Kansas soundly defeated Dayton earlier today and will play Michigan State this coming Friday in the Sweet Sixteen.

Rock Chalk, Jayhawk! GO KU!

Early Saturday morning, we’ll drive out to the Washington Coast for one of several Razor Clam digs of the 2009 Spring season. It takes us about 2 1/2 hours to drive out on Hwy. 3 through Shelton, past Aberdeen & Hoquiam, and then on up to Copalis Beach. Four area beaches will be opened to harvesting on that morning, including Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis, and Mocrocks. I prefer Copalis because you can drive your vehicle right onto the beach, park it, and walk just a short distance down to the surf.

Next to crabbing, I enjoy digging Razor Clams almost as much. It’s a great time for male bonding and experiencing the awesome, breathtaking scenery that comes from living here in the Pacific Northwest.

There’s a lot of work that goes into harvesting Razor Clams. Shoving the clam gun barrel deep into the sand quickly, then pulling it out under suction, uses muscles in your back that have been hibernating since high school.

Then, when you get your bounty home, the cleaning process takes nearly as long as the drive out to the beach! There’s a very methodical process to cleaning the clams, and the ‘EASY’ button doesn’t work!

But I tell ya, when you dip the clams in flour, egg, and cracker crumb, and fry those bad boys up, there is nothing better on the planet than eatin’ Razor Clams! They’re especially good reheated in the morning along with scrambled eggs.

Such are the rewards of living here on the Kitsap Peninsula WA – making your own smoked salmon, pulling up live Dungeness Crab from Hood Canal, digging Clams or Oysters, or picking blackberries for a freshly baked pie!

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Rich Jacobson is a licensed real estate professional providing empowerment and relentless representation for his clients of residential properties and vacant land throughout all of Kitsap County WA and portions of Pierce, Mason, and Jefferson Counties. You can also find him at KitsapLife.com and SOUNDBITEBLOG.

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One of the best things I enjoy about living  out on the beautiful Kitsap Peninsula here in scenic Washington State, is taking my 16 ft. C-Dory out on the Hood Canal, part of the extensive inland waterways of Puget Sound. The Hood Canal is a long, deep, narrow strip of water wedged in between the Kitsap Peninsula and the picturesque Olympic Peninsula. The Olympic Mountain Range rises up rather dramatically from the edge of the water. The scenery is absolutely breathtaking.! 

One of the many benefits of boating on the Hood Canal is recreational crabbing. The Dungeness Crab is the prized catch in these waters. The season typically opens the first week of July and runs through Labor Day weekend. The Washington Department of Fish & Game is extremely active in monitoring sports fishing in our state, so you better be in compliance with all current rules and regulations! (WA Dept. of Fish & Wildlife)

We launch our boat out at Miami Beach in Seabeck WA. We learned through experience to be mindful of the tide schedule. If you go out too close to low tide, you will have a rough time getting your boat down the ramp. So we usually launch an hour or two before the peak of high tide. (WA Tide Schedules)

Once on the water, we head over towards Dabob Bay, just around the Toandoes Peninsula, and prepare to lower our crab pots. You can purchase crabbing gear from the Sportsman Warehouse in Silverdale. You can figure on spending a minimum of $80 per rig, including the crap pot (cage), buoy & flag, 100′ of weighted line, bait box, and weights. Being bottom-dwellers, crabs will eat just about anything, but they seem to be partial to salmon guts. Several of our area supermarkets (Silverdale Red Apple Market and Central Market in Poulsbo WA) save the guts when they clean the fish, and sell them for crab bait. 

We lower the crab pots (usually in about 60 to 100 feet of water) and then head over to Pleasant Harbor, a quaint little port nestled on the Olympic side. They have a convenience store, pizza parlor, and deck overlooking the harbor. We’ll grab some cold drinks, pork-out on pizza, and catch some rays as we wait a couple hours in hopeful expectation that our pots will fill up. 

We head back and pull up our crab pots, carefully extracting the prized booty. We prefer to clean the crabs while we’re out on the water. It makes for less clean-up later and allows you to put more edible crab into the pot when cooking. We also bring salt water back with us, to use for boiling the crab in. Some people prefer to use fresh water and add a crab boil spice pouch. I have found that boiling the crab in saltwater gives it a really great natural flavor. There is a difference of opinion on how long to boil the crab. I have found that 12 to 15 minutes after reaching boiling point is more than enough time. I’ll drain the water, and put the crab into a big stainless bowl, covering it with ice to cool it quickly. Some people like to dip their crab in melted butter, but I prefer to eat it right out of the shell.

There are few things better in life than spending a few relaxing hours out on the Hood Canal, bringing home some fresh crab, and porking out!

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Rich Jacobson is a licensed real estate professional providing empowerment and relentless representation for his clients of residential properties and vacant land throughout all of Kitsap County WA and portions of Pierce, Mason, and Jefferson Counties. You can also find him at KitsapLife.com, and SOUNDBITEBLOG.

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You have to understand what it is that motivates any person in their right mind to ever consider buying a boat in the first place.

Crab. Yummy, tasty Crab. Lots of Crab.

Our initially sad, but comical efforts with the Wally Mart inflatable left much to be desired. Hence, the purchase of the sea-worthy C-Dory!

Now it doesn’t usually take all that long, from the time you buy your first boat, and enjoy the brief thrill of ownership, to quickly realize what an utterly ’stupid’ and ‘idiotic’ purchasing decision you’ve made.

The learning curve of safe boat operation is a painful and costly succession of errors.

Our first trip out was disasterous! We went over to Brownsville Marina in Bremerton, one of the better launching spots in the area. We got the boat about halfway down the slightly steep ramp when the winch strap ’snapped!’ Luckily, we had the security chain attached, and the boat only slipped down a few inches. The Marina Store was conveniently located nearby, so we purchased a new winch strap (the first in a very long line of expenses)

Let me stop right here and just mention one of the basic tenets of ‘Murphy’s Law of Boat Repairs:’

“Whenever you need to buy something to repair your boat, you will never, ever be remotely close to a store that sells discount boat parts, or anything that even remotely resembles a bargain priced item.”

We installed the over-priced, gold-plated, diamond studded winch strap and lowered our vessel into the cool, blue waters….

For the next several hours, we vainly attempted every conceivable option known to man in an effort to coax/ellicit life from our 40 horse Johnson outboard motor. When that failed, we switched our novice attentions to the 9 horse kicker motor. Nothing there either. It was an outboard motor tag team. They were both in cahoots against us.

All the while, as we toiled, sweat, and prayed for a motor miracle, we neglected to notice, that the tide was going out.

As the resident boating Newbies, what we didn’t realize, was at the Brownsville Marina, when the tide goes out, the launching ramp is rendered useless for several hours. The only thing worse than not being able to start our boat engine was having to sit helplessly at the dock, watching the paint peel, and waiting for the tide to come back in.

To make matters worse, because the launch ramp is directly adjacent to the marina store/cafe, our escapades were on full display for all the luncheoning patrons to see. We provided some really great comic relief!

You know, sometimes, life is a lot like learning how to safely operate a boat. Inevitably, you’re going to make a few mistakes along the way (okay, a lot of mistakes). Sometimes the mistakes are costly. Other times, they’re just frustrating, embarassing, and, well, just plain stupid. What’s important, is to learn from those mistakes. And it’s not simply a matter of learning what you did wrong, but learning what you can do right or better the next time.

Oh, the joys of boat ownership! Trust me, this is just the beginning of “Stupid Human Boat Tricks!”

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Rich Jacobson is a licensed real estate professional providing empowerment and relentless representation of clients throughout all of Kitsap County, and portions of Pierce, Mason, and Jefferson Counties. You can also find him on KitsapLife.com and his local real estate blog, SOUNDBITEBLOG.

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One of the favored pastimes here in beautiful Washington State is clam digging. The WA Dept. of Fish & Game has an excellent website full of helpful facts, resources, and regulations on harvesting shellfish.

There are many different varities of clams to be found along the shores and tidelands of Washington.

Some clams, like the Littleneck, are ideal for steaming and serving with drawn butter.

Several types of clams, like the Cockle, make good ingredients in chowder.

The larger varieities, like the Geoduck (pronounced Gooie) are big enough to fillet and fry.

I posted an earlier blog on Razor Clams, one of my preferred choices for taste.

One of the primary considerations for a successful clam dig is the local tides. The best time to dig is when there is a low or minus tide. Be sure to consult a local tide schedule before venturing out.

You also want to pay special attention to what is referred to as “Red Tides.” These are instances where certain environmental conditions can lead to an increased level of toxins in shellfish. The WA Health Dept. monitors these levels very closely and posts on-line bulletins to warn when these toxins reach unsafe levels.

The WDFW has a great FAQ about clams & oysters on their website. In addition, local expert Don Wiss offers some helpful Clam Facts on his website.

Life on the Kitsap Peninsula in scenic Washington State has some many interesting and enjoyable activities and pastimes to offer. It truly is a great place to call home!

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Rich Jacobson is a licensed real estate professional providing empowerment and relentless representation of clients throughout all of Kitsap County, and portions of Pierce, Mason, and Jefferson Counties. You can also find him on KitsapLife.com and his local real estate blog, SoundBiteBlog.

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One of my favorite native, locally-harvested epicurean delights here on the Kitsap Peninsula is Dungeness crab. During the off-season, we normally draw from our stockpile of frozen ‘Seal-A-Meal’ bags, and use cracked crab meat in various recipes.

One of the better recipes we’ve come across is one for Dungeness Crab Cakes. What makes this recipe so delicious is that the cakes comes out so moist!

Ingredients:
1 pound of Dungeness crab meat
2 heaping tablespoons mayonnaise
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 small onion, grated
1/2 tablespoon mustard powder
18 Ritz crackers, crumbled

Directions:

Combine all ingredients except the crackers. Add crackers crumbs in as close to sautéing as possible so that they crab cakes don’t get too moist from the other ingredients. Form into patties the size of small hamburger patties.

Sauté in a frying pan over medium-to-high heat in butter, 10 minutes per side. Make sure that it’s crispy outside but moist and juicy inside.

A simple tartar sauce to accompany the crab cakes can be made by mixing mayonnaise, grated onion and lemon juice, or ketchup mixed with horseradish.

Serves/makes 6. Enjoy!

Rich Jacobson is a licensed real estate professional providing empowerment and relentless representation of clients throughout Kitsap County WA, and portions of Pierce, Mason, and Jefferson Counties. You can also find him at KitsaapLife.com and SoundBiteBlog.

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