Behind Every Juicy Soft Shell Crab Lies a Hardworking Crab FarmerFlorida Vacation Marries Agriculture and TourismBy Susan Scott SchmidtBehind every juicy soft shell crab lies a hardworking crab farmer. It’s something we all forget. Most Americans have lost sight of where food comes from. On an agritourism vacation in north central Florida, I rediscovered that link. Agritourism is a marriage of agriculture and tourism. Working farmers open up their operations to tourists, so they can see exactly where food comes from.
All over north Florida, farmers are at work putting food on our tables in family-owned businesses. In the picturesque Gulf shore town of Cedar Key, former fisherman Mike Hodges spends his days planting clams on the bottom of the ocean. Hodges buys clam seeds the size of pinheads. The clams sit on screens in a tank and grow by eating algae.
Along the way, he must dodge danger from stingrays in the clam beds. After visiting with Hodges, we stopped at Cedar Key’s Island Room, named one of Florida’s top 50 restaurants, for a lunch of steamed clams on the half shell, softshell crabs almondine, and meaty crab cakes. On the next stop, at Capo Crabs in Cross City, Cathy Capo babysits blue crabs. Waiting for them to shed their skins and become the coveted soft shells, she must check the crab tank every four hours. She and her husband harvest female blue crabs from the ocean and create an artificial environment with salinity and water temperature for them to molt. The crabs ready to shed their skins are called “busters.” Shipped up north, they command prices of 50 cents to $2.50 each. Cathy and her husband trade shifts at the tank, while she works at school during the day. They hustle to make their money in a short growing season from March to June. Popping a breaded crab into a deep fryer, Capo admits she sometimes feels a pang of sympathy for the doomed crabs. “I see them looking at me with their eyes and I say ‘stop that. Don’t look at me like that. You’re helping put kids through college.’” At Thomas Honey in Lake City, bee farmer Mike Thomas is working beside a sign that reads “BEE ALL THAT YOU CAN BEE.” He quit his job with the post office in 1958 to pursue a career his mother called “chasing a lot of bugs.” Thomas’s family owned business is the nation’s largest producer of clover honey.
The O’Tooles are the only certified herb growers in north Florida. Strolling through her garden, she pointed out garlic chives, Italian parsley, fennel and medicinal larkspur, mugwort and comfrey plants. O’Toole’s gift shop is a delight, where visitors can buy everything from herbs and chutneys to an “inoculated” log which will sprout shiitake mushrooms – perfect for your hard-to-buy-for relatives.
Her daughter is sorting pupas. She and husband Steve ship more than 30,000 chrysalises per year across the country for weddings, funerals, birthday parties and graduations. She ships live butterflies in boxes with an ice pack at the bottom. The State of Florida also operates two farm-related parks. At Dudley Farm Historic State Park in Newberry, the state has recreated a nineteenth century working Florida farm with a wonderful living history tour. At Forest Capital State Museum Park in Perry, you can see an old Florida cracker homestead and exhibits on foresting. A short drive from Cedar Key, we stayed at the Steinhatchee Landing Resort in the romantic honeymoon cottage. Along the lush banks of the fish-rich Steinhatchee River, owner Dean Fowler has recreated a 1920’s Florida cracker village with all the modern amenities in his 36 cottages and the brand new “Dancing Waters” wedding chapel. The cottages feature fireplaces, Jacuzzis, two showers, a full kitchen and enormous beds. On another night, at the historic Telford Hotel in White Springs, we retraced the steps of famous visitors like John D. Rockefeller, William Taft and Theodore Roosevelt. The 1902 hotel once hosted visitors taking the healing sulphur waters. Today it has been turned into a B&B with the bathrooms down the hall and lots of character. If You’re Going:To arrange farm tours, call Tourist Development Council of Columbia County – 386-758-1397 Telford Hotel and Restaurant, White Springs, Florida – 386-397-2000 Steinhatchee Landing Resort, Steinhatchee, Florida – 352-498-3513 or www.Steinhatcheelanding.com The Island Room Restaurant, Cedar Key, Florida – 352-543-6520 Images by Susan Scott Schmidt |
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My vacation included a behind-the-scenes look at production of strawberries, honey, softshell crabs, clams, fish, milk and herbs. It also included a night at the historic Telford Hotel in White Springs and the romantic Steinhatchee Landing Resort.
When they’ve become large enough to leave the nursery, he places them in mesh bags. For eight to 12 weeks, they lie on the bottom of the ocean. The he hauls them up and places them in his sorter, where they are graded by size, ready to become clams clasino or linguine with clam sauce. His clams are shipped to markets in New York, Maine and New Jersey.
Meanwhile, at O’Toole’s Organic Herb Farm in Madison, Betty “B” O’Toole looks like a garden sprite herself as she leads guests around 114 acres of organic herb farm. “We were originally trying to restore land that had been in my family for 150 years,” she recalls.
At the Shady Oak Butterfly Farm, the Smiths are shipping butterflies in glassine envelopes all over the country. On a tour, she shows groups how to catch a butterfly and hold it by its feet.