Foraging for Food

We went out with Bill Schuckel (our brother-in-law) in his small boat to go crabbing and prawn trapping. Setting out from Croftin, we first dropped two crab pots in about 35' of water and then crossed the bay to Salt Spring Island where we dropped 3 prawn traps in about 250' of water. The crab pots are baited with chicken parts; the prawn traps with some kind of pellets that the prawns can't even get at, though they can smell it. The traps need to stay down for about two hours, so we motored over to Vesuvius to eat lunch in the restaurant and while away the time. While there the clouds began to thin and it got warmer. We had put on three layers of clothes (long johns, clothes, and gore tex) to stay warm and dry. When we went back to pull up the pots we got 19 prawns and 1 large red rock crab.

That night Bill cooked up the prawns and crab and fried the oysters that Bob had bought in Quilicine. We ate them with a large salad. Yum!

The next day Joe (our nephew) invited us to go crabbing out of Genoa Bay. He has a larger boat with a more powerful motor. We drove over to Genoa Bay and waited. Genoa Bay has a marina, several interesting floating homes and some large pieces of art hung on boat houses and for sale. We motored over to where Joe dropped 4 crab pots. His boat is all set up with a spool to wind and unwind the rope, a device to pull the rope over as you pull up the pots and wind the rope onto the spool, etc. After dropping the pots we went across the bay to wait.

Joe knew a beach where the boat could be moored. There was a wonderful tree house made out of driftwood in a big madrone tree. Markus and Calder and Beren should take note.

When we returned to pull up the crab traps, three of them held crabs. Some were female and some were too small, but we kept 9-10 of them.

That night we went to Joe and Jane's B & B (Cobblestone Farm B & B) for dinner. They have remodeled the old farm house to create a B & B suite on the top floor with wonderful views, a huge bathroom and quiet. The farm is a working farm and Jane owns three horses (Pesto, Dijon and ?) and trains and competes with them. They also have three pigs they raise for slaughter, Oprah the large pot-bellied pig, laying hens and two dogs (Phoebe and Niles, the 3-legged whippet).

Joe fixed a fabulous dinner (asparagus wrapped in proscuitto, bread with a tapenade of sun-dried tomatoes and basil, crab risotto, salad, green beans with cherry tomatoes in a sauce with anchovies and oranges sliced with kalamata olives and sprinkled with dried roasted garlic and olive oil).

Anyone looking for a great place to stay on the island with really good food should check out their B & B. It's next door to a bistro and winery with really good food also.