![]() Still, many crustacean connoisseurs remain fiercely loyal to the Chesapeake blue crab. What's the big deal about Chesapeake Bay crabs?Blue crabs are not exclusive to the Bay-they can be found in brackish estuaries along the East Coast through the Gulf of Mexico and as far south as Uruguay. Blue crabs can be harvested and sold all year round, but they come from different waters. Unlike some crab houses, Ivy City buys and serves exclusively Maryland crabs. He oversees all the crab purchasing for the tavern and the market, and they go through about 25 bushels per week. They're big and plump and fatty," says Jay Caputo, the executive chef at Ivy City Smokehouse. "I personally believe that mid-August through September is the best time for crabs. While most consumers start getting excited about crabs as soon as Memorial Day rolls around, it's actually better to wait until late summer or early fall to indulge. That's what everybody looks for," Rorapaugh says. "As you get into the later months, September, even as far as October, you have really hard crabs and you have very full crabs. "As you get further away from that cycle of life, you get crabs that are fuller."Īs a result, the early months of crab season are more of a gamble when it comes to how heavy or full a crab is as they may be caught just after a molt. "Crabs can grow up to 30% in size per shed," he says. John Rorapaugh, the Sustainable Director at ProFish, explains that crabs that have just molted aren't filling out their shell as much as those that have been growing for weeks. ![]() Once a crab sheds its shell, it begins the process of hardening again. This variance is a result of the crab's life cycle, which revolves around molting, or shedding its shell as it grows (hence soft shell crabs). However, the quantity and quality of product fluctuates significantly during this 10-month window. ![]() When is crab season in the Chesapeake Bay region?Legally speaking, crab season this year runs from March 17 to November 30 in Virginia and April 1 to December 15 in Maryland. And by hammers we mean wooden mallets-for cracking crabs, of course!Ĭrab season is moving full steam ahead, so we asked a few local experts to answer all of our burning questions about the beloved blue crab. Summer in the mid-Atlantic means one thing for seafood fans: hammer time. ![]()
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