Grit....

THESE SISTERS ARE ANYTHING BUT CRABBY

On theUrbanna, Va. waterfront, almost any afternoon spring to fall, visitors are liable to link up with two ladies who are anything but crabby. Thought to be the only females in the world commercially licensed to catch blue crabs, sisters Beatrice Taylor and Catherine Via can quickly make any visitor feel welcome at Payne’s Crab House.

“There’s been a crab house right here on Urbanna Creek since the 1880s, when J.W. Hurley & Son Seafood was founded,” Via says.

According to Via, Boyd Hurley and his father ran it until the 1950s, when it was taken over by their father, who had brought the family over from Tangier Island in 1933. Taylor and Via, who grew up crabbing with their father and other relatives, took over the business when their father died in 1977.

The always-smiling sisters specialize in soft-shell crabs, which are blue crabs in their moulted states. Soft-shells, called ‘peelers’ by locals, have become a delicacy in many Southern homes and restaurants, thanks to their sweet taste and tender texture.

PULLING POTS

Although visitors are welcome anytime, the sisters start early every day. Taylor typically heads out on her boat right around sunrise.  Recently cleaned peeler pots are piled high all around her as she makes her way to her runs of pots in nearby Rappahannock River.

“I simply never tire of being out on the water, whether I catch crabs or not," says Taylor.  “Of course, it’s somehow easier to pull up pots when they have some peelers in them!”

She typically has more than 125 pots in the water during the busiest runs of soft-shell crabs.  She pull each pot up by hand from the river floor, six days a week, from spring to fall.

Female soft-shell crabs are typically drawn to the pots by male crabs that Taylor places in each of the traps.  The males have proven to draw in more females and are especially helpful during mating periods right after full moons. Other peelers, both male and female, make their way into the pots looking for shelter where they can moult in peace.

A typical mid-summer day on the river might yield 50 to 100 peeler crabs, as well as a sprinkling of large blue hard-shell crabs that the sisters also sell.  Once or twice each spring, there’s usually a two- or three-week period when moulting kicks into high gear.  Then Taylor's take typically coming in at two or three times her normal day. Locals call this a ‘rush’ and Taylor, who is in her early 60's, says the timing seems to be a combination of water temperature, moon cycles, and some sort of crab communication.

CALLINECTES SAPIDUS

The blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) is big business in the Chesapeake Bay, which Urbanna Creek and the Rappahannock River feed into. In fact, thanks to crabs and other marine life, Virginia is the third largest producer of marine products in the nation--behind just Alaska and Louisiana.

It’s thought that between 150 and 250 million blue crabs come out of the Bay each year. Soft-shells make up just a fraction of this number, but about 95% of the nation’s soft-shells are from the Chesapeake.

For people like Taylor and Via, it’s much more than a business; it’s a way of life that they have pursued happily in the wake of watermen like their father and those before him.

SOFT-SHELLS FOR SALE

By mid-day, Taylor is usually back at Payne’s Crab House, where Via, who is in her mid-70s, has been working since sunrise with more than two dozen crab floats. The sisters swear the hard work keeps them both feeling much younger than their years.

The floats are basically holding tanks for caught crabs, as the sisters wait for the them to moult so they can neatly pack them for sale. Crabs in the floats are in various states of moulting. From decades of intimate handling, Taylor and Via can tell in an instant what stage of molting a crab is in. Crabs may moult a half-dozen times or more as they grow, and each successive moulting taking longer as they get larger.

As the crabs moult, the sisters fish them out of the floats with nets and line them up live in special transportation boxes. Then they put them in cold storage until the trucks or visitors arrive to take them off for cooking.

A person can get a great soft-shell sandwich or platter just up the street at popular Shucker’s Restaurant. But there’s something special about buying soft-shells right at Payne’s Crab House, where the sisters’ smiles are almost as memorable as that first bite of a perfectly prepared soft-shell crab.

SOFT-SHELL CRAB SANDWICH RECIPE

Catherine Via uses this simple soft-shell sandwich recipe at home and during the Urbanna, Va. Oyster Festival, which is held the first full weekend in November.

-Clean crab. Basically, cut out eyes and gills, and remove the apron. Most seafood stores will do this for customers.
-Rinse.
-Mix flour and seafood spice blend to taste.
-Dredge crab in flour and shake off any major excess.
-Heat a small amount of vegetable oil over medium heat in a frying pan (Beatrice Taylor says about a 1/2” or less should do it--this is not deep frying).
-Cook until brown and crispy on each side.
-Serve on sandwich bread, with toppings and sauces of choice.