Clayton Crab Company & Choptank Sweet Oyster Farm

[MetroMan]

Through a friend, I was presented the opportunity to participate in a DNR-hosted field trip. The trip was for "food bloggers", giving insight to maryland's commercial aquaculture. The trip was focused on crabs & oysters.

Well...today was quite the hoot. I had such a great time seeing the behind the scenes world of commercial crabbing/processing. The trip started out this morning at J.M. Clayton Crab Company in Cambridge, MD.

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The tour started at 10am, given by one of the owners, who is a direct descendant of the original owner who formed the company in 1890. He began by giving us a basic background lesson about the blue crabs. He talked about their life cycle, water temps, how to distinguish males & females, etc...stuff anyone who crabs pretty much knows.

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This trip was geared toward food bloggers, not crabbers, so the basic info was given.

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We were then shown the tanks where the softshell crabs were kept. That was pretty neat.

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After a basic background on the blue crab, we moved onto the steamer room. They had two HUGE pressure steamers. In each steamer, they load two of their steamer pots. Each pot held something ridiculous...like 20 bushels of crabs!

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The steamers are pressure steamers, operating at 15 psi. They steam the crabs until a temp of 235F is reached. This takes about 23 minutes. It was an impressive sight to see. The shear volume of their operation is CRAZY. After steaming, the crabs sit to cool. After cooling, they move to be picked.

The picking room was...well...I'll leave my personal feelings out of this and just report what it is. The room is full of people that sit all day and pick crabs. Everyone has their seat, and they labor away picking & separating crab meat for the entire day.

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Claws go to a separate table where people pick them...

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As the pickers work through piles of crabs, there are multiple staff members working in the room as well. One guy empties their trash cans full of picked shells. One guy sweeps the floor, and another guy literally shovels more crabs on the table to be picked. I have never seen crabs picked like this. The speed and efficiency at which they operate is astounding. Like robots with crab knives. Snap...crack...cut...scrape...pick...pick...pick.. .flip...crack...scrape...pick...

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Multiple times per day, the crab pickers take their containers for weigh-in. Full cans of separated meat (jumbo lump, lump, & backfin) are taken to scales. Each picker's production is tracked & recorded on a big "scoreboard". Weigh-ins are mandatory, so there is no slacking. Random samples are taken for quality control. The samples aren't eaten, but an inspector will comb through the contents of the can or container to check for shells. (Cans are used for the meat that will be pasteurized, containers are used for the crab meat that is sold fresh.)

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The crab meat cans are then sealed, ready for pasteurization. They still have one of their old school canners in operation.

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After canning, the canned crab is placed in wooden crates in which they are pasteurized, refrigerated, and shipped.

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Seeing the "pick house" was interesting to me for various reasons. Amongst the group, many questions were raised. How much do they get paid? They make a minimum of $7.40/hr. If they pick over a certain # of pounds per day, they make bonus pay as well. I don't remember the exact quota, but I remember doing the math when it was explained. They can't make much more than $12/hr, if I calculated correctly. They do not have health benefits. Workers Comp is about it. If healthcare reform goes into place next year, the Clayton company will possibly be forced to provide health coverage. Their company does not qualify as a "small business"...as they have around 100 employees (40-50 qualifies for small). Their workers are here (in the US) for enough time to qualify for health care provisions. As you can see in the pics/vids, most of the crab pickers are foreigners...mainly of Hispanic descent. I think they were Mexicans. They are here on H-2 work visas. They make more here than they would back in their native country. During the winter months when no crabs are harvested, they go back to their country to be with family. Clayton Company owns several properties in which housing is made available for employees...like dormitory-type setups. Employees have the option of securing their own housing as well. Clayton ensures all employees that come to work on H2 visas have housing. The employees get breaks throughout the day. Most of the pickers come back year after year. The topic of them "taking our jobs" came up. It was said that the processing of the paperwork for each employee creates 2.54 jobs here in our country. They never get enough local people to take the job after continual attempts to hire. So there that is...

This was interesting to me in many ways.


After leaving the Clayton company, we went to Choptank Sweet Oyster Farm. This was all new stuff to me. I've tried oysters twice in my life. Absolutely hated them both times. DISGUSTING!! So I went into this portion of the excursion with my bias. Oyster farming is pretty damn interesting. I mean...I don't even know where to begin. This is a huge oyster farm. THey have these floating mesh pot type devices in which the oysters grow. Its hundreds of thousands of oysters grown here.

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As the oysters grow in these pens, they cull & separate them according to size. This is a labor intensive job! They wade out into the water and pull in the pens. If some of the pens are out deep, they use a little boat.

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When the oysters are ready for market, they are cleaned using a pressure washer. They are put in a 100ct box, and shipped to market. Thats it!

Of course I couldn't come here and not eat oysters, despite my reservations. I slurped down the first one. Gah. Slippery, semi-mushy..UGH.

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"Bubba" continued to schuck oysters for our group. Thanks Bubba...

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The owner of the farm had the grill fired up. He was trying out a new recipe for us. He cooked the oysters on the grill. They were topped with a mixture he created. It consisted of romano cheese, olive oil, basil, and butter. Hmmmm...


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We kicked it up another notch by topping them with crab meat from earlier in the day, AND we added Siracha hot sauce. As much as I hate to admit it....this shit was GOOD! I ate like 6 or 7 of them this way.


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This was an OUTSTANDING excursion. I gained a new appreciation to all the effort these two companies put into flooding the market with the freshest seafood product. The care and attention to detail was astounding. I am thankful to have been presented this opportunity. I met a lot of great people, and I learned a lot today!

[Sun]

Wow.... At first I scanned through your post and thought "daaaaang that is long!" but I read every bit of it and viewed every image. Haha. That was a fun and interesting read. Thanks for sharing. I'm also moderately jealous of your trip.

[daddyg]

Awesome gob sharing thanks. I,m jeaious also nice trip,

[Yak Fish]

Wow.... At first I scanned through your post and thought "daaaaang that is long!" but I read every bit of it and viewed every image. Haha. That was a fun and interesting read. Thanks for sharing. I'm also moderately jealous of your trip.

I was going to respond but I'd end up saying the exact same thing as Sun. Thanks Metro. I really enjoyed checking out your post. I'm jealous too. I would have loved to see that.
Also, you chewed that oyster way too many times. Think of it more as a shot, once and done.

[Aesiegel]

That is a very unique opportunity. Thanks for sharing what you learned.
I'm just finishing up a book, "Beautiful Swimmers". It is a great read about crabbing and watermen. I highly recommend it.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...tiful_Swimmers

[mytmouse]

I was going to respond but I'd end up saying the exact same thing as Sun. Thanks Metro. I really enjoyed checking out your post. I'm jealous too. I would have loved to see that.
Also, you chewed that oyster way too many times. Think of it more as a shot, once and done.

Maybe that's why I hate Oysters too! All sandy and grainy... LOL

[Grady-Black]

Thanks Man! Very interesting.
Those oysters look sooooooo good!!
GB

[MetroMan]

Maybe that's why I hate Oysters too! All sandy and grainy... LOL

These weren't very sandy or grainy at all guy. They're grown/harvested at the surface.

Scroll to the bottom http://www.marineticsinc.com/aquaculture.htm
*hat tip*

[J.A. Veil]

Back in the 1980s, I worked for the Maryland Dept of the Environment, initially as a wastewater discharge permit writer and later as manager of the state's industrial discharge program. In those capacities I traveled all over the state and visited different industries to learn the processes they used to make their products and how they used clean water and generated wastewater. The industries for which I wrote permits ranged from huge steel mills, chemical plants, and power plants, to very small businesses like oyster packing houses and crab picking plants. Through those inspections I developed a great fondness for the lower eastern shore. It is really a beautiful area.

Your descriptions brought back some good memories from an earlier time in my life. Thanks.

I second Ed's recommendation about the book Beautiful Swimmers. I have read it several times and am about ready to read it again.

[ictalurus]

Thanks for the write-up, Langston. That was really interesting. I gotta say those operations looked way better than some of the fish houses I visited while working on my master's degree in terms of how the seafood was handled. That experience made me much more skeptical about "fresh" seafood signs.

[DOGFISH]

Very interesting. I must go along with the raw oyster thing. I also don't see the attraction. I do like the occasional fried oyster sandwich.


Thanks for the post.

[MetroMan]

The vid will remain up, so feel free to try to frame-by frame it. I'll try to make a slow-mo version for you...but I have no clue how well that will turn out (I dunno how many frames per second my phone shoots video at).

[Shady]

Excellent work.

Im in the same boat with you on raw oysters, but those grilled ones do look good and I too enjoy a fried oyster sandwich ocasionally.

I used to work with one of the sons of one of the Brooks brothers that run JM Clayton.

[Grilled]

nice read.. thanks!

[moc]

Thanks for the picture Metro. I have been wanting to take a tour like that on the eastern shore one day. On the other hand, all I can say ......"Lanston, where are my oysters!"