Lindy’s Wholesale Crabs Fisherman’s Creek Little Choptank River Nov. 2

For the past two weeks that we’ve been in the Chesapeake, we’ve seen crab boats, lots of crab pots, and gone out for dinner twice, but we neglected to have any crab from the Chesapeake. We failed to act on previous opportunities for a crab dinner in Baltimore and Annapolis, and the Robert Morris Inn in Oxford was closed. By now Sarah’s cravings for crab cakes were consuming more and more of her waking thoughts. Lucky for us while searching out a quiet anchorage in the Little Chop Tank, Harry noticed Lindy’s Seafood that was not too far from a promising looking creek. Coincidentally, Sarah happened to have just watched a documentary which featured Lindy’s as one of “the” three of the top places for crab in the Chesapeake. Odyssey in Cambridge was another which we visited last trip.  Clearly we were destined to get to Lindy’s.

We had to motor all the 20 miles from Oxford to the Little Choptank to avoid the worst of the rain and due to the angle of the winds, but we didn’t regret it as we dropped anchor off of Cherry Point in Fisherman’s Creek before noon and with only a little rain to dampen our spirits. We had lunch on Juno and because we didn’t want to walk 2.3 miles to Lindy’s with the certainty of some rain, we used Google Maps to find a dock owned by a business right next to Lindy’s, called them and obtained approval to tie up our dinghy at their dock for the 15 minutes needed to obtain fresh crab meat at Lindy’s. 

We could smell Lindy’s before we actually saw the clouds of steam coming out of the shed used to steam the crabs and entered into the no frills building where they sold steamed crabs by the bushel (definitely more than the two of us could consume) or tubs of crabmeat, minimum size being one pound.   Harry inquired about oysters and asked for four to accompany the much anticipated crab cakes. The woman at the counter asked “four dozen”?  Apparently a dozen was the smallest order so Harry passed on oysters this time.  We bought a pound of lump crab and headed back to Juno by dinghy. We had some coffee and hot cocoa to warm up as we were a little cold and wet but we were excited for dinner.  Dinner certainly did not disappoint us other than realizing we should have bought two pounds. Tonight we each enjoyed two of the best, fresh, homemade crab cakes and for about $4/crab cake - quite the bargain considering that restaurants charge about $24/crab cake for the same thing.   We are both are aware that like many fisheries, it seems the crab fishery is over harvesting so we did feel a little guilt in our gastronomic adventures.

For those wanting a simple and delicious crab cake recipe Sarah used this one from Sally’s Baking Addiction. Despite Sally’s insistence that parsley is required, well they tasted great without it. Sarah used this recipes with canned crab in the Bahamas last time and while it’s okay for those with access, freshly steamed crab meat is the way to go.

Red sky in the morning as we awoke in Oxford

 

Lindy Seafoods industrial crab steamer

 

Sarah's tasty crab cakes