Capital Cuisine

Blue Crabs and Green Grass

By Joyce Siegel

I can remember it like it was yesterday. It was love at first bite. Digging my teeth into a Chesapeake Bay steamed crab was, for me, the ultimate, most delicious, yummiest gastronomic adventure of all time, easily replacing my former favorite of hot pastrami on rye with deli mustard and half sour pickles (after all, I am a native New Yorker).
My first encounter with a steamed crab was more than 50 years ago, but my love affair with this crustacean persists... steamed first, soft shell second, in a salad or “Imperial” next and, maybe after that, as a stuffing for rockfish or flounder. Crabmeat was my craved food through three pregnancies, crab feasts my preferred home entertainment (outside on the patio, at a table covered with newspaper), my choice for a day trip meal (waterside) and what I wanted for my 50th birthday party.

In those halcyon days gone by, when crabs were plentiful, we’d buy big “Jimmies” by the bushel, and it wasn’t even a splurge. We used to fry the soft shells during the months they were available, hardly making a dent in our budget. Are those days gone forever? Along with the Chincoteague oysters we ate with such abandon? Not if I . . . not if other crab lovers can help it. Crab lovers of the Chesapeake Region, it’s time to unite and do something to halt the scourge on our beloved Chesapeake Bay blue crabs! And we can. Starting right in our gardens, right on our lawns.

This is the way it works: the chemicals we put in or on our lawn quickly seep into the streams that feed into the bay. Much of the nitrogen and phosphorus, the chief pollutants in our rivers, streams and yes, the bay, are attributable to the lush, green lawns we treat with tender, loving and lethal care, lethal to the crabs, that is. That’s because the chemicals help cause a growth in algae. The overabundance of algae causes a reduction in sunlight. Sunlight is essential to the growth of underwater plants, Submerged Aquatic Vegetations (SAV). The SAV serve as a nursery for baby fish and molting crabs and are therefore vital in the crab’s life cycle. Clams and oysters are similarly affected.

Here’s the dilemma: we love our green lawns and we love our blue crabs. Can we have both? So much damage has been done to the bay, can we (pardon the pun) “turn the tide?” If you want those crab feasts again (like I do) the answer must be “Yes.”

So, here are some positive things every lawn owner can do in order to help the bay get healthy:

• Test your soil. You are probably using too much fertilizer. The Cooperative Extension Service has low priced soil test kits. Call 1-800-342-2507 for more information.
• Regarding pests, use chemicals as a last resort, not as a first response.
• Wait until fall to fertilize. There is less rain and therefore less runoff. Don’t apply fertilizer before a storm.
• Grasscycle. When the lawn is mowed leave the clippings. They are a natural fertilizer. Remember to mow high. If your mower is set to about 2½ inches, the taller grass will help prevent growth of weeds.
• Reduce the size of your lawn by planting native plants. Information about native plants is readily available, and www.Chesapeakenatives.org is a good place to start.
• Keep your front and backyard permeable. That is, use less concrete. Create patios where water can seep into the ground.
• Reduce runoff by creating a small rain garden—a shallow depression, a low area where water can collect from impervious areas (driveways and patios). Plant water loving ferns there.
• If you use a lawn service, check to see if it follows the Chesapeake Club standards. If not, find a service that does and one that is sensitive to the environmental impact of lawn care.
• Pick up after your pet. Flush droppings down the toilet or put them into a degradable bag and into the trash.
• Compost. Find a hidden corner of the yard where you can put vegetable peels, coffee grinds and, if you don’t want to grasscycle, your grass clippings.
• Don’t over-water. That should help two ways: (a) with less runoff; (b) with lower water bills.
• Spread the word, not the fertilizer. Become a crab, not a crabby ambassador!

I have an old and much worn “T” shirt that says “Maryland is for Crabs,” but that’s not the case anymore. Now the area’s groceries are carrying crabmeat from other countries. We can no longer take the Chesapeake Bay blue crab for granted. It’s going to take real effort to save it, so we can savor it.

Joyce Siegel is a freelance writer based in Bethesda, MD.