Honest Fare

Homosassa Florida. Who knew you even existed? Not I. Not until Katie, our dear friend and woman of the sea opened our eyes to scalloping. Speaking of eyes, did you know scallops have between 50 and 100 of them?

Bay scallop season in Florida, which usually starts July 1, opened early this year and we were lucky enough to get invited along last weekend to join some real scalloping pros, including, but not limited to this guy:

and this guy:

Katie’s had me itching to go scalloping since last year when she came home with a harvest of some of the sweetest little bivalves I’ve ever tasted. Last Saturday, I finally got my chance. We left Orlando by 7 a.m. and by 10 a.m. were straight cruising across the calm west coast waters, spotting dolphins and giant sea turtles and taking in the intermittent tiny patches of of Florida.

We anchored into water about 6 feet deep, put on our snorkel gear and started looking for dinner. The little fellas like to hang out in the sea grass and brown stuff so you have to really keep focused while kicking yourself across the surface of the water.

(photo taken by katie with underwater camera)

When you spot one, you take a giant breath and dive head first, butt to the sky, and try to grab more than one of them while you’re down there. And keep your fingers out of their way cause they’ll snap at you! It doesn’t really hurt though…I let them get me a couple times on purpose cause it’s kind of cute. And cause I figure they at least deserve to go down (or come up?) fighting.

(photo taken by katie)

And if you’re wondering why Jason looks bummed it’s cause his mask kept flooding him out with water because his beard was preventing proper suction to his face. Who would have thought, but it makes perfect sense.

Mother Nature giveth.

We filled 2 coolers this size with scallops and reached our legal limit in about an hour. It was insane. Apparently that’s very unusual and it would usually take all day to get these many. I think I’m good luck and that they should always have me on the boat. Just saying.

Okay so it wasn’t ALL hunch punch and sunshine. There was some serious work to do shucking and cleaning the scallops when we got back.

First you pry them open

revealing all their innards and eyes and the object of your affection – one perfect little adductor muscle nestled within (that’s the part you eat).

Come to find out that if you’re super legit in the scalloping world, you suck out said innards with a high-powered shop vacuum. Jesus, really? Yes. And apparently it’s the latest trend cause we could hear the shop vacs a-buzzing all along the water. Gross, but the definition of efficiency, as the alternative would be to pull out and wash away all their guts by hand.

Good ole Florida boys doing their thing.

Once you’ve got them all cleaned up, you scoop out the meaty muscle with a spoon.

It’s funny cause I never buy bay scallops or even order them on the menu cause I always think of them as rather inferior. What a jerk I am. And why do we always want what’s bigger? Anyway, I don’t know if it’s just how fresh they are or that they’ve been collected with so much love and enthusiasm, but the bay scallops I’ve had out of the Homosassa waters off the west coast of Florida are fantastic.

You know I’ll have some scallop recipes coming your way soon!

This is Katie wearing her best snorkel-grin. She has an awesome blog called pejorativejinx where she chronicles her many outdoor adventures. Go check it out for more images of our trip and and other wild Florida stuff. Pejorativejinx.