PNW Cuisine (Eugene, John Day, Garibaldi: buy, price, groceries)

[tablemtn]

Harvesting crawdads from streams is an easy way to introduce kids to "the outdoors." Crayfish species in general have a habit of propelling themselves BACKWARDS, away from danger.

So if you swish one hand in front of a crawdad, it will either sit there impassively (in which case you just grab it; some of them are a bit dim-witted in this way), or it will shoot backward, in which case you catch it with your other hand, or with a net that you have stuck into its escape route.

Sometimes they are so plentiful that no bait is required to scoop up crawdad after crawdad. They tend to be more sluggish on hot days and in smaller, shallower, slower streams where the water heats up more quickly. They will laze around under the same small rocks for hours on end.

[Brenda-by-the-sea]

PNW cuisine is also quite eclectic. Mexican, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, French and Italian influences are all present (and sometimes fused together) in some variations of PNW dishes. The essence of the cuisine, though, is the opportunistic use of fresh, locally-sourced foodstuffs. So, that Thai dish might have peach chunks instead of mango and the truffles in your omlette Normande might be ones that you found while walking your dog in the open space behind the golf course, but there you are. It came from nearby and you're going to come up with a way to eat it.

[TravelingSilvers]

I have a question though. Are the crawdads basically found in the western part of the state closer to the shores, or can they be found throughout the whole state?

Also how are the dungeness crabs caught? Is that something where we'd need a boat to be able to catch them or do you catch them off the shore? Would we need cages to catch them?

Are there Farmers Markets up there also? The wife and myself enjoy getting our produce from local farmers when we can.

[Metlakatla]

Have idea about crawdads due to shellfish allergies.

Crabs: How to Catch Crab on the Oregon Coast

Farmers markets are everywhere.

[TravelingSilvers]

Thank you much for that quick response Metlakatla.
Also I didn't know you could hunt/eat Owls. I'll have to learn how to fish all over again probably.
We basically only have lakes to fish at around here. So stream/river fishing would be new, probably have to learn fly fishing and have no idea what's involved to fish from the Ocean.

[Hawk J]

Originally Posted by TravelingSilvers

I have a question though. Are the crawdads basically found in the western part of the state closer to the shores, or can they be found throughout the whole state?

Also how are the dungeness crabs caught? Is that something where we'd need a boat to be able to catch them or do you catch them off the shore? Would we need cages to catch them?

Are there Farmers Markets up there also? The wife and myself enjoy getting our produce from local farmers when we can.

Some folks use these
Crab and Lobster Catchers for Crabbing - Not Crab Traps - Great for Dungeness Crab, Blue Crab, Box Crab, Stone Crab, Red Rock Crab, Mud Crab, Swimmer Crab and others while crab fishing and lobster fishing. Crab gear and lobster gear that's castable.

There are some good friendly folks on the www.oregonfishingforum.com

[TechmanOR]

Originally Posted by Larry Caldwell

After seeing the sniping in another thread about organic foods, I had to put my 2 cents in. I was born in Oregon and have lived here for 63 years.

Have you lived all your life in the Myrtle Creek village?

[Larry Caldwell]

Originally Posted by TechmanOR

Have you lived all your life in the Myrtle Creek village?

No.

[AMINMD]

Sounds like there's a LOT of good things to eat in Oregon, and some fun to be had getting it.

[pdxMIKEpdx]

Every year about this time my family heads up to a small lake by Mt Hood that we use as a base for deer hunting.
The lake is chock full of big crawdads.
We have four crawdad traps that were purchased at BiMart.
We use a little bacon for bait, attach a rope and in the evening throw them in the water.
They are retrieved the next day in the early afternoon and we have a huge crawdad boil for dinner.
It's my favorite part of the camp!