Please post ideas and suggestions for the 2009 Oregon Gathering here.

Nancy

Humm let's see... fun, sun, food, making memories, bonfires, beer exchange, bike rides, walks on the beach, shopping in old town, Fish&Chips, fudge ....

Okay... I'll (un)Organize the Craft Beer Exchange, as an "opener" event
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I am planning to repeat my Trailer Weigh-in Event. Since the vast majority of people participated on Thursday this year, I will make it a One-Day Event on whatever day is considered to be the official "arrival day" of the Gathering. I hope to update my procedures to make participating as easy as possible. Thanks to Eric B. for getting me a spreadsheet program (I only had a word processor this year) so I hope to give out the results immediately instead of having to email them afterward.

Were people comfortable with my procedures this year? Are there any suggestions for improvement?

who wants to do a giant crab feed?

I am not squeamish and am happy to cook whole crabs while their claws are still clackin!

It's not cheap or clean, but it's oh so yummy!

I will volunteer my site, but we would need BIG pots and lots of gas flame.. and cocktail sauce for those so inclined.

I can be the designated murderer.

Gina,
I'll probably hear differing opinions, but, crab taste far better,accept more spice if you are into that, and are far easier to cook, because you can fit twice as many in each pot, if you first back and clean them and break them in half. An added advantage is they can cooked inside without smelling up the house. When I first arrived on the Oregon coast, I was told by natives and comercial crabbers, that cooking them guts, feathers, and all, was for tourists. At $4.50 [at]#, you can increase your profit if you sell a back shell full of cooking water with each crab! It's a lot more work up front, but it makes them far easier to eat and reduces the amount of crab waste build up on plate or table. Chris

hmnnn... I have never heard that, and I am a native. Always just tossed them in. My dad was a crabber and that's the way he did it.

How would one clean them.. before they are dead? It's the pot tossing that kills them. Backing them while alive would certainly do it, but seems a bit cruel .. I have never seen it done.

I personally do not care for the "Crab Butter", the gooey stuff in the body cavity, but I do like the body meat. It cooks in the shell just like the leg meat does, and folks that like the butter say thats what gives the body meat the flavor.

Anyway, we can try different ways. I am working on a whole program... stay tuned!

By the way, you still get to murder them, but you do it by bashing them in the belly with a stick, ripping off thier backs, and breaking the remainder in half. I can't imagine either method is too pleasant for the crab' but it just takes too long when you OD them on barbituates.
Chris

I hear animal control typing my warrant as we speak...

For years we have cooked them just as they come out of the water but after talking to natives along the coast we tried and have liked cleaning them before cooking. And we have done that for the last five years. It works good and tastes better. So what is more cruel? Throwing them into boiling water to die or ripping their backs off? Both seem cruel from the crabs point of view but to the same end, the taste is wonderful for us.

Oh......we are soooo in!! Absolutely love fresh crab! Tammy and I are in with the clean then cook crowd. In our humble opinion, the meat tastes better when cooked after being cleaned. Cooking them alive means they cook in their own juices and taints the meat a bit. What ever works tho....were in! We have a big arse pot that will hold quite a few....

What's the plan for collecting the crab? Do we just hand out invitations for a hot tub party??

Reace and Tammy

I figured we would take sign ups, and find out what the price for live ones is that day, take a collection and I will run down to the Crab Shack and pick them up in a bunch of faom coolers.

I will be posting a plan soon. Including a contest!

Just haven't gotten there yet

Over by the boat ramp there is a fish cleaning station and it has nails, hooks, something at bench that you use to slam the crab over and pull the back off. Then just use the water pressure to clean the guts or whatever out. I've never cooked crabs before cleaning them. I'm not opposed to it though, because if you were at a place crabbing and had no where to clean the crabs you would have to just throw them in the pot, guts and all.

Count me in. In fact, I arrive on July 7th and sometime that week I planned to go crabbing at the pier but I'd have to eat mine because I don't have any way to hold them over for the crab feed. Once you decide what day I might just go crabbing again.

I was thinking on weds the 15th.

Dennis and I are both in for the crab feed. We also have a large pot and we have a large 2 burner stove with pole legs that we can bring. Fresh crab is the best and what a great way to celebrate being on the coast.

You did a great job at the Gathering. The information was very useful when planning a long trip. I have no suggestions for improvement! I am glad to hear that you are offering to do it again.

Charlene

I think you can count us in for the crab feed. You may need to make a different thread just for this unless you limit the number you can handle. You don't want to have to buy 200 crab for 170 people. It would take a long time to clean and cook that many. And since you will be ordering the crab, will you be ordering any oysters? They have some wonderful oyster farms just north of there. Hopefully you will find a fishing book that will sell direct to you and you can get a great deal instead of paying the tourist prices at the fish shops.

We had a wonderful time and I wish we could go again next year. My only suggestion would be to put people's screen name on their nametags because I don't "know" a lot of people by their real names, only what I see when they post. I had quite a few "aha!" moments when I would get to talking to someone and would finally discover they were someone I had "talked to" before, just had no idea by only seeing their given name. Thanks again for all your hard work!

Gina,

Two more for your crab feed. This will be a totally new experience for us. Let us know how to help so we get to experience it all.

Fred and Nancy (didn't register yet, in A35 on the 10th)

yep, I will do a separate thread when it is a little closer, and I have time to put the details together. It's getting more interest than I had expected!

things people will need to think about bringing are a gas BBQ or cook stove, large pots to boil water in, nutcrakers or digging forks, coolers with ice (To cool the little darlins after cooking) their favorite sauce and/or butter if they choose (I eat mine without extras) wine if you choose (I know nothing about wine, so I am a lousy source for providing it) and..tight sealing non leaking trash bags! We don't want to be smelling the dumpsters the next day!

There will be a BIB making contest! I am leaning towards folks making their own at home and bringing it, but, we can also find paper ones and give folks crayons or something The theme will be.. REDNECK. Formal attire not required.

As far as the cost of the crab, I will call a week or so before hand and find out what market price is. Since the crabs will be live, I will have to collect from each participant just before the feed and run down and get them. Plan on about 40 bucks or so per couple. I'll have a better idea when we get closer.

I fed 3 folks in 2006 for about 50 bucks, and the meal consisted of crab and cocktail sauce, with a side salad and bread. That's all.

oh, Linda.. I have never done oysters. Would you like to handle that one? I wouldn't even know where to start.

So, this crab is eaten cold?

If I want to do a side dish of Minnesota wild rice, do we want a cold dish or warm. Makes a difference what recipe to search for. There are lots of recipes out there when you search for wild rice + crab, but I figure we want the crab to be "pure" and not mixed with pineapple (ugh), walnuts, etc.

We never use our 30 year old cook kit...too big to haul around. When the weather warms again I'll try to see if a one pound propane thing will bring the pot full of water up to boil with our little gas thing we never tried out but haul around.

A bib contest. How fun. This must be a messy meal. We are so ignorant.

Nancy

I have never eaten them warm. Basically, you cook and either dip them in ice water to cool and stop the cooking, or, if you are a wait and eat person, pop in the fridge to cool down.

We can do all kinds of different things, based on others experience and tastes.. no rules!

Except that we need to do quick clean up LOL! Yes, eating it out of the shell can get very messy. You have the crabs natural juices, and the water that has leached into the legs.

The juice starts to stink within.. oh, 5 mins of release. The raccoons will be lurking. Seagulls will be circling.

Or we could all rent crab nets and do like Joy and crab off the docks. We even have a burner that would heat the water and cook them right on the docks.

Yes, Gina, nothing is better than cooling the cooked crab down a little with the cold water but then while they are still hot using melted butter. We once had a feast of crab that we caught that day of 25 crabs between 5 people. Boy did we get full. Then we had crab omlets the next morning and crab salad for lunch. Our friends went back to MO thinking that is how people in OR eat all the time. I wish.

Oysters may not be in full form at that time of year but if you ask the fishing boats, they may have picked up a load of prawns or something else special that week.

Well, I wouldn't count on very many crabs off the dock and I don't think they'd let you cook there.

Any way it was about 4 years ago when I last crabbed off the dock in Bandon. Bill and I were there for an hour or 2 and got one legal sized crab from the dock, of course this year could be a bumper crop.

Bill & I were fortunate that he had made friends with some neighboring campers who had a boat and set pot out in the bay. They came by and got us so we could set our pot in the bay. I don't remember now how many crabs we had but it seems to me that we had about 10. We invited another camper friend over to share our crab dinner which we ate warm with a salad and corn on the cob.

If we were to go crabbing off the dock we might need to spend most of the day there and return to the campground mid afternoon to clean and cook our catch for an early crab dinner.

I don't have a crab pot but they do rent them near the dock where I think you also have to get license at a minimal cost. Any way I'm going to look into crabbing probably on July 8 after I've settled in my campsite on the 7th. I'll have the skinny on it for anyone interested.

An Oregon shellfish license is required for crabbing. The fee is $6.50 for an Oregon resident and $16.50 for a non-resident. This website has lots of good info: http://www.coos-bay.net/license.html

Another necessity for the crab feast is lots of newspapers to catch the mess.

Is the 2009 date set?

Cheers!

Julianne... for what? The Oregon Gathering? It's in the topic title here: 2009 Oregon Gathering Info. In fact it's in the subtitle for the entire topic:
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If you're asking about individual events within the gathering... well, the Beer Exchange will be on Thursday - early evening. When we get closer to the actual event, Nancy will post an itinerary.

Hope this helps.

I thought that this thread was about Ideas and Suggestions for the next rally. The only thing I've seen mentioned here is 27 posts about eating crabs. Don't get me wrong, nobody loves crab more than I do, but this thread seems to be "stuck on crab!" Isn't there anything else, ideas and suggestions-wise, besides the crab fest? Just curious.

Greg,
Why not Grayland again? It was too bad more eggers didn't come. It was a great perfect weekend. Those who did come all had a great time.
Chuck

Would it be too much trouble to capture each person's avitar on the nametag as well?

Greg, I am working on an invitation and web page for the crab feed and will post about it and move the posts when I am finished.

I am in the process of bringing a new baby home right now. (It barks and poops on the floor) so I am a little tied up with that, but it will be done soon!

Meanwhile, what ideas do you have for other events? Post them here!

Gina D, Hope you enjoy your new furry child! They are a bit of work, but they are truly a labor of love.

As far as another Grayland Beach SP trip...I'm all for it, although I haven't seen any activity on the WA State get together thread in some time now. Maybe it just needs to be reawakened. I'm still open to exploring other venues. Some folks have suggested going east of the mountains in Spring as a hedge against the unsettled weather we usually get that time of year. Others have expressed desires to keep it over on the west side to cut down on travel expenses. Both are valid arguements, but the topic sort of fell off the radar. If there is still any interest, (not to steal any thunder away from the Oregon trip which this post is about,) feel free to express your desires, concerns and suggestions on the WA State thread.

Greg

Gina,

Are you still coming to the Oregon Gathering? What will happen to the Crab Feed?

We landlocked people were looking forward to this since we have never participated in such a thing.

Also I have been spending hours designing my crab bib (actually an apron) and was going to make extra adult bibs for people who didn't have one.

Take care. Have to go look at an atlas to see where you are. Hope you can be in Oregon in July.

Nancy

Nancy, I am afraid with my new situation, I can not reliably say that I can put that together. Maybe someone else would like to take it over?

I most likely will NOT be attending the rally

who wants to do a giant crab feed?


I'm in and I have a large pot. (but no burner) I had never heard of cleaning them first and I've been eating crab fresh from the ocean (mouth of the Columbia) all my life. It makes sense to clean them first so I look forward to learning a new method.
Cathy

And oysters you can cook right on the grill. Wait till the shell pops open and then dig them out and dip in butter. YUUUMMMMMM!!!!
I can bring my portable grill.

I've eaten them warm. They taste great that way. I like some melted garlic butter for the crab. Sourdough bread goes well with the meal and a good Pinot Gris.

Well, I am afraid I am not going to be able to make it up this year due to work commitments.

SOOOOO.... crab feed is either cancelled, or.. it would be nice if someone would like to take it over since there is so much interest in it?

Linda?

Gina-

Crab feed or no Crab feed we are going to miss you. Lets keep our fingers crossed for 2010.

Ellen B.