Fresh Shrimp Ahead!

Last week my friend Dick told me he bought 20 pounds of shrimp for ten bucks off the boat about an hour south of here in Boothbay Harbor where he lives. I was surprised. Fifty cents a pound is really cheap for protein. For a seafood delight like shrimp, its a fire sale. We're smack in the middle of the Maine shrimp season right now and I headed out to the grocery store to check out how Maine shrimp's holding up against product from Thailand, Brazil, China and the US Gulf Coast. The last time I tried this, the grocery store didn't have any Maine shrimp while the tailgate peddler I passed on the way to the store had a truck full. When I asked at the store why they didn't have local shrimp I was told the supply was unreliable. Why not sell it when you have it I wondered. That got me thinking about the whole buying in season perplex.

I did a little better today. Whole Maine shrimp was $2.99 inside the store and $1.00 from the truck. Shrimp meat was $6.99 in the store and $5.oo from the truck unless you were willing to buy a 10 pound bag of frozen meat for $40. They didn't have any Gulf shrimp at all inside [more on that later], but there was a good variety of imported product over a range of prices.

Maine or Northern shrimp (Pandalus borealis) is smaller than the other types and many people think it tastes better. It's caught by towing nets behind boats or in traps, like lobster traps only different. The design is not really the same, but if you are far enough away a pile of shrimp traps looks like pile of lobster traps. Maybe that's not such a good description, after all if you were far enough away I might look like Johnny Depp. While I'm on the subject of being far away, that reliable shrimp from Thailand sure traveled a long way to get to a Waldo County supermarket, didn't it.