Crab Soup 2006

The Soup.

This soup was the dream of Mr Marvin. When I arrived on the island 10 days or so before the festival everyone told me Marvin was wanting to make a soup this year. Marvin confirmed this at our daily meetings. Well a week before the Fest Marvin & I set out on a mission, to make a soup. This is easier said than done, for some reason there were no vegetables on the island (the boat had only brought cabbage or something that week, that is another story), but we were told by many sources on Corn Island & in Bluefields that the following 2 boats were to be flush with produce. We made our list & checked it & made any needed changes at our daily meetings. For the soup we would need (as I remember) Crab (more about this later), Pig tail, Cow tail, onions, hot peppers, sweet peppers, carrots, potatoes, small pumpkin, cassava, chayote, celery, garlic.

Well it took us a few days to gather all of this up, then we had to find a pot big enough for all of this, get some water & coal for the cooking.

Only one thing was left, getting the crabs. At one of our morning meetings Marvin & I decided that we would hunt crabs that night, we broke the meeting up in the early afternoon & both he & I went to siesta. The hunting grounds were to be in Jackson Swamp after nightfall. Some of you may remember my posts about the swamp & the dangers there, it is full of snakes, mosquitoes, crabs, mean dogs, you name it & of course it is also the location of Marvin's house.

I arrived in the swamp at the designated time, Marvin said he felt it was a little early & that perhaps it would be best if before we go into the heart of the insect infested swamp we take some of his "antimalaria potion", we took some & when the time came to hunt we both felt that we had drank enough of the potion to be protected from any of the evils of the swamp. We were wrong. It was a dark night & even with flashlights it was dark, dark, dark. We were doing well with the crabs & near to meeting out Quota when I heard a scream in the swamp "He's Got Me Man!!!! He's Got Me!!!!" I was engaged with a crab at the time was having a fight of my own. I got my crab in the bucket & went to investigate. Marvin had got it good from a big crab, they had to pull the claw off of the crab & it was still latched on to him. We decided to call it a night, so we headed back to the house, we doctored Marvin's injuries & had more of the potion just to guarantee no malaria. It was decided we would meet the next day to clean the crabs (catching them is only half of the problem), took a few hours to clean them & prep them for the freezer.

To make a long story (this one could go on for awhile) short we had one hell of a soup Thanks to Funia's guidance & watchfull eye. We cooked the soup across from the "ball field" on South End where most of the action is on the Sunday of Crab Soup Festival.

Islanders from all over the country & several other countries had returned for the fest & it was a real kick to meet everyone's reletives that live away. The Fest was a blast I will be there next year. Marvin says he is not going to be involved with a soup next year, but I bet with time he may change his mind.

We had soup like rice..