Cracker

grouper throat · Feb 21, 2011

Greaserbilly said:
What is swamp cabbage?

"Heart of palm" is what the northerns call it. It's basically the heart/bud of the sabal palm tree.It's cut into small pieces and cooked with fatback, spices, and hot sauce(optional). It's eaten alot around these parts. It's usually served with fish or venison and with mullet frequently.

Greaserbilly · Feb 21, 2011

Sounds delicious! Will have to look out for it.

Swamp000Rat · Feb 21, 2011

fried mullet with some hot pepper vinegar .

redneck_billcollector · Feb 22, 2011

Nic, I was ridin' home from work yesterday and just out of curiosity started counting all the sabel palms coming up between downtown and the lake....folks treat them like weeds down town, I bet ya alot of folks wouldn't mind a little harvesting of some swamp cabbage. And Grouper throat, you have a mess of fine eating there and sadly if you took a poll of the members of this forum they would think you were "nasty" or something for wanting to eat bait.....went down to Spring Creek one day two weekends ago cause it got too warm to run my bird dogs, just to eat some fresh mullet right off the boat.

Nicodemus · Feb 22, 2011

redneck_billcollector said:
Nic, I was ridin' home from work yesterday and just out of curiosity started counting all the sabel palms coming up between downtown and the lake....folks treat them like weeds down town, I bet ya alot of folks wouldn't mind a little harvesting of some swamp cabbage. And Grouper throat, you have a mess of fine eating there and sadly if you took a poll of the members of this forum they would think you were "nasty" or something for wanting to eat bait.....went down to Spring Creek one day two weekends ago cause it got too warm to run my bird dogs, just to eat some fresh mullet right off the boat.

Between you, Ben, and me, we could clean up those trees in record time, and get the cabbage out of em. For several years, I did a good bit of fishin` at Spring Creek. And I could use a mess of fresh mullet right about now, along with some red roe and swamp cabbage. I wonder if Hubert is still down there?

redneck_billcollector · Feb 22, 2011

There appears to be not many of anyone in spring creek lately, the restaurant is still there.......and serving up fresh fried mullet, you know his books talk about poaching with gill nets. I wonder if they still are doing it, cause they are selling some mullet. I do know this....the roe season has done up and gone for the year....but come next fall.......break out the cane syrup cause I am gonna eat my share of the roe.

redneck_billcollector · Feb 22, 2011

Grouper Throat, as a youngun I used to go with my grandfather over to Perry to hunt foxes. Do they still hold those hunts over there? Most of the land folks used to hunt was all timber land open to the public. It appears to be all leased out now.

Nicodemus · Feb 22, 2011

Jay, I have both of Leo`s books, and just loaned Ben his second one. Good stuff. He is a lot like us.

grouper throat · Feb 22, 2011

redneck_billcollector said:
Grouper Throat, as a youngun I used to go with my grandfather over to Perry to hunt foxes. Do they still hold those hunts over there? Most of the land folks used to hunt was all timber land open to the public. It appears to be all leased out now.

Yes it's all leased land now but it's been split into 4 very large dog leases. The dog hunting is still the main type of hunting though. The fox pens have been shut down in florida so more outside hunting for foxes happens now than it did in the past decade

As far as the poaching with gill nets I know it still goes on. We ran up on a bird dog(mullet-net boat) that was coming in several years ago at the aucilla boat ramp late at night. Their boat was only a few inches out of the water and part of their gill net was poking out of the net box on the back of the boat. They loaded their boat in less than a few mins and hauled butt. I'm sure it was loaded with roe mullet in the fish boxes because the boat was definitely loaded to the max.

grouper throat · Feb 22, 2011

redneck_billcollector said:
There appears to be not many of anyone in spring creek lately, the restaurant is still there.......and serving up fresh fried mullet, you know his books talk about poaching with gill nets. I wonder if they still are doing it, cause they are selling some mullet. I do know this....the roe season has done up and gone for the year....but come next fall.......break out the cane syrup cause I am gonna eat my share of the roe.

Did you taste any of their homemade dressing? My wife loves it. We both love their stuffed shrimp and the softshell crab(my fav). There's nothing in spring creek anymore except the resturant since the net ban. It really hurt all the coastal fishing communities along the gulf.

redneck_billcollector · Feb 24, 2011

grouper throat said:
Did you taste any of their homemade dressing? My wife loves it. We both love their stuffed shrimp and the softshell crab(my fav). There's nothing in spring creek anymore except the resturant since the net ban. It really hurt all the coastal fishing communities along the gulf.

Love the dressing, heck I thought that was the only kind they had.....If I am there, I am eating mullet, it is getting harder and harder to come by, I can throw a net and all, but by the time I am done throwing a net I am worn out anymore.... getting old. Them big ol mullet nets take alot more energy than a shrimp net or bait net to throw all morning (or more than likely on a falling tide in a creek on a cool fall night), I like my roe mullet......

G20 · Feb 24, 2011

Ok, will y'all pleaaaaase quit it with the yummy visuals of some real seafood? It's way too late for me to get hungry, and I've already had my seafood food group for the day.

grouper throat · Feb 28, 2011

redneck_billcollector said:
Love the dressing, heck I thought that was the only kind they had.....If I am there, I am eating mullet, it is getting harder and harder to come by, I can throw a net and all, but by the time I am done throwing a net I am worn out anymore.... getting old. Them big ol mullet nets take alot more energy than a shrimp net or bait net to throw all morning (or more than likely on a falling tide in a creek on a cool fall night), I like my roe mullet......

You don't need to throw a net for roe mullet. Ever heard of snatching/gigging mullet? Around the 3rd week of November(depending on the temp) the roe mullet migrate up the local rivers and are in there by the millions (literally). We use 8/0 to 10/0 weighted treble hooks, find where they are concentrated and proceed to drop the hook to the bottom and snatch. It's effective and we normally get a limit(50) within an hour or two. My favorite place to go is Mandalay boat ramp on the Aucilla river. It's the funniest type of fishing to me.

campinnurse · Feb 28, 2011

Very interesting read. Crackerdave is my brother and while we have cracker heritage things had gotten a little citified in our family by the time we came along. But even so our grandmother lived in Jacksonville, FL next to a swamp and we could hear the gators grunting at night and when the clan all came over they would smoke mullet in the big stone fireplace/smoker in the yard. I too remember my uncles calling Dave and I "Georgia Crackers". We were proud because our younger sisters didn't qualify as they were born in GA but Dave and I are true Florida Crackers. Nowadays the old meaning has been broadened to include people born in "old Florida",ie the Florida as it used to be. I guess this would disqualify anyone born after the 1950's.

Twenty five ought six · Feb 28, 2011

There used to be a comedian who traveled the college towns who was a Florida cracker, and most of his jokes had something to do with crackers of one flavor or another.

Gamble Rogers -- died tragically at a young age trying to save some swimmers in the surf off St. Augustine.

He referred to the fish poachers as "production fisherman of the St. John's river."

redneck_billcollector · Feb 28, 2011

grouper throat said:
You don't need to throw a net for roe mullet. Ever heard of snatching/gigging mullet? Around the 3rd week of November(depending on the temp) the roe mullet migrate up the local rivers and are in there by the millions (literally). We use 8/0 to 10/0 weighted treble hooks, find where they are concentrated and proceed to drop the hook to the bottom and snatch. It's effective and we normally get a limit(50) within an hour or two. My favorite place to go is Mandalay boat ramp on the Aucilla river. It's the funniest type of fishing to me.

We used to idle with a lantern covered up with a croaker sack, and when we heard abunch jumping around us, uncover the lantern and reeve the motor. They would jump towards the light and we would grab them as fast as we could......was a lil kid then, and that was rather fun.

Nicodemus · Mar 4, 2011

Any of ya`ll ever had a bird pie?

GAFLAjd · Mar 30, 2011

cracker stuff

My mother was from Bryan county GA, and I was nearly grown before I knew there was any syrup besides cane. I was past grown before I heard anybody I trusted say "seer-up".

Moved here to NFla in late 70's and learned about mullet, swamp cabbage and the Florida "cow bidness" (what the Kansans call the livestock "in-DUST -ry"). Worked with cattle and heard some mighty good tales from the folks that have been here since way back. Think FL would be a better place if the Mouse hadn't messed up all that good cow country around Kissimmee.

When I started work for the University, all of us new faculty members received a copy of "A Land Remembered" at faculty orientation. I heard Patrick Smith speaking at a FL Cattlemen's meeting telling about the trip to Miami from Mississippi his family took when he was a boy. The man's words sure could paint a picture!

Glad I've gotten to hear all these stories and live to tell a few myself.

MCBUCK · Apr 8, 2011

Being a Georgia highlander, it is quite interesting to see how the older lifestyles are so very different below the gnat line than from what they are here in the mountains. Might be a good idea for a thread...."Life the Blue Ridge" or something like that. Where's North Ga Mtn Man when you need him?

Nicodemus · Apr 8, 2011

MCBUCK said:
Being a Georgia highlander, it is quite interesting to see how the older lifestyles are so very different below the gnat line than from what they are here in the mountains. Might be a good idea for a thread...."Life the Blue Ridge" or something like that. Where's North Ga Mtn Man when you need him?

Mr. Vernon` Holt would be an authority on that. Branchminner would too.

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