The Golden State

The Harvest
Last weekend I attended The Harvest, a Hereford Youth Foundation of America (HYFA) fundraising event to benefit youth involved in the Hereford breed. By far it was one of the best vacations I've taken. Starting out sight seeing in San Francisco on Thursday, arriving at the Kunde Estates of Friday, touring wineries on Saturday and the grand finale Saturday evening. The grand finale being the live embryo & donated items that were auctioned off after an amazing Certified Hereford Beef dinner. The auction grossed a total of $290,000 +, this money will be put towards funding the Junior National Hereford Expo and awarding youth in scholarship money for their college education.  It was great to be apart of Hereford breeders that want to invest in the future of the breed, the Youth! As a past NJHA board member I really appreciate the time & effort the AHA Staff, HYFA Board and breeders do to benefit the youth.
Each day I will tell a little more about the trip. So check back each day for the full trip details. While giving you a little taste of my trip I will also tell you about California agriculture. Let me tell you California is more then just surfing in the ocean and drinking wine! They are actually quite agriculturally diverse.

The crabs arrived stuffed in a box
stacked in the bed of a truck.

The first morning in San Francisco we set out via Cable Car to Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39. Upon our arrive we saw the little markets stocking their supply of seafood for the day. The fisherman sell the fresh seafood they catch in the small shops for us tourists to devour! While I didn't particularly like the smell of the all seafood I was in shock at the quantity being unloaded from the trucks and being divided out for the employees to sell. The crabs were the most comical.... They all clung together in one clump, they didn't want to be separated from families/friends!!

Mr. Crab man divided out his prize crabs!

I learned that.......

• California ranks among the top five seafood producing states in the country
• The fishing industry represents an important source of jobs from fisherman, handlers to boat builders
• Approximately 300 fishes and shell fish are native to the Golden State
• The economic value of this industry is estimated to be $800 million annually

And I immediately jumped as I was afraid
Mr. Crab man was going to throw one at me! 

How are were these crabs caught? Fisherman deploy circular pots into the ocean and leave them on the bottom overnight.
How are they sold? Sold whole, cooked, some marketed alive (like what I saw!), also even shipped overseas.
Generally served with? Over salads, cracked on a plate with drawn butter and/or served with the FAMOUS San Francisco sourdough bread



Probably never thought I was going to talk about crabs. Hope you all got a good chuckle!
N.Starr