And I thought Gas Prices Were High

Today's Sunday drive recorded not only the huge spike in gas prices but some very expensive lobster prices. The local lobster pounds were posting a steaming price of $9 a pound! Yikes! I guess I'll be eating chicken all through mud season.

Luckily for the tourists, prices will back down in the summer time when the local fishermen and women are working their traps. Right now the lobsters being sold have either been held in lobster pounds (holding tanks) or brought in from boats fishing way off shore. Lobsters migrate up to 50 miles or more in the winter and then come into the rocky shore of Maine in the spring to lay their eggs.

The local lobstermen catch them as the come in to shallow water and go out back out in the Fall. In the summer during "Shedder" time when a large amount of lobsters are shedding old shells for new, the prices are usually at their best. Especially since recently shed lobsters, or softshelled lobsters are tough to export and end up in the local markets and restaurants. These softshelled lobsters are usually cheaper then the hardshell lobsters.

This choice between hard and soft always confounds the tourists and even some locals who may not dine on lobsters all that often. Which is better soft or hard shell? Well, the theory is that the hardshell is more packed with meat since it hasn't shed yet and thus the higher price. More meat less shell. But the locals know that the softshells have a couple of great benefits - one they tend to be "sweeter", no bitter claw pieces and they certainly are easier to open. If you don't have to use crackers you know you have a softshell.

Well, despite the depressing prices in gas and lobsters, I for one caught Spring fever big time today from the warm sunny day and the melting snow. My mind has started to drift towards warm summer nights having some hot mussel chowder, a plate of steamers and lobsters down at Thurstons overlooking Bass Harbor and hoisting a few cold Real Ales.

Check out our newest lobster shirt - "Pot Party"