Barry Koluch & His Family Know What Maryland Blue Crabs Are All About

"My Dad took it to the commercial level. He grew up doing a more fun way to crab which is called trout lining. My Dad worked for the gas company, Baltimore Gas and Electric for years, and then he started taking into commercial with the pots. He’s being crabbing since the 90s. But growing up, he took both myself and my sister out. He used to supply other crab houses as we have now. We always talked about coming back and starting our own crab house. Then around 2008 - 2009, when the economy started crashing, the sales weren't doing great, because I was based in construction, the real estate side of it. So sales were being impacted significantly. So my Dad and I talked and we just said, if we're going to do this, now's the time,” said Barry, one of the owners and founders of Cravin Crabs.Barry and his family are true Marylanders who are all about blue crabs. They know how to find them, catch them, steam them and eat them. It’s quite the Maryland tradition and growing up it was a part of Kristan’s family traditions.“It's a year-round sport pretty much the legal season is April 1 through December 15. Depending on how far down south you want to go you can start right out the gate in April but we choose to stay local. My dad usually starts crabbing, in May so that we don't really mess with it too much in April unless it's really hot and warm out. The further south we go is the Bay Bridge,” said Barry.Even though crabs are delicious and it’s a big part of the Maryland lifestyle, the craft or the process of finding them and catching them can be quite challenging.“You have your ups and downs. This is definitely a very down year. For crab meat, you see a lot of it being brought in from overseas for all the restaurants. With all the COVID restrictions you can't get the crab meat on the shipping containers, and then there are no local crabs that are cheap enough to pick. So it is an inconvenient combination. There's just nothing around. It just drives the cost up and even more,” said Barry.But Barry has hopes for his business as he believes the crabbing industry will continue to grow and succeed even with restrictions in place. As long as continue to work hard, the crabbing lifestyle will always remain a Maryland commodity.“For us, it's just a lifestyle. Our families get together. When somebody comes from out of state on a summer night, it's tough because this time of year we do work a lot. In our world, Mondays are a down day because typically the commercial crabbers have to pick a Sunday or a Monday as their off day and we have always gone with Monday. That’s the day when out-of-town guests would come in we would typically have crabs dinner, a nice sit-down. The people in my family from out of state they've grown up eating crabs so they absolutely want them right. We don't have to teach them how to eat them. They know what they want. It's just a matter of finding the time and getting together right?” said Barry.Tune in to the podcast episode to learn more about how crabs are caught, how to eat them, and about Barry’s family and how they got into crabbing. Also, stay until the end to hear the featured musician, John Patti, and to hear a special announcement. If you enjoyed this Makers of the USA episode, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Facebook. Please check out Makers of the USA's YouTube channel, Facebook and Instagram. Thank you all and stay safe and healthy.