28 replies to this topic

[RAHiggins1]

Crawfish are scarce and expensive this year up in Atlanta. What do they look like locally this year? Big, small, price?

[HungryC]

Crawfish season is mostly over. Prices were slightly high, mostly due to gas/fuel costs rather than scarcity of product.

[shellfishfiend]

Sadly, crawfish season is almost over. Here, we should be able to buy them till July 4. They are down to 99 cents a pound at one or two places, if you buy a 30-40 lb. sack. However, a few weeks ago we paid $1.79 a pound for a sack of the smallest crawfish I have ever seen. I big rip-off. For our big boil back at the end of April, we paid $1.69 a pound for select and they were beautiful.

The place we buy them cooked from every week charges $2.99 a pound and I don't mind paying it since they are large and seasoned better than anywhere else I have ever eaten them besides my own back yard.

Prices did stay higher longer this year before the drop, and still didn't drop across the baord like they usually do.

The only thing that would make crawfish season better in my opinion, is if it occured at the same time as football season.

[RAHiggins1]

Sadly, crawfish season is almost over. Here, we should be able to buy them till July 4. They are down to 99 cents a pound at one or two places, if you buy a 30-40 lb. sack. However, a few weeks ago we paid $1.79 a pound for a sack of the smallest crawfish I have ever seen. I big rip-off. For our big boil back at the end of April, we paid $1.69 a pound for select and they were beautiful.

The place we buy them cooked from every week charges $2.99 a pound and I don't mind paying it since they are large and seasoned better than anywhere else I have ever eaten them besides my own back yard.

Prices did stay higher longer this year before the drop, and still didn't drop across the baord like they usually do.

The only thing that would make crawfish season better in my opinion, is if it occured at the same time as football season. 

I posted about this in the southeast board for Atlanta. We went to get some bugs and the market didn't get their shipment. But if they did have them it would have cost $1.75/lb by the sack. there is a place that is selling them cooked here named Boudreaux's for $3.99/lb and they were tiny. I suspect maybe frozen chinese bugs.
We ended up buying a 50lb case of 12-14ct head on shrimps for $5.50/lb instead.

We were gonna boil something!

Where are you at in LA? My friends and I always stop in Slidell on the way back to ATL and pick up 20-50 lbs. and some poboys too. We also like to get some community Ice Teas and Barq's in the bottle. You can't find that stuff up here.

Edited by RAHiggins1, 09 June 2008 - 11:15 AM.

[shellfishfiend]

Sadly, crawfish season is almost over. Here, we should be able to buy them till July 4. They are down to 99 cents a pound at one or two places, if you buy a 30-40 lb. sack. However, a few weeks ago we paid $1.79 a pound for a sack of the smallest crawfish I have ever seen. I big rip-off. For our big boil back at the end of April, we paid $1.69 a pound for select and they were beautiful.

The place we buy them cooked from every week charges $2.99 a pound and I don't mind paying it since they are large and seasoned better than anywhere else I have ever eaten them besides my own back yard.

Prices did stay higher longer this year before the drop, and still didn't drop across the baord like they usually do.

The only thing that would make crawfish season better in my opinion, is if it occured at the same time as football season. 

I posted about this in the southeast board for Atlanta. We went to get some bugs and the market didn't get their shipment. But if they did have them it would have cost $1.75/lb by the sack. there is a place that is selling them cooked here named Boudreaux's for $3.99/lb and they were tiny. I suspect maybe frozen chinese bugs.
We ended up buying a 50lb case of 12-14ct head on shrimps for $5.50/lb instead.

We were gonna boil something!

Where are you at in LA? My friends and I always stop in Slidell on the way back to ATL and pick up 20-50 lbs. and some poboys too. We also like to get some community Ice Teas and Barq's in the bottle. You can't find that stuff up here.

I am in Shreveport. A lot of crawfish gets eaten here during the season. Mudbug Madness, a yearly festival on Memorial Day weekend, sees 80,000 pounds boiled.

That is a good price you got on those shrrimp. I love head on shrimp and can't find them often around here, although I can get good gulf shrimp. My husband works in south Louisiana a lot and I often have him carry an ice chest so he can bring back head on shrimp.

I kind of feel like crawfish are going to be like gas...the prices we paid a couple of years ago will probably never be seen again.

[Mayhaw Man]

The deal with crawfish is pretty much as it is with shrimp, though there aren't any Gulf going vessels involved. The early season crawfish mostly come out of rice fields and that water has to be pumped in. Some pumps might have electricity, but most, like on our farm, are powered by diesel generators and the cost per acre to flood has gotten so high that many farmers who used to use crawfish as a good and plenty fun way to make some extra dough (or lease out to someone who wanted it) is a thing of the past. The cost per acre to flood is just too expensive to bother with and that, coupled with really good grain prices, will keep things like this, or worse for a long time to come (the grain prices come into play when you consider that these fields have to be drained, dried, planted, and reflooded 3 times or so during the growing process and if a wet spring occurs, planting might be late on your main money crop-so why take the chance?

I've been buying big, 12-14 count, shrimp in New Orleans directly from the guy catching them, the night after he catches them, for 5 bucks a pound. It's more than he gets a the dock, twice as much or more, so he's happy to unload them for what he can make. I have a freezer full as I'm stocking up because I think that they are going to be harder and harder to get in the future.

I don't eat shrimp from anywhere else unless that is the place that I am visiting. Louisiana shrimp in Louisiana. Period.

[RAHiggins1]

I agree its just going to get worse. Seafood in Atlanta is getting expensive unless you go to some of the asain market places where they source from farms in Bangladesh, Thailand, Etc.. I do not trust 3rd world fish farms at all.

$2.50/lb for fresh 12-14ct seems incredibly cheap. I'm tempted to go get a refrigerated truck and some ice and go into business. I already know of at least one "Katrina" business that popped up serving po'boys with french bread they bring in from NOLA. Bread here is heavy and thick and the crusts are soft at our 2000+ altitude. You bite into that bread and you know it's not baked here. My friends stock yup on loaves to freeze whenever we go down to LA.


(I refer to Katrina as an event in history that forced many people to leave and of which some have chosen to not go back and start somewhere else. Sad as that may be, it seems to have further the spread of Creole and Cajun cuisine throughout the south. you won't find me complaining about that!)

[patti]

We picked up some boiled crawfish earlier in the week for $1.99 a pound. They were a beautiful size and had a good flavor, but were very hard to peel. And the vendor had assured me that they wouldn't be! I kind of knew better, but bought them anyway.

I did NOT get my fill of good crawfish this season.

[bavila]

Bumpity! Hey y'all. Looking for a fabulous idea for a crawfish canape for my contribution to a Christmas Eve seven fishes soiree. I could fall back on etoufee in pastry shells, but I'd like to do something different. Any ideas?

[HungryC]

Hey B--how about crawfish stuffed mushrooms? Or little crawfish pies--either the small, open ones, or folded-over, turnover style pie....both can be baked in advance & reheated as you need 'em. A spicy cold crawfish salad would also be nice in endive leaves, and it's a break from typical pastry- and starch-heavy canapes.

John Folse's "After the Hunt" cookbook has a recipe for crawfish boulettes, which are deep fried. I've made shrimp boulettes in the usual way, with cubed/grated potatoes, seasonings, egg, & ground shrimp, but never tried the crawfish kind. Small, golf-ball sized boulettes with a spicy mustard dip definitely have potential as cocktail food.

[elfin]

When is it Crawfish seeason exactly? We will be in the area around Valentines Day and it seems the season may be well over (Memorial Day?) Will we bea eating asian farmed raised or frozen for nearly a yearcrawfish? We are hitting the local joints near Lafayette, LA.

[joiei]

When is it Crawfish seeason exactly?  We will be in the area around  Valentines Day and it seems the season may be well  over (Memorial Day?)  Will we bea eating asian farmed raised or frozen for nearly a yearcrawfish?  We are hitting the local joints near Lafayette, LA.

THis information comes from the CajunGrocer.com

The Louisiana Crawfish Season

Also remember that Louisiana Crawfish is a seasonal product, not a legal season, but one defined by Mother Nature. Crawfish generally become available as early as mid-November through as late as mid-August. A consistent supply can't be counted on until early March running through mid June. The height of the season is mid-March to mid-May.

[KennethT]

The Louisiana Crawfish Company - lacrawfish.com - is currently selling live crawfish - I think they started a few weeks ago... right now, they're on the small side though - typical early season crawfish - but they're still tasty....

I'm hoping they get a bit bigger by Mardi Gras...

[highchef]

They're selling them in the boil n' go's here too, but they're small per usual for this time of year. I'll bite the bullet for Mardi Gras, then wait for the bugs to get bigger. You should be able to get them anywhere in S. La. if you don't mind them on the small side.

[KennethT]

yeah, I'll be getting a bunch for Mardi Gras regardless.... I hope they're bigger, but if not, oh well.... I'll be down in NOLA in April - I'm sure they'll be nice by then!!

[elfin]

So if we go to the local places such asBoil N Go, Frey's etcx we should be getting the local crawfish fresh-not frozen-albeit small? Even in the Etouffee?

[PopsicleToze]

The Baton Rouge news had a story this morning on crawfish telling us not to get our hopes up for an Easter crawfish boil (it's very common to have a crawfish boil on Easter weekend). The warm fall weather coupled with Hurricane Gustav wrecked havoc on our poor little crawfish. The ones you can get are very small and they’re not readily available. That’s for the bigger Spillway crawfish that depend on Mother Nature.

I talked to a supplier near here, and he uses farmed crawfish because of the dependability. He says we will have crawfish (the farmed, not necessarily Spillway), but the big question this year will be price.

Spillway crawfish are preferred. I called our normal supplier and he’s not taking any orders and he doesn’t have any live crawfish now.

It’s not looking good.

[HungryC]

Peeled crawfish in cooked dishes is probably going to be frozen. That's okay: just ask at the restaurant and make sure they're using LOUISIANA crawfish. I find frozen, peeled LA crawfish perfectly fine for etouffee, crawfish pies, etc. But the imported (most often chinese) can be downright awful. I'd wager that no commercial kitchen in LA is boiling live crawfish, then peeling them for use in dishes. It's just too labor-intensive.

Farm-raised (aka pond crawfish) are already available. I've seen boiled selling for $3.75 a pound. As the weather warms a bit, the price will drop and supplies will increase.

[RAHiggins1]

Bugs are $2.50/lb here in Atlanta at "Your Dekalb Farmers Market" or at least that was the last price I saw posted, but they did not have any on display.

It's a hoot to see people picking them out with tongs in a big bin. I just smirk and walk over to the wholesale counter and ask for two thirty pound sacks please.

[Harry]

Peeled crawfish in cooked dishes is probably going to be frozen.  That's okay:  just ask at the restaurant and make sure they're using LOUISIANA crawfish.  I find frozen, peeled LA crawfish perfectly fine for etouffee, crawfish pies, etc.  But the imported (most often chinese) can be downright awful.  I'd wager that no commercial kitchen in LA is boiling live crawfish, then peeling them for use in dishes.  It's just too labor-intensive.

I don't have a particularly acute sense of taste but I can't stand frozen crawfish. I don't know if it's the freezing or the thawing that causes it, but everytime I've bought frozen crawfish tails they've had a bad taste.

[PopsicleToze]

Crawfish
$3.49/lb live
$3.99/lb boiled

Baton Rouge, LA

[Harry]

Crawfish
$3.49/lb live
$3.99/lb boiled

Baton Rouge, LA

Way too expensive, especially when you can fill up on $3-$4 worth of boiled shrimp rather than $20 worth of boiled crawfish.

[HungryC]

K-Jean's on Carrollton Ave in NOLA has 'em for $3.99 a pound right now, too. But take into account the Mardi Gras markup; the price will drop some in a few weeks.

Edited by HungryC, 18 February 2009 - 10:46 AM.

[RAHiggins1]

K-Jean's on Carrollton Ave in NOLA has 'em for $3.99 a pound right now, too.  But take into account the Mardi Gras markup; the price will drop some in a few weeks.

Mahn dat don seem rat. Tree 99 a poun for summa dem mudbugs?

[PopsicleToze]

Crawfish
$3.49/lb live
$3.99/lb boiled

Baton Rouge, LA

Way too expensive, especially when you can fill up on $3-$4 worth of boiled shrimp rather than $20 worth of boiled crawfish.

Yep. We're having a shrimp boil for Easter

[Nawlins]

they are going to be expensive this year...get ready. between Ike and the recession...

[RAHiggins1]

they are going to be expensive this year...get ready. between Ike and the recession...

I checked the sack price at "Your Dekalb Farmer's Market" here in Atlanta,

$1.54/lb

I asked them where they came from and they said "Louisiana".

Maybe I need to start buying them and shipping them back for $2.99/lb.

Edited by RAHiggins1, 06 March 2009 - 07:43 AM.

[shellfishfiend]

Here in Shreveport live are selling for $2.29-$2.49lb. Cooked range from $2.49 lb. up to $3.99lb. We are planning on supper being 10 lbs of boiled. I hope they are bigger than what we got 3 weeks ago. We paid $4.59lb cooked for them then and they were some of the smallest crawfish I have ever seen.

RAHiggins1, I can't believe you are getting them so cheap in Atlanta. Lucky you.

[RAHiggins1]

Here in Shreveport live are selling for $2.29-$2.49lb. Cooked range from $2.49 lb. up to $3.99lb. We are planning on supper being 10 lbs of boiled. I hope they are bigger than what we got 3 weeks ago. We paid $4.59lb cooked for them then and they were some of the smallest crawfish I have ever seen.

RAHiggins1, I can't believe you are getting them so cheap in Atlanta. Lucky you.

I'm not sure how the contracting works with Louisiana farmers and fishermen, but I'm thinking that somebody might be locked into a set price.

As for outragious local prices, my guess is large orders are filled and shipped first and there aren't many leftover.