Hunting Cay lived up to its name, proving to be the mother lode of conch. As dedicated conservationists we harvested only conchs that were well past reproductive maturity – you can tell the old ones because they’re huge and have a really big “lips” on their shells.

Despite Danny’s Florida heritage he’d never actually caught and prepped a conch himself. He was a natural, though: on his very first conch, he detached the foot from the shell like an expert, then reached in with his bare hand and pulled out the entire critter in one fell swoop. His conch even had the coveted “crystalline style” – a gross gooey clear thing that you’re supposed to want to eat for its aphrodisiac powers. None of the three of us particularly wanted to try it. It looked really nasty. However Danny did try “barking” the conch which is pulling the skin off with your teeth. He made it look pretty easy, but I may just stick with the fillet knife myself.

Speaking of firsts, I made my first attempt at chowder to showcase our fresh shellfish and fresh-caught sierra. Not to toot my own horn, but it was pretty scrumptious. We’ll definitely be making more of that soon. Yum.