Dip Deep into Lobster Season

“I consider myself an underwater hunter,” says Jim “Chiefy” Mathie, a recreational diver in Broward County and the author of Catching the Bug: The Comprehensive Guide to Catching the Spiny Lobster. For thirty-five years now, and as often as he can during Florida’s lobster season, which begins August 6, Mathie dives among the reefs near Fort Lauderdale for spiny lobster. Sure, charter snorkel trips and free diving—with the right gear and a license—might also land you bugs, but Mathie prefers to scuba dive to the deeper parts of the reefs to coax out the antennaed nocturnal creatures. “Reach in with your tickle stick,” he says, “tapping very gently on the tail to move them out of their hole, and then catch them in the net.” Last season, Mathie found clusters of lobsters that were just barely too small (keeping a lobster with a carapace shorter than three inches is illegal), and he let them swim free to keep growing. “I think that says we’ll have a good season this year.” Back on the boat, he runs through his meal plan like a lobster-loving Bubba Blue: roasted lobster, grilled lobster, sautéed lobster, lobster stuffed with crab… Seek out some crustaceans yourself in late summer, when any seafood spot worth its salt in South Florida will serve the tender meat with an ample supply of garlic butter. myfwc.com

LEGUME

Alabama

BUTTER BEAN DREAMS

The butter beans that the restaurateur Pardis Stitt harvests on her family farm outside of Birmingham this time of year are sweet treasures to her. “They are just like celadon jewels,” says Stitt, who with her husband, the chef Frank Stitt, helms the B’ham institutions Highlands Bar & Grill, Bottega, and Chez Fonfon. The oldest daughter of Iranian, the layer of buttery and crispy sticky rice at the bottom of the pot.”