February 23, 2014 The Frogs Are Singing Again

On Wednesday I returned from Decatur, and opened the car door to the musical chorus of the frogs out in the wetlands.  One yellow daffodil had opened.  Three young deer ran across the road into the woods.

Today I walked the muddy Cottonwood Trail and the frogs were singing even louder here. There was a brave violet on the bank of a small stream and in the wetlands the master builders, the beavers,  had built four new dams and I discovered that one of the old ones had been broken down.

 Above me comes a scream: " Free you, free you, free you, free you, free you, free you, free  you "and I spot a Sharp-shinned hawk in the top of a tall tree.  He calls again, this time, 9 times and another hawk appears and alights just on the other side of the trail in the top of a tree and calls the same "Free you, free you" seven times.  They call back and forth and then fly after each other across the fields still screaming their "Free  you" call.

The hawks are screaming to "free us" from the cold winter and  the frog totem means metamorphosis. A change is coming. It is 67 degrees.  People with their dogs have flocked to the dog park. There are so many cars at the Rail Trail that the parking lot does not hold them all.  People are wearing T-shirts saying "Chick Magnet", "I Heart My Church" in red and green.  Some people are wearing hopeful new running shoes.

Last night, we had a party with Frogmore Stew.  There are no frogs in Frogmore Stew, rather it is the South Carolina equivalent of crab and shrimp boils made up the Eastern Seaboard and on the Gulf Coast. It is sometimes called Low Country Boil.  Frogmore is a small unincorporated settlement between Beaufort and Hunting Island, actually part of St Helena Island.  Often I buy shrimp at Gay Fish on the shore of the Intercoastal Waterway in Frogmore, where the shrimp boats come in.  There, they will give you a recipe for Frogmore Stew.

Get a very big pot and fill with about 2 gallons of water.

Put in a bag of Old Bay Seasoning. If  you can't find it, use a bag of Zatarains's Crab and Shrimp boil.

Cut up two smoked turkey sausages or two turkey Kielbasa sausages into inch size pieces and add to water.
Scrub 3 lbs red potatoes. If they are the small ones, cut in half, if larger, cut in fourths. Add to water.

Boil about 15 minutes.
Add 6 ears of corn, broken in half (or more) and boil 10 minutes.
Add 2 lbs shrimp and boil 5 more minutes.

Serve on newspapers outside on picnic table with seafood sauce, butter, salt and toasted french bread.

Beer completes the menu.