CrabDaddy-Steamed Crab, a Perfect Day & Family Time

AYCE Crab and NC Barbecue, music and a beautiful setting. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Here’s the basic concept behind CrabDaddy, the annual celebration of crab and other things at the Cotton Gin in Jarvisburg—

Eat a lot of crab. Drink some wine from Sanctuary Vineyards, or beer from the taps of the local brewery that are on hand. Bring the family—any event at the Cotton Gin is very kid friendly—enjoy life under the towering pines on the north lawn of the Cotton Gin.

And listen to some really good music.

All of that was helped along on Saturday by absolutely spectacular weather, making for as close to a perfect day as there could be.

CrabDaddy is fun. The crab is freshly caught local crab steamed by the folks from I Got Your Crabs down in Kitty Hawk. For the non crab eaters there eastern North Carolina barbecue on hand—prepared right there and it was good.

Keeping it simple, buy your ticket and it’s all you can eat.

Eating is not the only thing happening. There is also the CrabDaddy Olympics. Barrel Rolling, which the kids love, and our personal favorite…grape stomping.

Cut a wine barrel in half, fill it with grapes—muscadines in this case, turn the spigot on at the bottom of the barrel and let the two people with the grapes smushed between their toes start stomping. 

It is a gooey, sticky wonderful mess of a contest.

Next up for Sanctuary Vineyards, don’t miss their annual Big Curri-shuck the Saturday after Thanksgiving. All you can eat oysters, crabs and more.

There is always something special to do on the Outer Banks. Reserve your Joe Lamb, Jr. & Associates home today and see what it’s all about.

CrabDaddy Reappears at Sanctuary Vineyards

CrabDaddy Poster

All is well on the Outer Banks as CrabDaddy makes his annual appearance this Saturday on the north lawn of the Cotton Gin in Jarvisburg on September 21. That’s this coming Saturday.

Who, the uninformed may ask, is CrabDaddy, not realizing that CrabDaddy is a what as much as a who.

What he, or is it what, is is a fantastic celebration of food, family, crab, wine and beer in a beautiful setting.

Brought to the world by Sanctuary Vineyards and held under the towering pines on the north end of Sanctuary Vineyards, the event is an all you can eat crab fest. There is also a local pit master smoking up some eastern North Carolina barbecue. The wine is from Sanctuary Vineyards. The beer is local. For kids there are hay rides and what is particularly nice there is plenty of room for kids to roam around in a very safe area.

The music this year may be the best ever for the event with Almost Everything, Roots of a Rebellion and Twen on hand and a possibility of more.

Along with more food than any human can possibly consume, beer, wine and great music, CrabDaddy also features the Crabdaddy Olympics. These are competitions that should be in the Olympic lineup but aren’t—including grape stomping. Hop in a barrel, smush some grapes and get some juice.

Right now Saturday is looking fantastic, so plan on heading 11 miles north of the Wright Brothers Bridge and have a meet and greet with CrabDaddy.

CrabDaddy is just one of many special event happening this fall in and around the Outer Banks. Spend some time with Joe Lamb, Jr. & Associates and see what life on a sandbar is all about.

CrabDaddy-Food, Fun, Beer and Wine

CrabDaddy-an all you can eat festival of crabs, beer and wine.
CrabDaddy-an all you can eat festival of crabs, beer and wine.

A Perfect Day in Jarvisburg

CrabDaddy we have to admit, is one of our favorite Outer Banks events of the year.

What’s not to like?

It’s an all you can eat event serving freshly steamed crabs from I Got Your Crabs as well as some fantastic local eastern North Carolina barbecue. This year the live music was provided by the Jesse Chong Band and Trae Pierce & The T-Stones.

And the wine from Sanctuary Vineyards is excellent and there were three local breweries on hand—Weeping Radish, Lost Colony Brewery and Northern Outer Banks Brewing Company—pouring some very nice beers.

Sponsored by Sanctuary Vineyards and I Got Your Crabs the event takes place on the north end of The Cotton Gin on the mainland in Jarvisburg. The setting is close to ideal; tall pine trees proved shade from the sun, and this year the sun was shining bright. The temperatures stayed moderate though and beneath the trees shade kept things comfortable all day long.

The concept behind the event is a celebration of the grape harvest. In keeping with that there his the  Great Currituck Grape Stomp, an event that proves stomping on grapes with bare feet is not the best way to extract the juice.

What happens in the competition is two wooden tubs are filed with grapes—it looked like muscadine grapes. A team of two contestant climb into each tub and proceed to stomp on the grapes hoping to be the first to fill a vessel that is catching the juice.

A sticky, sloppy mess—grape juice is very sugary—kids and adults find common purpose in the event.

The wine grape harvest this year at Sanctuary , looks like it will be ok, although it’s still too early to be sure. The summer weather was fickle with way too much rain in July followed by an August drought. They did get most of the grape picked before Hurricane Florence brought rains to the ares, so there is hope.

We’ll know next year at the 2019 CrabDaddy when the first of this year’s vintage is poured.

CrabDaddy is just one of a number of great Outer Banks events. For the best accommodation to enjoy all the Outer Banks has to check out Joe Lamb, Jr. & Associates.

A Memorable Autumn OBX Weekend

Outer Banks Weekend Features Something for Everyone

Learning to dance at Artrageous 2016.
Learning to dance at Artrageous 2016.

This past weekend on the Outer Banks was a perfect example of why autumn is the time to come to the Outer Banks.

Saturday was filled with lots of events, all of them family friendly. Our Joe Lamb Jr., & Associates. minions tried to get to everything, but we’re sure we missed something along the way.

Artrageous

Kids and creativity is what Artrageous is all about.
Kids and creativity is what Artrageous is all about.

If there is a better event for kids anywhere than the Dare County Arts Council’s Artrageous it would be hard to imagine.

The event is all about kids and creativity. Held every year at Rec Park in Kill Devil Hills, kids can try their hand at blacksmithing, get their face painted or create a mural on the side of a building.

Families, definitely put this on in your autumn calendars for next year.

Crabdaddy

Beautiful setting and perfect weather made Crabdaddy 2016 one to remember.
Beautiful setting and perfect autumn weather made Crabdaddy 2016 one to remember.

Perfect setting, perfect weather, lots of crab and good wine. Throw in some great music and it just doesn’t get much better.

Held at the Cotton Gin the last Saturday of September every year, Crabdaddy is part celebration of the autumn grape harvest and a wonderful celebration of the bounty of local waters—in this case blue crab.

Sanctuary Vineyards is owned by the Wright Family, the same family that owns the Cotton Gin so the setting makes sense.

The wines have shown steady improvement over the years and they are very good now.

Outer Banks Bluegrass Festival

Soggy Mountain Boys headlined Saturday night at the Outer Banks Bluegrass Festival.
Soggy Mountain Boys headlined Saturday night at the Outer Banks Bluegrass Festival.

The outdoor stage at Roanoke Island Festival Park is spectacular the bands were among the best in Bluegrass. By the time things wrapped up on Saturday evening there was no doubt that the 2016 Outer Banks Bluegrass Festival was something special.

It helped that the Soggy Mountain Boys were the final act. Putting a very traditional spin on what bluegrass is all about, some of their sounds would have fit right in 75 or 80 years ago.

Next big weekend is Columbus Day–Mustang Music Festival on Friday and Saturday and the Duck Jazz Festival on Sunday.