The Crawfish Shack Really a ‘hidden gem’

Story by John FoLey

PhotoS by reggie Ponder & SubMitted

HHeading northeast on Ocean Highway 17, past Hertford, crossing the Catfish Hunter Bridge, over the Perquimans River, the thought of ‘where is this place’ suddenly isn’t top of mind.

Hunter’s span brings back memories and before one knows it, they are turning left onto Swing Gate Road, immediately past the Melton Grove Baptist Church, on their way to The Crawfish Shack, the Hidden Gem.

No really, that’s the full name of one of Perquiman’s County’s well, hidden gems. A mile or so down Swing Gate, through bucolic fields filled with seasonal crops, The Crawfish Shack, the Hidden Gem so the sign states, tops a knoll overlooking a Crawfish pond.

It began over two decades ago for Marty and Sheryl Hurdle, when they began selling Crawfish to the public. It wasn’t so much that Hertford had any restaurants featuring Crawfish, or needed any, Marty Hurdle acquired a taste for the crustaceans when he ventured to Louisiana for work and thought it may be nice to have his own pond full.

“We began selling Crawfish in 2001. Marty had worked on a TugBoat for a couple of years that ran to Louisiana. He tried Crawfish there and really liked them,” said Sheryl. “We had some available land and he decided to dig a shallow pond and try raising them just as a hobby and for personal consumption. Over the years it has grown into much more than just Crawfish.”

Entering the Crawfish Shack property it’s difficult to find a building resembling one’s vision of a shack. The rolling acreage complete with an event center, a covered pavilion, a large pond for swimming along with a picnic area and campground is an oasis in the middle of cotton fields.

“We had 24 acres of wooded land come up for sale that connected to our property in 2010. We purchased the property with the thoughts of building a small place that we could have approved for cooking and selling crawfish to customers. A place to come and sit, eat crawfish and maybe enjoy a little music,” said Sheryl Hurdle.

The Hurdles cleared the land, dug the ponds and built the facility from the ground up.

“Occasionally we’d get help from a contractor. That too turned into much more over the years; more than we had ever imagined. There was a lot of blood sweat and tears poured into it,” stated Hurdle.

She added, “The original plan was to have a place for our Crawfish customers to come and eat during crawfish season, but we really didn't know what we wanted to do other than that in the beginning.”

Today, the Crawfish Shack Crawfish Farm is one of less than 10 aquaculture Crawfish operations in Eastern North Carolina, according to the North Carolina

Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Although it began as a Crawfish rendition of a home brewery, the Hurdles realized early on the hobby turned business had its challenges.

“The main challenge for us is the maintenance and upkeep of the grounds and the short season we have in this area. We enjoy raising the crawfish. We just wish the season was a little longer. Our season in this area is only approximately two months,” explained Hurdle.

“We start trapping the end of April and start draining ponds the first week of July. The water temperature has to warm up enough for the crawfish to become active towards the end of April or beginning of May,” she continued.

The Crawfish Shack has always been known for hosting community events, top name musicians for outdoor summer and fall concerts, along with weddings and retirement parties. One of the most memorable parties was a Divorce Party, according to Hurdle.

“We try to have public events as much as we can. Thankfully, we stay pretty booked up with private rentals. We do black out at least a couple of weekends for events open to the public such as car shows, Crawfish Boils, community yard sales, swimming and fishing days.”

While there are campgrounds on the property, Hurdle reserves those for guests with private rentals. However, there are sites and camping available during public events, All of the sites come with electric and water hook up.

The Hurdles are known throughout Hertford, Winfall and the rest of Perquimans County for donating their space to area churches and nonprofits for use.

“One of our favorite things about this business and facility is having the ability to help others when we can. We have donated our facility for several different fundraisers, our favorite being The NC Rock Autism Music Festival which we helped with for a few years, we’ve also held fundraising events for Cancer and Hurricane victims and churches have come to perform baptisms in our pond which was amazing for us to be able to provide for that special moment,” said Hurdle.

“We love sharing our facility with others and hope they appreciate it as much as we do. We are very versatile… we can raise a little hell on a Saturday night and have a baptism come Sunday morning,” Hurdle said, smiling.

The Crawfish Shack is open to the public on select weekends throughout the year. They do sell Crawfish during the season.

For more information call 252-5628233. The Crawfish Shack is located at 305 Swing Gate Road in Hertford.

John Foley is a Staff Writer for the Bertie Ledger-Advance, Perquimans Weekly and Eastern North Carolina Living.