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Baltimore-born TV host Mike Rowe visits J.O. Spice in a recent episode of his show, Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe. Facebook photo.
Md.’S J.O. Spice, Featured On Dirty Jobs, Sees Nationwide Sales Spike
By Bay Bulletin
The long-running Discovery Channel show Dirty Jobs, which started back in 2003, has covered just about every trade industry you could think of. Its host, Baltimore County, Md. native Mike Rowe, shadows skilled workers to get a taste of the difficult, often messy, jobs they do. It’s entertaining to watch the self-deprecating Rowe struggle at times, but it also helps viewers to appreciate the work that consumers often take for granted.
On a recent episode, Rowe returned to his Maryland roots and put the spotlight on the Chesapeake Bay seafood industry. He visits crab seasoning maker J.O. Spice Company, a family business dating back to 1945.
J.O. Spice was named for founder J.O. (James Ozzle) Strigle, born and raised on Tangier Island. He and his wife Dot created the spice blend now used in many Chesapeake Bay crabhouses, with inspiration from Tangier shoremen who took spices from the pantry and blended them based on centuries of handed-down recipes.
A few generations later, the family produces several spices but they’re best known for their crabhouse spice, known as J.O.#2. It’s used to season steamed blue crabs, just like the brand with much more name recognition, Old Bay (owned by McCormick, a Fortune 500 company).
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