Family, faith & fish

Posted on March 15, 2021

By DEBRA BUTLER
Columnist
There is much more than seafood for sale inside the new little red building at the corner of Highway 51 and Rives Avenue.
A history of fishing, love for family and a faith that knows no bounds holds the building together and fills it with activity and joy.
By placing their faith in God, mortgaging their home, and investing their entire life savings, Janalea and Garrett England have brought fresh seafood back to Steinhatchee.
Janalea England grew up on the water. When her parents, Mike and Sue Smyrnios ran 100-ton crew boats out of Texas and Louisiana, they would often sneak infant Janalea aboard, hidden inside of a laundry basket.
“We would tell her to be real quiet, and she would be,” Sue Smyrnios said.
Both Mike and Sue Smyrnios were charter boat captains who delivered supplies and crews to oil rigs in the Gulf.
From 1981 until 2005, Janalea’s parents owned the original Steinhatchee Fish Company, located next to Roy’s Restaurant. They would often catch their own fish for the store with Janalea sitting between the seats on the boat as they fished.
The Englands have three children, Lilly, 15, Garrett, Jr, 11, and Logan, 9.
When not in school, all three of their children can be found helping in the store. But, it’s because of their youngest child Logan that the England family opened the business in the first place.
Logan is a special needs child and Janalea’s driving force. Because of an extremely rare chromosome disorder, Logan is completely non-verbal, cannot comprehend dangerous situations and needs 24-7 care.
According to Janalea, “If there was a rattlesnake on the ground, Logan would just grab its moving tail. He doesn’t even understand that it’s not safe to play in the street.”
Owning the business allows Janalea and Garrett the flexibility to take Logan to his many doctor’s appointments and to keep him close so that he can continue living at home instead of in a special care facility.
“One day driving home from Gainesville after a doctor’s appointment I said, Lord, he is Yours. You just let me borrow him for awhile and whatever Your will is for his life, then so be it,” Janalea said.
The Englands credit many in the community for helping them get their business started, including Sea Hag Marina, Kathi’s Krabs, and Steinhatchee Bait & Tackle.
Jim Zubrick of Steinhatchee provides grouper and snapper caught offshore, and Janalea’s brother, Dale Smyrnios brings in the mullet.
Daughter Lilly, who is naturally artistic and dreams of becoming a marine biologist, came up with the Old-Florida design for the signage and Team Williams Printing & Signs put it together. Garrett’s father, Gary England and 14-year-old nephew Rayden England also help out in the store.
Jeff Tilley of Oyster Boss, LLC was one of the first to take a chance on the Englands by providing oysters when they were just working out of their truck.
“They’re going to do great,” Tilley said.
Steinhatchee Fish Company carries an entire range of seafood, such as Mayport shrimp, Gulf shrimp, bagged oysters, pint oysters, blue crab claws, lump crab meat, stone crab, crawfish, scallops, mullet, and other fresh fish.
Additional items such as imported conch, salmon,

sushi-grade tuna and snow crab are typically obtained by special order.
Torrential rain on the day I stopped by didn’t keep the customers away.
As one would leave, two more would walk in.
They were buying everything from Mayport shrimp to scallops to conch.
Others were waiting for the truck from Water Street Seafood to deliver the lump crab, blue crab claws and pint oysters.
Each customer I talked to described what they would be preparing for dinner.
More than one was making shrimp gumbo, another had a shrimp stir-fry planned, while yet another described how she loves to eat conch raw with just a little lemon
juice.
I myself purchased a container of lump crab meat and created a decadent blue crab casserole.