I'm an oyster farmer, ask me anything!

are you moister than an oyster?

Only on tuesdays baby.

That's an awesome line and I'm stealing it.

Earlier this year I ate 15 river oysters in Africa in one sitting at a town nearly a hundred miles from the ocean. I shit my brains out. Where did I go wrong?

Water quality. Oysters are filter feeders so whatever is in the water is in the oyster. If that water is known to have parasites or something like that there's a damn good chance it's in the oyster. I'm sorry the oysters made ya poop. Ours wouldnt do that to you, they're too thoughtful.

How long does it take to grow an oyster, start to finish? Does it vary by type?

Also, what's your favorite oyster, and how do you like to devour their slimy flesh?

Anywhere from 18-24 months we can have a seedling (baby oyster) to a market sized oyster. They're living animals so it really depends on the oyster itself. Some grow fast, some grow slow.

So far our oysters are my favorite, they have a super salty but full flavor and they are absolutely delicious. It took me a bit to get over the slimy texture but boy do I love it now.

Thanks for answering! My fiance recently got me into oysters, and now I want them constantly!

Yeahhh buddy! They're expensive unfortunately so that's a huge perk. Whenever we haul if we have any left over they let us take them home. It's a great work perk.

I'll bet! Man, I thought it was cool when I ran an ice cream shop...

Do you know if your farm's oysters ever make it to Chicago? Or am I going to need to make a trip out east?

Yikes I wish. You're gonna have to come out East. Right now we're still kinda small, this is our first real year of selling oysters. We only sell to Connecticut, New York, and Massachusetts. But if you come out here I'll give you free oysters, thats a promise.

Woohoo! I'll play some sweet keytar licks in exchange.

Thanks again for the AMA!

Fo sho!

You mentioned the seedlings, being baby oysters. How is that obtained? Do you guys farm special "hen" oysters to give "eggs"/seedlings?

We do not. I can't give you a great answer on this because we don't grow our own seed. We buy it from a hatchery. I'm not sure how they do it. However I do know oysters are hermaphroditic, meaning they have both male and female genitalia. So I assume they just put a bunch of oysters in a tank and make em get to work.

If I don't see a research paper titled "How oysters respond to champagne and/or Barry White" by you in the next few years or so, I will be sorely disappointed.

hahaha i'll get right on it

What is your experience with bearded clams?

I've seen a few, tasted a few, and ran from a few. So I'm well versed.

I'm an oyster picker in WA. we pick our oysters by hand at low tide, buoy the bags, then pick them up at high tide with our flat bottom boat. I've heard of people just dredging the bottom at high tide for oysters and breaking them on the boat. How do you guys farm?

We start the seed in upwellers then once they get to about 3/4 inches we move them into our salt pond. From there we put them on bags with buoys and set a line. Once they grow to about an inch and a half we dump them into cages (1/2 inch mesh) and we just let them grow until they're market sized. Once they're around 3 inches we hand pick at low tide and put them in Long Island Sound to depurate for two weeks.

oh so you guys are growing singles in those flip bag lines? That's much easier. We just throw our seed out in the bay then break the clusters by hand (with a hammer) when we go pick. It shucks.

Oh damn that is rough. Thankfully ours dont set onto each other for the most part which makes sorting incredibly easy.

how long does it take to go from seeding to picking them for market?

18-24 months, just depends on the oyster.

I saw a talk recently by an oyster farmer in the Pacific Northwest and he said shellfish in the region are being dramatically affected by pH changes (ocean acidification). Is this also occurring or an issue where you are?

Ocean acidification has an affect everywhere. I'm not in a position of power im my company and haven't done much research into it but I know it has a really bad impact on seed. The seawater can corrode the baby oyster's shell and kill the oyster before it can be sold.

Have you tried growing kelp near your oysters to leach CO2 out of the water and fix the pH locally?

Im on the East coast so we don't really have any big kelps. But no we havent tried doing anything to fix the pH locally, as of right now it seems to be fine.

Ocean acidification has an affect effect everywhere.

alternately

Ocean acidification has an affects everywhere.

<3 I've always struggled with this one. Thanks buddy

How do you prefer me to be prepared ?

With a some horse radish and lemon, dayuuum baby girl you bouta taste good

Are the male oysters called boysters?

lol thats a good one, i wish. but they're hermaphrodites

Do you eat a lot of oysters now, or do they ever stop tasting good?

Is farming oysters one of those things where that's all your really farm? Like it's not convenient to also grab shrimp while you're at it?

I do eat lots of them now, more than I used to because its convenient. They will always taste good.

Uhh kinda, we've ventured into clams a little bit and we're thinking about starting to do blue crabs because we have so many of them that get into our cages, but right now oysters is really our #1 priority.

What if anything do ou put on your oysters when eating them?

I like lots of stuff on them. I like lemon, mignonette, cocktail sauce, horse radish and hot sauce. But I also like them with nothing on them. My favorite is either mignonette or horse radish.

Hot sauce is best imo, but I was raised in the south so it could just be cultural for me.

yea a shot of tobasco on an oyster is pretty damn good

What kind of noise annoys and oyster?

I dont know, you tell me.

Pearls?

Ok, pearls are weird. Oysters do grow pearls however they take years to grow into the size of pearl you would put on a necklace. I haven't found any pearl yet, but my coworker says he has, but it was about the size of a pebble and was weirdly shaped. So they're not as common as ya think!

i heard that pearls are really soft too, like you can scratch them up pretty bad with your nail.

truth or bullshit?

Truth, pearls aren't all that hard when they're in the oyster. When they get hard they become very brittle

Where should I start to open a farm?

In the water.

All jokes aside it depends, starting an oyster farm can be tricky. Lots of permits needed so maybe somewhere where the regulations aren't as heavy?

sorry for not clarifying, english is not my 1st language. I mean, do I have to get a degree or is there any source to learn about oyster farm?

You definitely don't need a degree. The oyster farm I work on isn't mine but my boss didn't go to college. You should have some knowledge about oysters though, so I'd read about aquaculture and the oyster life cycle &life history.

You ain't kidding. I tried contacting the state a few times to get a clam farm starting.....3 years ago. So many permits, so many rules, no one around to guide you.

Its pretty brutal

Sounds like smelly work, what detergent do you use to keep your home fresh from the stink of the little money-makers?

Downy detergent. But now they have these scent booster pouches, its like a pink little pouch you throw right into the washer. My clothes smell great when they come out!

But...Downy is a fabric softener, not a detergent. Tide or Gain would be the P&G equivalents.

Ok, its Gain detergent with snuggles scent boosters!

Gimmie a miunte I'm gonna go check

What's the most oysters you've eaten in one sitting?

Around 35 I think? I had a box of 50 oysters from work and well, I couldn't finish it on my own. I'm sorry, I tried.

i like oysters as much as the next guy, but how do you eat 35?

I use different garnishes on several to keep from my pallet from getting bored, and probably can put away 2 dozen.

I was hungry...and had a box full of oysters in front of me. Also I had just learned how to shuck them properly so I was having fun with it.

Have you ever witnessed an oyster stampede? Was anybody hurt?

I have. We lost a lot of good men that day.

I'm interested in oysters' water filtering properties. Do you have any experience with or knowledge of oyster farms that have been started as a form of bioremediation? That is, in areas with really poor water and not necessarily for the purpose of harvesting the oysters for food?

I do not personally. If you look up the billion oyster project, that is essentially their entire goal. Its to use oysters as biofiltration which is a really cool idea because they're unbelievable at doing so. https://www.billionoysterproject.org

Is there any truth to the saying that you should never eat oysters in a month that ends in a vowel? Any guess where that may have come from?

I have heard that oysters like brackish (sp?) water (a mix of fresh and salt). Do you know if that's true, and it is because of lower salt content.

What would you say is the defining characteristic (taste or texture wise) of a long Island Sound Oyster as compared to a Wellfleet Ma or west coast oyster.

1) There is truth to that. Oysters spawn in the spring and summer months so if you're eating them in those months (which I do, don't get me wrong) you're drinkin some oyster jizz. They also taste better in the winter because they're conserving their energy to hibernate so they are nice and plump!

2) Our oysters grow in a brackish environment when they're babies and they seem to do pretty well. However when they're juveniles we move them into a salt pond with a pretty high salt content, our oysters have a really salty flavor which I enjoy.

3) Its a crisp flavor, similar to Wellfleet however I feel like our oysters really pack a salty punch compared to some of the others I've eaten.

Theres also triploid oysters that don't spawn. we sell those during the summer months.

I didn't know about that, I'm gonna look into that. I always knew there was a way to get oysters that didnt spawn but I wasn't aware they were triploids.

Would you ever eat one of those oysters that was forgotten for like 6 years and ended up being 2feet long?

I'd probably try it...

What is a day-to-day like in an Oyster Farm?

Regular farms I imagine it's getting up at the butt-crack of dawn to tend to the fields, caring for the animals and collecting their eggs, milk and wool (I've played some farming simulators... Harvest Moon)

I can't imagine it's a daily job to... what go out there and make sure they're growing ok? Counting them? Making sure they're safe from predators and disease?

It all depends on what needs to get done. Work starts at 8 and lately its been a lot of preparing for the winter. So we move our oysters into deeper water and stuff like that. In the summer it was a lot of harvesting and transplanting into Long Island Sound. If we have orders to fill we stand around in the office and sort oysters. It's a fun job for sure because its never the same stuff, its different all the time.

Long Islander here - I'll have to venture over the sound to get some good oysters then! Unless you don't think yours are better than montauk's...

WHOA. Don't you dare. Ours would kick Montauk's ass in a fight.

But in reality Montauks are awesome. Ours just have a different flavor, you're just gonna have to come over and see for yourself.

Can oysters be used to fight ISIS?

How do you breach tough markets for shellfish, such as South Williamsburg?

Oysters are pretty sharp and smell awful once they die so maybe?

You have to have something that sets you aside from other people. Our oysters are the only ones grown in a salt pond in Westport CT so they have a different flavor from all other CT oysters.

One of your answers mentioned the Long Island Sound. Is the AMA today because it's pouring and miserable out?

Yep, we don't have work today because its awful out. Too wavy to haul and we're currently building boats but we cant work on them when they're wet. Our farm is located in Westport Connecticut!

How long did it take for you to get your degree in marine biology? It is something I would want to pursue.

It was a 4 year degree at Roger Williams University. There were a few people in my classes who were much older than me. A guy named Jim was in his mid 50's getting his degree. Never too late!

Have you had any risky encounters or close calls on the job?

When we work on Long Island Sound, we have a 40 ft flat bottom steel boat. This boat is great for everything except waves. There was a time where the weather was a bit rough and the waves were pretty high, we must have had two feet of water on the entire boat and water was coming over the back of the boat where the engine was. That was a bit scary, luckily we weren't too far off shore.

Have you ever had food poisoning from seafood?

I have never thankfully. My brother had bad sushi once and now he wont eat sushi again so we can't order it for take out....Joe's always ruining everything.

How do you deal with pests? Seems like an oyster bed would soon be infested with starfish and cownose rays.

We dont bottom plant. We put our oysters in cages that (for the most part) keep predators out. However we do still get the occasional oyster toad fish and green crab inside our cage.

How hungry was the first person that decided to eat a raw oyster?

Definitely really hungry, because they kinda look like a sneeze.

So ... do they work?

See, I used to live in Eugene, Oregon. And across the river is Springfield, Oregon. And in Springfield there was a restaurant (part of a locally owned chain, I think) what had 'oyster stew' on the menu.

Now, being very little of a seafood fan, I never did order it. But the most curious thing is that on the menu, the description for the oyster stew read only "We hope it works."

Anyone I knew always thought this was a reference to oyster's supposed aphrodisiacal properties. Which of course is because of all of the cholesterol in them.

So what do you say? Do they work?

Honestly though I cant answer yes or no. It's not like you eat one and you have a raging hard on, so maybe?

;)

Aside from the ones your raise, what's your favorite easy coast oyster? Also, what's your stance on cocktail sauce vs. just lemon/straight up. Lastly, if you haven't already, you must read "Consider the Oyster"! Excellent short read about how important the humble oyster is to food and society. Thanks!

My favorite east coast oyster. That's hard, I guess a true blue point would be the best. Lots of people claim they have 'blue point oysters' but they arent REAL blue points.

Lots of people say cocktail sauce ruins the flavor of oysters but I dont buy it. I love cocktail sauce on oysters, but I do really enjoy just a little lemon or with nothing at all.

I'll definitely check out the book! I've been recommended it before and now I feel like I have to.

When I eat an oyster at a restaurant.... Is it still alive?

I dont want to do this to you. But yea, that little bastard is still breathing. Actually a cool way to test how lively he is, squirt a little bit of lemon and if he squeezes tight thats a SUPER fresh oyster. If he's a little slow or doesnt move he's probably just a bit cold, but yeah they're alive.

Damn..... I can't wait to tell my friends this as they eat their next squishy pal from the sea.

The good thing is they only hate you for a little bit.

What good/bad/ugly things should consumers look for before ordering/picking their oysters?

It's really hard to tell from the outside. Even oysters that look bad from the outside could be the best oyster you've ever eaten. I would just try to get them as fresh as you can. As someone who's in the business, we tend to keep our oysters in the walk in freezer for a few days before theyre sold, and then they're kept in the stores freezer for a few days. So just try to buy fresh and if you think an oyster smells once you open it dont risk it!

Are you selling your oysters to raw bars? If so, how do you guarantee that the conditions you're growing these oysters in are safe to consume (ie, avoid algae blooms and worm parasites)?

Do you randomly open a few oysters to inspect the contents? If you find something has infested a cluster of oysters, do you have to purge entire regions and start over?

When we harvest we open a couple at random yes to see what kind of goodies they might have inside. Our oysters are also tested by the state of Connecticut as is the water they grow in so you can be pretty sure our oysters are good to go.

We currently sell to a seafood market and about 3-4 restaurants, and yes they are served raw at some of those places.

Is your business at all threatened by climate change? How do you feel about that?

Currently? No. Climate change won't effect us for a while which is good. But I do realize that it's a huge issue and we need to work as a race to solve it.

What's your favorite part of your job?

I love working outside and seeing all of the sealife that isnt oysters. I love seeing the crabs and fish and sea urchins that get stuck in our cages and I try my hardest to throw em all back in the water however some do die. RIP little buddies.

I love oysters and have been eating them since I was 8 yrs old and total foodie, so I have lots of questions about oysters!

• How much water can an oyster filter a day?

• How long does an oyster have to grow till it can be labeled as small, medium and large?

• What is the largest oyster you have ever seen?

• What size and what type of oyster is best for consumption?

• Where do you work and how can I visit an oyster farm?

• Do your company over delivery for oysters to the Midwest?

Because I want to buy a few bushels for a family oyster fest!

Hi! I'd be happy to answer as many as I can.

1) I read somewhere its like 50 gallons a day? A lot for a little fella

2) It all depends, they're living animals so they grow at different rates from one another. It takes us approximately 18-24 months to go from a seedling (baby) to a market size (3+ inches).

3) We have some wild oysters in our salt pond that are probably like 8 or 9 inches, which is pretty damn big.

4) Virginicus is the species we grow (i think thats how you spell it, you can correct me if im wrong :D ) And it really just depends on the flavor you like, so the location is important. And for size, the smaller ones tend to be better for raw, larger ones tend to be better cooked.

5) I work at Hummock Island Shellfish in Westport Connecticut. Lots of oyster farms do tours of the farm, we unfortunately do not because we're still small but look up oyster farms in your areas and send emails. I'm sure people would be happy to show you around. If you're in our area I could show you around some weekend.

6) We're only selling to restaurants right now, but I'm sure lots of other companies would sell em!

Do you see your product's demand increase at certain times of the year (e.g. Christmas) or when certain TV shows become more popular? I'm just curious because I've really been wanting to try oysters ever since I started watching Mad Men.

Another question, does the flavor of an oyster correlate to what region it's grown in?

We do, holidays are incredibly busy for us, and maybe it had something to do with mad men, that show is awesome.

And yea totally! Like a blue point oyster or a wellfleet isnt the actual type of oyster, its the location. Wellfleet oysters come from Wellfleet Maine, and Blue Point's are oysters grown in a region of the Long Island Sound. Chesapeake oysters have kind of a muddy flavor compared to other ones, so the location totally changes the flavor.

What is your favorite place to eat in Long Island?

I have no idea, never been. Our farm is located in Westport Connecticut, just in Long Island Sound. Sorry :(

Being an oyster farmer sounds like it shucks. :P

All puns aside what's something interesting about oyster farming we might not know about?

How do you know when shellfish are safe to eat? I live in coastal southern california and everyone warns you not to eat the mussels and stuff because supposedly they'll kill you or make you sick.

We get to spend 95% of our time working in the water and outside. It's really fun work, lots of people think it sounds terrible but its really enjoyable. Plus free oysters, oh and crabs? We get tons of blue crabs and we can keep them so thats pretty sweet.

It's really hard to say. Sometimes it just depends on the area they're in. For the most part its the water, if you're going to eat wild shell fish NEVER risk eating them raw. Always cook wild shellfish and you should be all right. (If you die I'm not responsible)

How do you tell, by taste, if an oyster is "good"?

Depends on what you mean by good, if you mean not rotten its easy. Rotten oysters smell disgusting so you wouldnt even go near it. If you mean good by high quality you can tell by the plumpness and the color but each location has a different flavor. So an oyster grown in the Chesapeake will taste different than our oysters, so it all depends on what you prefer!

Are oyster shells thinning due to ocean acidification?

Yes, at least the babies are. Ocean acidifcation can kill seedlings like no other.

Do you adhere to the rule "eating oysters in months that end in R" (I.e. Sep - dec)?

What are your thoughts about gulf oysters? Personally I avoid at all costs.

Do you eat oysters any other way than raw?

I don't adhere to that rule. But the reason it's in place is because the oysters tend to taste better in those months. In the warmer months the oysters are doing lots of spawning so they can have a creamy texture or taste, in the cooler months they are storing energy for winter so they have a fuller more plump taste.

Gulf oysters are not my favorite. But I will eat em if they're in front of me!

I do, either oyster Rockefeller or just grill them with a little butter, parsley, Parmesan cheese, garlic and hot sauce, its amazing.

I love them Rockefeller!! I have also had them fried in a Caesar salad which I really enjoyed. But by far raw is my favorite way to enjoy.

Thanks for the response, I'll have to give grilling them a shot.

Yea you should. Mix some butter, garlic, parmesan cheese, parsley and hot sauce in a bowl, shuck the oyster and dump out the juice. Then scoop a bit of that butter mix on top and throw it on the grill. The parmesan crust's up at the top and boy oh boy is it good.

What kind of oysters do you rear?

virginicus oysters

Can I get an oyster fam?

Put it on your christmas list.

how long before you drop oyster farming and get into pig farming?

after all.... pearls before swine ;)

hahahaha pretty soon I'm thinking.

So I manage at a large restaurant on the Louisiana Gulf Coast, and we sell on average 150-200 dozen oysters on a busy day. Whenever the delivery guy comes from the docks, his description of really good sacks usually boils down to them being mostly clones. What is the advantage of 'clones' when harvesting oysters? What is the process by which a fishermen can even clone an oyster, are they asexual? Finally, where you're at, do red tides affect harvesting, or is that just a gulf of mexico thing?

We havent had any red tides that I know of. And they're hermaphroditic so they release both egg and sperm and I do believe they can mate with themselves. But the lack of genetic variation just kind of means you know what you're going to get.

Hi there, I've been jonesing to get into the biz, myself. How did you start? Was it through a small loan from your father, or what?

I didn't start, I'm just a worker. (I'm gonna have to edit that in the title). But the guy who started our business owned a salt pond that had been in his family for a few hundred years so he had the location and he had a bit of money which I'm sure helped.

I'm a Marylander so oysters are close to my heart, although I actually don't like eating them because they give me the heeby jeebies.

Two questions:

What is the tastiest way to prepare oysters? They're like the boogers of the sea

And what are your thoughts on using oysters to manage water pollution? Oysters are wonderful filters, I wonder if they could be used strategically.

If you dont like the texture try grilling them. shuck them, drain them, then add butter, parsley, garlic, and parmesan cheese, its amazing.

They are starting to be used as biofilters which is really cool, check out the billion oyster project.

ps. my girlfriends from the Potomac area, Maryland is an awesome state!

What's the worst part of your job? Are there any tasks/chores that always get dumped on the new guy and/or guy that is on the boss's shit list?

Cleaning the van is pretty bad. Its dead oysters that have been put in there for a few days so the smell is horrific, and you gotta bleach it to make it not smell good. Going to harvest on the boat can be stressful but its fun.

Could you farm oysters at home in a fish tank? Would it give a decent yield for the amount of work involved? It would be nice to be able to harvest oysters at home anytime you want.

Maybe? You could certainly try. All they really need is clean water and algae. However it takes 18 months (at minimum) to get to about market size, but hell give it a try!

Do you like Oysters?

you know it

Have you ever had fresh Pacific NW oysters? I noticed a better taste when I was out there than I was used too, growing up with them in the Southeast. What are you favorite regions of the US for oyster eating?

I love North East oysters, but I haven't had any NW ones. I'd love to try them, I hear they have a totally different flavor.

Recommendations for getting my girlfriend who is wary of oysters to try and enjoy them? Overall she's not huge on seafood, so its a bit of a challenge.

Alright here we go. You gotta take the oyster out of the shell, put it on a saltine, throw some cocktail sauce and horse radish on it (if she doesnt like spicy skip the horse radish) and then a tiny bit of lemon juice. Its delicious. If she wont do it raw, grill them with butter, parsley, garlic and parmesan cheese. At that point it doesnt taste like an oyster, just like butter garlic and cheese, and work her up to the raw ones.

pay?

Its hourly. Pretty decent pay for what we do. Although who doesn't want a raise?

Are some clans really tight and hard to open to get at the fleshy inside ?

I think you mean clams...but some of them are tougher than others. You open them differently than oysters so I'm less well rounded at opening clams and sometimes I just smash them.

What's your favorite way to eat an oyster? I personally like mine raw and chilled, my family likes them bbq'd and each member has their own favorite sauce to go with (tabasco, lemon, homemade chili pepper, etc).

Gotta say raw with a hint of horse radish.