Oysters

How Oysters Breathe

Oysters breathe much like fish, using both gills and mantle. The mantle is lined with many small, thin-walled blood vessels which extract oxygen from the water and expel carbon dioxide. A small, three-chambered heart, lying under the adductor muscle, pumps colorless blood, with its supply of oxygen, to all parts of the body. At the same time a pair of kidneys located on the underside of the muscle purify the blood of any waste products it has collected.

Oysters Male or Female

There is no way of telling male oysters from females by examining their shells. While oysters have separate sexes, they may change sex one or more times during their life span. The gonads, organs responsible for producing both eggs and sperm, surround the digestive organs and are made up of sex cells, branching tubules and connective tissue.

How do pearls end up inside of oysters?

An oyster produces a pearl when foreign material becomes trapped inside the shell. The oyster responds to the irritation by producing nacre, a combination of calcium and protein. The nacre coats the foreign material and over time produces a pearl.

The "R" Myth

Folklore says that oysters should be eaten only in months with "r's" in them—September, October, etc. Maestro S.V.P. educates people that oysters can be eaten 12 months a year. The notion that oysters should not be eaten in "r"-less months—that is, months that occur during warm weather—may have started in the days when oysters where shipped without adequate refrigeration and could spoil. But today all that has changed and we can enjoy oysters twelve months a year.

Oysters and Their Nutritional Value

Oysters are not only delicious, but they're also one of the most nutritionally well balanced of foods, containing protein, carbohydrates and lipids. The National Heart and Lung Institute suggest oysters as an ideal food for inclusion in low-cholesterol diets. Oysters are an excellent source of vitamins A, B1(thiamin), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin), C (ascorbic acid) and D (calciferol). Four or five medium size oysters supply the recommended daily allowance of iron, copper, iodine, magnesium, calcium, zinc, manganese and phosphorus.

Ways Oysters Are Raised

 

Bottom or Beach Cultured Oysters

Beach/Bottom Cultured Oysters, also called Intertidal Cultured Oysters, are oysters which are raised on tidal beaches with sandy or rocky bottoms.  These oysters are accustomed  to fighting the tides, clamping tightly shut during low tides to preserve their “liquor” and to protect themselves against predators.  Because of this “tough” life, beach raised oysters are hearty.  They have hard, sturdy shells which shuckers like to work with.  And their ability to close tightly, coupled with their hard shells, gives them a longer shelf life.  Examples of beach cultured oysters include: Bald Point, Dosewallips, Fanny Bay, Marrowstone, and Totten Virginica.

 

Rack & Bag Cultured Oysters

Rack & bag cultured oysters are grown in mesh cages or bags which are generally staked about one to two feet off the bottom.  Oysters raised by the rack & bag method are protected from predators and do not become cramped for space as they grow.  They also do not have to filter as much sand & mud in order to get nutrients, thus they grow faster.  They develop a deeper cup than beach cultured oysters.  However, if the oyster is raised entirely this way then they are pampered and their shells are brittle which makes them difficult to shuck without breaking.  Examples of rack & bag cultured oysters include: Chelsea Gem, Hawk's Point, and Jorstad.

 

Suspended Tray Cultured Oysters

Oysters which are cultivated by the suspension method are the primadonnas of oyster.  They are suspended, in mesh trays or a Japanese lantern shaped nets, in deep water their entire lives, protected from predators, mud, sand and silt.  They have beautiful shells with deep cups, but they are an oyster shucker’s nightmare because their shells are brittle since they never had to fight for survival.  Because of their brittle shell, it is best to use the Chesapeake Oyster Shucking Style, going in through the lip.  Using the traditional Hinge Oyster Shucking Style on brittle shelled (new shell) oysters tends to result in breaking the shell of suspension cultivated oysters.  The oyster flavor profile of suspended oysters tends to be clean, sweet & light, with meats which are tender.  Examples of suspension tray cultured oysters include: Chef's Creek, Emerald Cove, Pearl Bay, Sinku, and Snow Creek.

 

Puget Sound Oysters

 

Hood Canal and Southern Puget Sound

Puget Sound reaches into Washington State like an arm dipping into a barrel. Its upper arm abuts Seattle, its elbow bends at Tacoma, and at Olympia it spreads five fingers into the land. Those five long, narrow inlets—Hammersly, Little Skookum, Totten, Eld, and Budd—comprise some of the most famous oyster appellations in the Northwest. Budd reaches directly into downtown Olympia and is closed to shellfishing, but the other four are thick with amazingly fast-growing oysters and clams. Each inlet has its distinctions, but they all contribute that characteristic South Sound flavor—full, rich, intense, more sweet than salty, a hint of cooked greens or seaweed, bordering on musky. It’s like a sea version of collards with pork fat.

An extraordinary two hundred miles from the open sea, the South Sound has relatively low salinity; the sea is less of a factor. After navigating all of that coastline, the water that reaches the South Sound has experienced countless land influences. It’s also nutrient-rich, thus algae-rich. Rivers, tidal zones, and mudflats each add their own algae-mineral cocktail to the mix. Salmon push up those inlets in fall, flooding them with nutrients when they die. If Eastern oysters smell like wet rocks at low tide, South Sound oysters smell like wet earth at low tide. It’s an acquired taste. But those who acquire it consider milder oysters too boring. They toast each other’s arch taste with a musky Pinot Gris and never look back.

Just a few miles of fir forest separate Hood Canal from Puget Sound, but geologically they are worlds apart. South Puget Sound is a land of gentle terrain and shallow inlets. Hood Canal, on the other hand, is steep and deep: steep mountains above, deep waters below. It’s a genuine glacier-carved fjord, the only one in the continental United States. Oysters adore Hood Canal. The water is kept brackish, cold, and oxygenated by the Olympic rivers. Even more important, the glacier left behind a gravelly till, quite unlike the muddy substrate that dominates Puget Sound. Firm river deltas line the canal, every one of them laced with brackish sloughs and thick with oysters. The classic Hood Canal flavor is very different from that of southern Puget Sound; more lettuce and lemon zest, saltier, less sweet, and very firm for a Pacific.

Northern Puget Sound

South Puget Sound, with its gentle beaches, is ready-made for oyster farming. North Puget Sound is not. The island coves to the north are deep and rocky, so it’s no surprise that most of Washington’s suspended-culture operations are concentrated in this area. With fewer land influences, the oysters from North Puget Sound tend to be brinier than those of the South Sound and lighter flavored—more cucumber than smoke.