Day Out with a Carolina Oyster Farmer

Ronald Sheffield
Owner Topsail Sound Shellfish

Just to prove that ostreophiles live among us, it turns out that my health insurance broker is also a budding oysterman.  Ronald Sheffield is the owner of Topsail Sound Shellfish, a boutique oyster farm on the Southeast coast of North Carolina.  I asked really nice - borderline stalked him by phone - and he agreed to take me out to see how he nutures his oysters.

5-acre aqua farm in the Intracoastal Waterway

Several times a week, Sheffield heads out on his Carolina Skiff to see how his oysters (and clams) are doing.  Last Wednesday, I was lucky enough to go with him to his 5-acre aqua farm in an estuary off the Intracoastal Waterway that he leases from the state of North Carolina.  Because I don't have an oysterman's license, I wasn't allowed to touch a thing (bummer!) but I did get to watch and take pictures.  Can you see the lines of floating bags?  Each bag contains hundreds of oysters growing safe and sound in water with very high salinity.  Unlike in the northeast where the bags are sometimes frozen under the ice, the mild North Carolina climate means no freezing and year-round access to the oysters.

Oyster seeds: crossbreed bxblyn.9

Sheffield starts with oyster seeds - not spat - no bigger than 1mm.

Sheffield loading the nursery bags 
into the floating bags.

He places thousands of the seeds into small mesh nursery bags and then places the nursery bags into the floating bags.

Oysters about to be moved from the nursery.
Compare to market-size oysters.

A couple months later he checks the bags to see which ones can be moved out of the nursery and directly into the floating bags.

Sifting young oysters.

In the early stages, he empties each bag into a colander and then hand sifts through the growing oysters.   The toddler oysters are then placed into the floating bags to continue growing. I can't express enough how tedious this part of the process is.   It was while watching him sift through these tiny oysters that I truly appreciated the love and effort that goes into my beloved bivalves.

Checking the floating bags

Every couple of months he checks on the growing oysters, separates them again and moves them to new bags by size.

Full-grown oysters ready for market

Tick tock.  Tick Tock.

 Finally, 15-17 months later - after checking and rechecking the oysters, cleaning out debris, flipping the bags over and over to prevent barnacles - the oysters are finally ready for market.  The triploid Topsail Sound Salties - as Ronald has named them - have a brine around 35 ppm - yum!  

Topsail Sound Salties

Shucked and ready to eat

When he took me back to the dock, he popped open a Topsail Sound Salties.  Fresh out of the water and loaded with brine and seawater, the oyster exploded my senses.  These are not starter oysters.  They are large, briny, hit-you-over-the head oysters that taste like the ocean and could stand up to to a Zinfendel or oaky Chardonney. 

Interested in Topsail Sound Salties?  Contact Ronald at topsailsoundshellfish@gmail.com.  He sells out every time he harvests so you may have to get on his waiting list.  

Thanks Ronald for a wonderful day!