Diving for Monster Oysters

Monster oyster harvested 10-16 feet deep.

I've seen a lot of ways to harvest wild oysters over the last few years. There was the guy (why is it always guys?) who made his own oyster rakes out of common butter knives. There was the guy who trolled oyster beds with what looked like a wheat harvester. Pretty sure it was illegal. And then there was the guy who didn't own a boat and walked at low tide to the oyster beds, only to have to swim himself and several bushels of oysters back from the marsh in freezing cold water. But I had never seen anyone diving for oysters. A friend tipped me off to the new technique. I was intrigued and set out to find the person or people who were responsible?

I finally found Bradley Lawn, a young Marine veteran who says he's the original commercial oyster diver. A third-generation commercial fisherman, Bradley has been fishing the estuaries, creeks, inlets and oceans of North Carolina his whole life. A few years ago, he started spearfishing, a growing sport in the Carolinas that requires you to hold your breath for what seems like too long while you dive, find, and literally spear a fish. At first, he could only hold his breath for several seconds. Now, he can hold his breath up to 3 1/2 minutes at a time.

Bradley Lawn dives for oysters in the estuaries of North Carolina.
Bradley can hold his breath more than three minutes
while diving up to 16 feet to find oysters.

What started as a hobby has turned into a full-time business with his wife, Kristie. (Oyster chica. Yea!) He's the diver. She's the "oyster designer." Every weekday from November through March, the couple heads out to their favorite inlet to harvest oysters. (They told me the approximate location, but every good fisherman keeps his honey holes to himself. I'll keep their secret as well.) With nothing more than a wetsuit, a snorkel, a mask and an oyster basket, Bradley jumps into the frigid waters to collect oysters from the bottom of the channel. When he pops out of the water, he hands the freshly caught oysters to his wife onboard their boat. Kristie then gives the oysters an ocean rinse, another unique feature of their oyster operation. Instead of washing and tumbling the oysters on land with fresh, chlorinated, salt-free water, Kristie (with some muscle from Bradley) washes the oysters on-the-spot with ocean water. She then sorts the oysters directly into customer order baskets, which are delivered directly to their customers the same day. The next day, they do it all over again.

Kristie and Bradley Lawn work together to harvest wild oysters.

There are much easier ways to collect wild oysters. Most enthusiastic hobbyists and small commercial fishermen wade out at low tide or drive their boat to an easily accessible inlet to grab their quota for the day. In North Carolina, oysters must be three inches to be legally kept. The Lawns dive for oysters that are a foot long - or more.  At depths of 10-16 feet, the oysters are older and have a safer environment to grow. The foot long oyster bushels are in huge demand from area restaurant and they are eager to buy the oddities.

This Topsail Sound oyster is more than a foot long.

Kristie and Bradley are as nice and gentle and giving as they come.  (She won't eat scallops or shrimp because they are too cute.) They both believe that helping the community that helps them is good for everyone. Often, they will dive for and donate fish or oysters to firehouses, veterans groups and other charities. But they get rankled when they talk about their imitators. Anyone with a commercial fishing license can dive for oysters, but not everyone can deliver the superior quality or customer service that they have built their business on. And oyster diving is just the beginning of their oyster business. The entrepreneurs are currently working to lease water acres from North Carolina to start their own oyster farm and they have an invention or two in the works that may help out the process.

Good luck Kristie and Bradley!

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Shuckin Good Times sells out every day. Call or text a few days in advance to see if you can get on their list. Bushels of their Premium Select Oysters (8 in. or more) are $70 delivered; Select Oysters (4-8 in.) are $45.

CONTACT INFO:

Shuckin Good Times, Inc.

Rocky Point, NC

910.619.0118

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6 Naked Oysters: Island Creeks, Ichabod Flats, Beach Points, Rocky Nooks, Chatham, and Wild Wellfleets

If you're a regular at Oyster Stew, you know that I recently had the pleasure of visiting the Island Creek Oyster Bar in Boston. (Check out my blog post here.) While I was there, co-owner and Chef Jeremy Sewall hand-picked a half-dozen raw, naked oysters for me to try.  Here's what he chose:

1. Island Creeks (Duxbury, MA)
Obviously, the Island Creeks were a star at Island Creek Oyster Bar.  Not only are they served on the half shell, Chef Jeremy uses them elsewhere on the menu: try the fried oyster sliders and Oysters Gregory.  They are briny and meaty and present.  Such a treat.

Island Creek Oysters (Duxbury, MA)

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2. Ichabod Flats (Plymouth, MA)
Oscar worthy.  Super briny.  Bold.  Perfect size.  And check out the shell.  Bring on the bling.

Ichabod Flat Oysters (Plymouth, MA)

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3. Beach Points (Barnstable, MA)
Beach Points have been grown by Mark Begley for more than 15 years in a southern harbor off Cape Cod Bay.  The oysters are tumbled, which give them deep cups, perfect for holding onto oyster liquor.  They have an elite fan base and often make the Top 10 list of ostreaphiles.  Sometimes compared to lobsters, Beach Points are less salty than their Wellfleet cousins.  I think they are great starter oysters, though oyster lovers will appreciate the nuances.

Beach Point Oysters  (Barnstable, MA)

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4. Rocky Nooks (Kingston, MA)
Co-owners Tom Taylor, Greg Parker and John Wheble are harvesting oysters in Kingston for the first time in 60 years.  We should all be thankful they dusted off the oyster industry there.  I find them similar to Beach Points.

Rocky Nook Oysters (Kingston, MA)

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5. Chatham (Chatham, MA)
Holy briny flavor.  Steven Wright grows these oysters on Chatham's Oyster Pond River.   They are a favorite among shuckers because they are easy to open.

Chatham Oysters  (Chatham, MA)

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6. Wild Wellfleets - (Wellfleet, MA)
You can taste the difference.  Wild Wellfleets, left to nature, soak up all of the sea's goodness.  While many Wellfleets are cultivated offshore by dozens of oystermen, wild Wellfleets take on the traits of the youngest child, breaking all the rules and never getting caught.  Wild Wellfleets finish with a lettucey taste.  In a good way.  The brininess tries to shine, but sea plants shine through.  I like when oysters surprise me.

Wild Wellfleet Oysters  (Wellfleet, MA)

Island Creek Oyster Bar. WOW!

Island Creek Oyster Bar has been on my oyster bucket list for a while so I was thrilled when I finally got the chance last week to stop by for a visit.  Wow, wow, wow!

Island Creek Oyster Bar
Boston, MA

Island Creek Oyster Bar is beyond good.   In fact, the restaurant would be a little intimidating if the staff weren't so friendly, the menu so approachable and the atmosphere so cozy.  The chef is pretty cool too.  It's all part of the secret sauce that has made this a hotspot for oyster newbies and ostreaphiles alike.

Jeremy Sewall, chef and co-owner
Island Creek Oyster Bar

I sat down with Jeremy Sewall, the chef and co-owner of Island Creek Oyster Bar, to talk oysters.  It turns out he's a quiet champion of the bivalve, intent on elevating and innovating the oyster experience.  He's inventing modern recipes, preaching the importance of knowing the oyster growers, introducing Northeasterners to impossible-to-get oysters, and stretching the palettes of his diners.

Sewall opened Island Creek Oyster Bar with acclaimed Island Creek Oysters owner/farmer Skip Bennett and restaurateur Garrett Harker in 2010.  The trio are heavy hitters on the Boston food scene.  In a line of many firsts, Sewall was the first chef to visit the Island Creek Oyster farm when he was searching for oysters to serve at Lineage, the restaurant he owns with his wife, Lisa.


What's the fascination with oysters?

He says he "riding the wave" of the oyster's growing fan base.  Cultivated oysters are sustainable and they're carbon negative, he says.  "And there's tons of health benefits." Oysters are high in zinc, are packed with high quality protein, and are a natural source of Vitamin D.  (I'll blog soon about all the health benefits from eating oysters.)

Located just a stone's throw away from Fenway Park in downtown Boston, Island Creek Oyster Bar has quickly become a favorite pre- and post-game spot for Red Sox fans. "Oysters, beer and baseball," he grins.  "Come on."  A perfect combo.

Raw bar at Island Creek Oyster Bar
The restaurant offers 8 - 12 varieties a night

The raw bar features 8 - 12 varieties of oysters per night.  Island Creeks are a staple, as are locally cultivated oysters from New England.  "It's not uncommon for people to eat through the list," he says.  The list of available oysters is updated online every night by 5pm.  Check out the available selections and the rest of the menu.

Another Sewall first: Island Creek Oyster Bar is the first and only East Coast restaurant that serves the infamous Hog Island Oysters.  (Visiting Hog Island Oyster farm is another entry on my bucket list).  The restaurant receives a bag of Hog Islands a week and when they're gone, they're gone.  Sadly, they were gone when I visited, but Sewall did treat me to a half dozen local oysters.

Ichabod Flat from Plymouth, MA

Island Creeks

Chef's choice: Island Creeks, Beach Points, Chathams, Rocky Nooks, Ichabod Flats and wild Wellfleets.  I'll write more about them in a future blog, but the quick take away is Yum!  My favorite was the Island Creek, but a close second was the Ichabod Flats from Plymouth, MA.    Both have an elevated briny flavor that I prefer.  I also enjoyed the wild Wellfleet, which were lettucey, a nod to their cousins on the West Coast.

Which one does Sewall prefer?

"Island Creeks, of course!"

The Ichabod Flats also happen to be Sewall's favorite at the moment.  That's the thing about oysters, you always get to try new ones and choose a new favorite.

Oysters Gregory
Recipe by Jeremy Sewall and Shore Gregory

Sewall's favorite oyster recipe?

 Oysters Gregory.  It's a dish he created and it boasts a following online.  Freshly shucked Island Creek Oysters sit on a a bed of creamed leaks topped with garlic, bacon, panko breadcrumbs, lemon zest and paprika.  They are then baked and served hot.  I tracked down the recipe for you thanks to the foodies at how2heros.com.  You can watch a video of Sewall himself making the dish he loves.

So now I cross off another item from my bucket list.  I think I've found my new favorite oyster bar.  Thanks for the oysters Chef Jeremy!

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Island Creek Oyster Bar

500 Commonwealth Ave.

Boston, MA  02215

p. 617-532-5300

www.islandcreekoysterbar.com

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!