Hama Hama® Oyster Blog

Today was a gorgeous day on the oyster farm: hot with the perfect hint of north breeze. It’s a welcome change after the gray, rainy and cold weather we’ve had the past couple of weeks. Just in time for the good weather: our  barbecue/picnic area is now up and running. Hmm… who will be the first to use it???

These barbecues are way too clean.

UPDATE: This post was sadly lacking in useful information. The barbecues are first come first served and are free to use during store business hours (9:30 to 5:30). So, plan on having a lunch party, not a dinner party. Bring your own charcoal, lighter fluid, and grill utensils, because we don’t currently have any for sale in the store. Things that we do have: oysters, clams, and yummy fresh wild sockeye salmon to grill up for lunch. For more information give us a call 888-877-5844.

We’ve been super busy in the smokehouse all week getting ready for the expected onslaught, so blogging time has been cut to a minimum. But in the meantime please enjoy this delightful cartoon from Alaskan artist Ray Troll:

We’ve been concocting some grand schemes these past few weeks! Our quest for world domination is well underway in the following locations:

1. Olympia: Live in Oly and want fresh Hama Hama oysters without the drive or the shipping charges? Our shucked, shell, smoked and pickled oysters plus our steamer clams will be available for pickup on Mottman road on Thursdays through a new CSA-type venture called Olympia Local Foods.

2. Kitsap Peninsula: Monica’s Bakery is organizing a Culinary Tour that will stop by the oyster farm on May 15th (same day as our Open Farm) to tour the flats, learn how to harvest and prepare shellfish, and then eat a delicious Hood Canal inspired meal. It’s going to be really fun. For more info visit Monica’s blog. There are only 30 tickets available and they’re selling fast!

3. Bellevue: We’ve finally bit the bullet and are diving headfirst into the Farmer’s Market scene. Sorry for the metaphor overload, but this has been a long time coming. We’ll be at the Saturday Bellevue Farmers Market starting June 5th. If you attend that market and want to pre-order anything feel free to give us a call 888-877-5844.

4. Eldon: We’re also bringing the farmers and the market to our very doorstep… starting tomorrow we’ll be hosting the Friday Hood Canal Evening Market. We’re inviting local farmers, musicians, and arts and crafts dealers to come show their wares from 2 until 5 pm. If you are a farmer or have something to sell contact market organizer Howard Leggett at 360-898-1717.

pst: We just received a load of really cute local coonstripe shrimp… they’re miniature spot prawns and just as tasty!

We’ll be getting in a big batch of live Hood Canal spot prawns on Wednesday afternoon, and we’ll be able to ship the prawns Thursday for delivery Friday.

Shrimps with heads:

We’re going to be doing all sorts of outrageous things to oysters tomorrow, including wrapping them in bacon, barbecuing, shucking, harvesting, and eating them live. Bring your boots, a rake, a cooler, and your kids for an intertidal scavenger hunt. The event is from noon to 3, and please call us at 888-877-5844 if you have any questions.

Scavenger hunt/coloring page/intertidal sea life guide by Emi M.:

Springtime is officially underway: the tide is out during the day, the air smells sweet with cottonwood blossom, and birds are literally hatching at our feet. And in a few hours we’ll receive our first batch of  fresh local shrimp. Cue mouth water.

This first delivery (caught this morning) is coming to us via Westport… next week we’ll have fresh Hood Canal shrimp. (They’re the same species, just different harvest locations). We’ll put the shrimp for sale online, but we’re only going to ship it tomorrow for delivery Friday (and next week we’ll also ship Thursday for delivery Friday the 23rd).

If you want to reserve some shrimp or arrange to have some shipped to you call the seafood store at 888-877-5844, visit our online store, or email orders @ hamahamastore.com

Last week was busy so we didn’t have time to post. This week is slow and rainy so we’re posting about last week.

On Monday the 22nd we headed into Seattle to give out samples of smoked and pickled oysters to foodie folks at a networking event called Foodportunity. We brought along lots of wood to decorate the table and used the big oyster as a prop.

And, continuing to work backwards through last week… two days prior to Foodportunity was our first Open Farm Day of the season. The weather was beautiful but the sea cucumbers elusive. Here are some shots of happy foragers.

This guy walked out on the beach for 10 minutes and came back with a bushel of oyster clusters, for which he paid a scandalously low price. He felt pretty good about it.

Hunting for clams.

Boy Scouts: explorers of the flats and discoverers of numerous sea stars, innumerable hermit crab, and one unfortunate dead fish.

it would not be a twitter. It’d be more like the sound a hungry hereford makes when you want to sleep in and she wants her breakfast.

But we promise to be sweet. Follow us on Twitter: @hamahamaoysters.

Tomorrow it’s supposed to be mostly sunny with a high of 67 degrees… perfect for a day on the tideflats. You might even want to add sunscreen to the list of things to bring.

We hope you can all come out to the farm this Saturday, March 20th for the first of our 2010 Open Farm Days!

Here’s the nitty-gritty:

Time: 1 pm to 3 pm

Location: Hama Hama Farm, 35846 N US Hwy 101, Lilliwaup WA 98555. (FYI: Google and some GPS devices disagree with the Mason County Addressor and have us at 35861, not 35846). If you need directions please go to the “visit the farm in person” link on the upper right.

What to Bring: Boots, rain gear if necessary, coolers to transport your shellfish, a garden rake for harvesting clams (you can also use one of our rakes), and muscles, because carrying bushel baskets of shellfish up off the beach can be hard work. You can also bring food for a picnic lunch. We have smoked salmon, cooked crab, cheese, crackers, hot clam chowder and smoked oysters available for sale in our retail store. Sorry, but we don’t allow alcohol in the picnic area.

You don’t need a shellfish harvesting license. But if you do want to take oysters home with you, be sure and keep the receipt  so that you can prove you bought the oysters.

Oysters: $3 a dozen, limit 10 dozen per person. Oyster clusters are $.50 each.

Clams: $2 a pound, limit 10 pounds per person.

Weather Info: Right now the forecast for Saturday is partly cloudy with a 20% chance of rain.

And that’s just another way of saying: partly sunny with an 80% chance of being dry.

Questions? Please call 888-877-5844 or email us at orders@hamahamastore.com. We’d love to know how many people to expect, so please RSVP if you have time.