Oyster Blog — Farm work

Compared to livestock agriculture, shellfish farming can look simple. There's nothing to feed morning and night, nothing to water, and no costly vet calls. As you may have heard us say before, all you need to grow delicious shellfish is sunlight and seawater. Despite the obvious attractions of producing protein with very few inputs, shellfish require a farmer’s touch to cultivate well. We practice rotational grazing, of a sort, because we move seed between various cages and bags as it grows to ensure it has space to grow and access food. We do a ton of gear maintenance, try to...

What the heck is a tumble farm? We're happy you asked, and here's a longer answer than you need!

... accidentally! We've had a few daylight low tides so far this year, and once the sunlight hits the flats the algae starts growing like crazy on our clam nets. Seaweed is algae. And, just in case you might need it, here's an idiot's guide to algae: there's microalgae, which is the kind that oysters eat, and macroalgae, which is the kind that we eat, like kelp, nori, etc. All seaweeds are edible in the sense that they're not toxic, but some are more delicious and digestible than others. Check out this guide to edible seaweed of the Pacific Northwest....