Oyster Blog — Farm work

On Monday a group of Bellevue Christian School students came by to tour the oyster farm. They were on the first day of a week long field trip around the Olympic Peninsula. We walked out on the tideflats to look at shore crab and clam trails, and then took a tour of the wet storage and oyster shucking facilities. And this isn't at all appetizing, but it is hilarious, so we're going to share it anyways. One of the students, under pressure from his classmates, volunteered to be the first to try a raw oyster. We didn't even think to...

included a gorgeous sunrise: lots of digging in search of a missing water line: and an octopus hunt! Adam pulled an octopus up with the oyster tubs this morning, and brought him up to the livetanks for a photo shoot. He put the octopus in a bushel basket, and the octopus escaped almost immediately. Here's the empty basket: And Miguelito searching for the missing octopus: The octopus may have gone out the drain back to the salt water, or he may be lurking beneath the oysters. We'll keep you posted if we locate him.

Adam and Nathan out on the barge this morning, as the sun peeked through the clouds during a snow flurry. The Hama Hama bridge at dawn.

  In the winter, the tide is low at night. This means that the oyster pickers and clam diggers work through the night, in every kind of weather except lightning storms. Last night we caught up with Dan and Dave at 9 pm on their way out to pick oyster singles. They ended up working until 1 am. Here they are rolling a tub around on the beach. Working on the tideflats at night is cold, and dark, and quiet, save for the sounds of seals, gruntfish, and the occasional car on the highway. 

Fall intern Luke Reynolds has moved on to bigger and better places (namely, the fall tour with his band Pictures and Sound), and our first Luke-less Monday in several weeks felt kinda flat. During his three week tenure at Hama Hama, Luke planted baby oysters, worked on the barge, packed oysters, swept, shoveled, and generally got pretty filthy working out on the tideflats. Here's what he had to say about it: TOP THREE THINGS I'VE LEARNED OYSTER FARMING 1. A heightened perspective on sustainable farming practices specifically within the seafood shellfish industry and how they offer us a truly viable...