Oyster Blog

  • Oct 22, 2010: Beach Cleanup 2010

    Wednesday the weather was perfect. It was the kind of day that made you wish someone would pay you to tool around on a boat.  And that's what happened here on the oyster farm during our first official beach cleanup:...

  • Oct 4, 2010: American Geoduck

    The PCSGA set up a pretty impressive (and absolutely free) photo booth at this year's Oysterfest. See more photos of the happy campers.

  • Sep 2, 2010: Stuck like oyster adhesive

    Oysters are hardcore about sticking together. When clusters come in off the beach we try to break them apart into singles, but it's generally impossible to do so without damaging the oysters. Now scientists at Purdue University have figured out exactly why...

  • Aug 9, 2010: Oyster Herpes Spreads to the UK

    For the past several years oyster farmers in France have seen their oyster beds decimated by a new, more virulent strain of oyster herpes. The virus stays dormant until water temperatures get above 61 degrees Fahrenheit and then attacks oysters...

  • Aug 4, 2010: National Oyster Day

    Whose idea was it to designate August 5th National Oyster Day? Is there an Australian prankster embedded in the Bureau of Obscure Food Holidays who's sabotaging our ability to truly celebrate our nation's most valuable bivalve? If you haven't already...

  • Feb 9, 2010: Hama Hama Valentine

    Oysters are legendary aphrodisiacs, and Casanova reportedly began each day with  a couple dozen raw ones. Now, we would just write these statements off as old wives' tales propagated by oyster farmers around Valentine's Day, except that scientists have proven...

  • Feb 1, 2010: Horn, tooted.

    From the blog Food, She Thought: I worship the oyster, but a creamy oyster grosses me out. Hamas, in my opinion, are beautiful bivalve perfection. Good for eating raw, yet substantial enough for cooking. Hama Hama Oyster with Lemon Foam

  • Jan 7, 2010: How much brainpower does it take to harvest shellfish?

    If you haven't already read Rowan Jacobsen's newest book "The Living Shore," we highly recommend that you do. An article that appeared online a couple of weeks ago picks up an idea Rowan discusses in his book, which is that...

  • Sep 3, 2009: Olympia oysters, and a book plug.

    We've never noticed before how colorful Olympia oyster shells are. They're full of earth tones: browns, deep purples, and mossy greens. There are places on the farm where Olympias are abundant. They live on and amongst the larger Pacific oysters....

  • Sep 2, 2009: Do Fishermen Poop in the Woods?

    Yes, but they shouldn't. The AP reports that the Washington State Department of Health closed 400 acres of commercial shellfish beds on the Skokomish River (which drains the southern flanks of the Olympics) after they found human waste, left by...

  • July 31, 2009: Under the Microscope

    Noctiluca, the dinoflagellate that caused a red algal bloom in the Canal last month, courtesy of Pete Becker. Oyster larvae, courtesy of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.

  • July 29, 2009: French Mouse Test

    At first glance, this seems both ridiculous and sad: To test whether or not oysters in France are safe to eat, officials inject three mice with oyster liquid. If two of the mice die, then the oyster producing region is shut...