Oyster Blog — Oysters

Trifecta! A Pacific oyster, a blood oyster (see earlier post), and a kumamoto. Like the Pacific, the kumamoto oyster (Crassostrea sikamea) originally hails from Japan. Some people think the kumo is a variety of Pacific (Crassostrea gigas) that evolved in isolated bays and estuaries. Kumos can't reproduce in Puget Sound or Hood Canal because the water is too cold, so the only way to grow them in these climes  is to buy seed from an oyster hatchery. In the late 60s, when oyster aquaculture was in its infancy, scientists tried to create an oyster that would grow as fast as...

The sad thing is that these both came out of the same oyster. IMHO: The pearl on the left is the most terrible, because it looks like a dental horror story.

We found this pearl yesterday while parboiling some medium shucked oysters.

How's this for food photography: For the past couple of months Adam has been collecting saltwater and giving the samples to Pete Becker of Little Skookum Shellfish. Pete examines the water under a microscope and looks for shellfish food. Now, last week the weather looked like this: And so it was calm enough for barge workers Adam and Miguel to notice that the water looked greener than usual. They suspected a plankton bloom. Confirmation came today when Pete emailed over these photos of phyto plankton he took while examining a Hama Hama water sample. This is oyster food! Here's what...

First, you need to know a little bit about oyster anatomy. Oysters have a top, flat side and a bottom, cupped side. An oyster has a narrow, hinged end and a wide, fluted end. In the photo below, the knife is stuck into the hinged end. This is pretty obvious. The hinged end is the only place where the top and bottom shell are connected together. Otherwise, the two shells are held together by the oyster itself. Your goal is to sever the oyster muscle from the shells. This is easier to do if you know where to find the...