Oyster Blog

  • Aug 4, 2009: rock and wood work

    Our friend Evan from Villines Masonry worked all last week (in the record breaking heat) putting a Hamma Hamma river rock facade on the new building. Here he is below, drinking a Bubble Up: Portable sawmiller Dan Stewart milled up...

  • 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 30, 2009: Things we ski with

    Yesterday was the hottest day in Washington State's recorded history, and we celebrated the 100 degree weather by water skiing. We don't ski very often, so we had to improvise our equipment: We used the farm's 16 foot Boston Whaler...

  • 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...

  • July 28, 2009: Spawn Party

    It's been hot and dry for weeks, the water has warmed up, and the oysters are starting to spawn.  And this is actually a really good thing, because although we do buy oyster seed, we rely on natural "sets" to...

  • July 24, 2009: Sea Beans

    ...aka pickleweed, glasswort, salicornia, marsh samphire, sea asparagus. Sea beans, a crunchy, salty sea vegetable, thrive in estuaries up and down the Canal.  But even though they're ubiquitous, they're not part of the Lilliwaup food culture. Most people around here...

  • Jul 20, 2009: Oyster Snake

    The flotsam and jetsam is getting sillier every day. Some oysters have absolutely no taste: yesterday we found one that had permanently attached itself to a fake snake.

  • July 16, 2009: A flock of geoduck

    A couple of weeks ago we harvested a boatload of geoduck. They took over the retail live tank and proceeded to squirt salt water all over the store, completely trashing the place. Dorothy, Ona, and Beth came by when the...

  • July 13, 2009: Those are barnacles that were his eyes

    We can't get over this ridiculous spider crab. The barnacles aren't actually over his eyeballs, so he can still see, but still. It's too silly. Read more about spider crab, and see a video of one without barnacle goggles, in...

  • July 9, 2009: Woody Chiton

    Chitons are ubiquitous on the beach. We believe the one pictured below is a woody chiton, or Mopalia lignosa. (It may also be a mossy chiton, visit this site if you care about the differences between the two.) Species in...

  • July 7, 2009: Celebrating Hoodsport

    Last Saturday we spent almost all day hawking seafood in downtown Hoodsport as part of the town's annual Fourth of July festival. We sold bacon-wrapped oysters, barbecued oysters, shrimp cocktails, and steamed clams. It was social and small-town and fun....

  • June 30, 2009: as big as a horse

    During last week's geoduck dig Nathan found this horse mussel sticking straight up out of the sand. There are a lot of horse mussels on the beach, but because they live out deep you only see them on really low...