Growing Method
When talking about oyster flavor, it's easy to focus almost entirely on species and growing location. The farmer kinda disappears from this story. But the overall quality of an oyster... its shape, shell strength, and condition... entirely depends on how it was grown. This is especially with Pacific oysters, which are more easily influenced than other species. Even if it's the tastiest oyster in the world... if it falls apart in your hands as you're shucking it, you won't really enjoy eating it.
How does growing method influence flavor? Here are some examples: Oysters higher in the water column generally have more to eat than oysters on the bottom, and therefore have different seasonality and flavor. Oysters exposed by the tide for several hours a day typically develop large adductor muscles, which are the source of much of an oyster's sweetness. The shell shape itself directly impacts an oyster's shuckability, shelf life after being shucked, and overall slurpability.
All this to say: growing method is incredibly important. That's why "method" is one of our main criteria (alongside species & location) for differentiating one oyster from another. When we name oysters, we distinguish between two types of culture method: tumbled and beach grown. "Tumbled" oysters live higher in the water column (sometimes at the surface) and are jostled around by the tide and waves every day, which gives them rounded, smooth shells. Beach grown oysters rest on the substrate, sometimes in a bag, and are only moved occasionally, giving them fluted, flatter shells.
As an example: Blue Pools and Hama Hamas are both Pacific oysters grown on the estuary of the Hamma Hamma River, but they have different appearances, seasonality, and flavor. Blue Pools are tumbled, and Hama Hamas are beach grown.
Left, a tumbled Blue Pool. Right, a beach grown Hama Hama.
Scroll down to learn more about culture methods, or jump to:
Tumbled
Tumbled oysters are grown in bags that have buoys attached to them, causing the bags to float and fall with the tide. The oysters roll around inside the bag like rocks in a rock tumbler. Their new growth gets chipped off, causing them to form deep, rounded shells.
We started tumbling oysters in 2010, so it's relatively new. (Relative being the fact that we've been farming oysters since the 1950s). For more info on why and how we tumble oysters, blog article.
There's a ton of demand for tumbled oysters from chefs and consumers alike, because they're usually easier to shuck, they look and taste great, and they have good shelf lives. And, we're almost always sold out. We would grow more if we could... but this method is incredibly difficult. The gear is expensive, and the oysters have to be handled regularly as they grow.
Tumbled oysters are usually more consistently shaped than beach grown oysters, but occasionally, maybe due to the weight of the bag or its position on the tumble farm, the oysters won't tumble enough for how quickly they're growing, and they'll have a bit of frill.
Below, our tumble farm at Skunk Island (where we grow Summer Blues) at midtide. At high tide the buoys will all be underwater, and you won't even know the farm is there.
Surface Culture
Surface culture is common in Australia and New Zealand, but kinda rare and novel in the Puget Sound region. With this growing method, the oysters are grown in bags that float on the surface of the water, so they're always accessible (and visible). There are several advantages. First, you can manage your farm (planting and harvest) from a boat, anytime you want, so you're no longer at the whim of the tide schedule. Secondly, most of the surface farm technologies available allow you to adjust the level of the oysters, meaning you can air dry them to prevent biofouling or sink them down low if a storm is coming.
Above, Katie working with several of our FlipFarm lines at the Skunk Island farm. Below, those same lines, belly up.
The FlipFarm system includes a couple fancy contramptions that make it easy to flip the oyster bags (check out this blog article). Flipping, like tumbling (and indeed these words are used interchangably in the industry) breaks off the new growth and improves shell shape. If you keep the bags exposed for a bit, as pictured above, it allows for a bit of air-drying, which improves shelf life and (hopefully) kills off the pesky barnacles.
We are currently just dabblers in the surface culture world... we have a small system, and mainly use it for seed and specialty species like kumos. It's very rare for us to let pacific oysters live in the flip farm long enough to reach market size.
Beach Grown
There's a lot to be said about the ease and simplicity of bottom culture (aka beach grown oysters). The oysters grow directly on the beach, with minimal human intervention. They're exposed twice a day by the outgoing tide, which gives them excellent shelf lives and deliciously large addutor muscles (which provide a lot of texture and flavor). When they're ready to harvest, they're picked at just the perfect size. No bags, no risk of gear coming loose and becoming a nuisance. Just simple.
But simple doesn't mean no frills. These babies have plenty of frills.
The pale purple and pink fringe on the oyster above is its new growth. This is what Hama Hamas tend to look like in the springtime, because the water is full of food and their metabolisms speed up as temperatures rise. This new growth is what gets chipped away during tumbling.
Hama Hamas are sometimes grown from seed, other times completely wild. They're hard to categorize, and are really the only oyster we refer to simply as "beach grown."
Bag to beach
Prepare to be impressed with our complicated oyster farming terms.
A very common way of growing oysters is to start the seed in a bag, and then, when it's big enough to stay put and not get gobbled up by predators, dump it on the beach. We call this "bag to beach" and it's a brilliant way to farm. The oysters usually benefit quite a bit from their time in the bags, which, like any formative experience, improves their shell shape, giving them a solid footing for a successful career on the half shell.
Below, spreading seed by fire hose, and bucket. Both of these photos were taken at our Skunk Island farm, which means the oysters are Summerstones.
Below, grown up Summerstones, ready to harvest. Note the consistent (and frilly!) shell shape.
Harvesting Summerstones:
Bag on beach
Sometimes, a beach gets too much wind and wave exposure, or there are too many predators, or you simply just don't feel chasing them down again come harvest time, so you leave the oysters in a bag their entire lives. Unlike tumbled oysters, however, these bag on beach oysters don't move with the tide... they just sit there. Occasionally, farmers have to go around and jostle and shake the bags to spread the oysters out, break off their new growth, and strengthen their shells a bit.
When it's time to harvest, voila, all the oysters right where you left time. (Unless a sea star got to them first, of course, and devoured the entire bag with its creepy remote stomach... in that case only the shells will remain).
In appearance, bag on beach oysters look like a cross between a tumbled and a beach grown oyster. The bags allow some fluting, but the oysters are usually nicely cupped and consistently shaped.
Below, Disco Hamas, in the bags, on the beach:
Harvesting Discos:
Disco Hamas ready to slurp:
Besides the Discos featured here, bag on beach oysters that we grow or sell include Lucky Penny and Hood Rocks.
Other Growing Methods
When setting up an oyster farm, there are many trays, bags, and buoys to choose from. Culture methods are usually determined by the beach itself (how exposed is it to wind and waves, how muddy is it, etc) and sometimes by labor availability... if you choose a high-touch growing method like tumbling, you better be sure you've got a crew to help.
Even the beach itself is optional. In Alaska, many oysters are grown subtidally, meaning below the tideline. These oysters are almost always underwater, so the farmers have to haul them up occasionally for some training (ie tumbling or jostling to strengthen the shells).
Below, our friends Weatherly and Greg Bates of Alaska Shellfish Farms grow their oysters suspended from big blue buoys.
Our neighbors to the south, Hog Island, use a French "rack and bag" style to grow their Sweetwater oysters. The bags are elevated off the bottom by a few inches and can be very cleverly flipped, one after another, in a process reminiscent of knocking over a line of dominoes (only much more difficult).
