"I know where my food is coming from, and shellfish are so good for the water." She serves them at dinner parties.Īnd growing them makes her feel good. Indigenous to these shores, the treasured oyster is the size of a silver dollar when grown. Paula Bowen, of Longbranch, Wash., attended a recent Taylor seed sale, and paid $25 for 500 Olympia oyster seedlings. In addition to providing fresh meals and clean water, shellfish gardening also has proved to be a great way to reintroduce the Olympia oyster, whose population was decimated from overharvesting and pollution during the early 1900s. Plant 1,000 of them along your beach and two or three years later you can dig up about 83 dozen, or $2,300 worth. Elliott's Oyster House restaurant in Seattle sells Kumamotos on the half shell for $28 a dozen. The culinary and financial return on a $50 investment can be hefty. Before harvesting, homeowners call local shellfish hot lines in order to check current water quality, a crucial step to ensure bacteria levels are safe. Clam seedlings are scattered over raked tidelands and covered with fine netting to keep predators such as crabs and moon snails away. Oysters are placed in mesh grow bags and secured to the beach with rebar. Kumamotos, a small cupped oyster, sell for $50 for 1,000. At their sales, Taylor offers 500 Pacific oyster seedlings for about $25, and 1,000 Manila clam seedlings for just $8.50. Hobby shellfish gardening is neither expensive nor labor intensive - assuming, of course, you already own or have access to unpolluted tidelands and waterways. They make sure their neighbor's septic systems are working properly." "They make sure their septic systems are working properly. "The hobby shellfish growers are becoming ambassadors," Taylor says. Pollution has created pockets and urban corridors along the Sound where shellfish-growing and harvesting for consumption are strictly off limits.īut the grow-your-own-shellfish trend has added many new voices to the cause of cleaning the waters. The region is home to 3.5 million people along 2,500 miles of shoreline. The average adult Pacific oyster can process as many as 60 gallons of water a day.Įnsuring that Puget Sound is kept clean hasn't always been easy. Oysters and clams are highly efficient water filters, using their abductor muscles to open and shut their shells, gulping water and feasting on micro algae.īy filtering the algae out of the water, they help keep the water clean and the ecosystem in check. It's just a great exchange."Īside from having the luxury of growing their own, shellfish gardeners help maintain water quality. The veterans tell the newcomers how to do things. "How they grow their oysters and how they cook them. "It's great to hear the stories from customers," he says. Last year, they held six sales and doled out a total of 1.2 million oyster and 1.5 million pebble-sized clam seedlings.īill Taylor, the company's vice president, was surprised by the popularity of the sales. To satisfy it, the company held its first official seed sale in 2001, a one-day event in the spring. But as the idea caught on, the demand grew overwhelming. So they turned to Taylor Shellfish, a fourth generation family-owned shellfish farm in Shelton, Wash., which for a while was happy to make informal sales on the side. The Puget Sound project started some 20 years ago when a handful of pioneering residents who owned waterfront property along Washington's Olympic Peninsula decided to try their hand growing oysters along their beaches. But because of pollution, they are focused on species restoration, not consumption. Similar grass-roots shellfish initiatives are taking place elsewhere, including Chesapeake Bay, San Francisco Bay and in Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay. The Horans are among a growing group of food-savvy eco-conscious residents willing to don hip boots to get great shellfish - and in the process help keep the Sound clean thanks to the natural water-filtering habits of these bivalves.Īnd it's been a success thanks in part to the help of the state's 150-year-old, $96 million shellfish farming industry. In fact, I am never going to buy them in a store again," says Horan, who this year bought seeds for another 20,000 clams and 500 oysters. There's an amazing difference in the taste and texture. Homegrown shellfish "are so young and fresh. "Our oysters are far better than any I have ever bought in a store," says Pam Horan, who along with her husband last year planted the beach at their Grapeview, Wash., home with 10,000 clam and 3,500 oyster seedlings. Seafood-savvy Puget Sound residents have taken a novel do-it-yourself approach to keeping their tideland waters clean and their appetites sated - they are growing their own shellfish.
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