Archive for the All Category

Some Oysters Have A Story

Hey, guess what? That oyster you’re about to eat had a cooler Tuesday than you did. No offense. A week ago, I had the privilege of visiting the First Encounter Oyster farm in Eastham. Lows were hovering at a willful 19 degrees, with winds anticipated to reach

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Ever wonder what oysters do all winter?

As most things in the natural world, oysters endure rather than enjoy the winter. Oysters spend the spring, summer and fall happily filtering cool, salty bay-water, extracting nutrients from plankton, and growing the meat inside their shell. As the bay cools in November oysters begin to ready

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Life on the Bay in December

It’s not hard to tell when December casts its wintry pall across the bay. Daylight hours are cut in half and skim ice forms on the marsh and tidal inlets.  Where have the days of 5 o’clock dawn and eight o’clock twilight gone? I guess to the

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Summer Foraging Guide

Sun’s out, air’s fresh, the water’s warm. The Summer accepts no excuses from those who sit inside and lament boredom. The Summer reserves no sympathy for those who decline the open invitation to partake in all of the magnificent festivities the season has to offer. A little

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Anne Goes to the Farm

I’ve worked at Island Creek for about 2 years now.  When people ask me what I do for a living I say “I work for an oyster farm!”  People sort of give me the “up down” and are probably thinking “You work for an oyster farm? What

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Movin On Out

Duxbury Bay has been pretty cold this spring, which has delayed our ability to put the oyster babies out in the water. In the hatchery, the oyster larvae are grown in water that is heated to 78 degrees. Once they are big enough, they can tolerate colder

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Mommy, Where Do Babies Come From?

We’ve been busy in the hatchery during the past few weeks growing and caring for some 14-day old oyster larvae. But first, let me back track and tell the story of how it all begins… The act of spawning is simple…yet complicated. The idea of reproducing oysters

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Farming: The Real Deal

It is easy to forget that the planet we live on is as much alive as we are. Things move and circulate and breathe and die and feed in ancient and unprompted ways. In the age of digital tweets and star gazing apps, we lose that inborn ability to participate in the

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ICO NYC vs. “The Fuzz”

I have a binary relationship with the police. On the one-hand, my brother-in-law is a good cop, a great one actually. He’s the police chief in Lunenburg, MA and he rocks a solid Tom Selleck mustache that has proved to be a beacon of the law. Timeless.

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Frankenfish

Even though it kind of makes me want to throw up in my mouth a little bit, I would be lying to you if I said I wasn’t looking forward to eating a salmon hot dog. At least, that’s what I hear is something I can do

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