Archive for the All Category

New Year, New Babies, New Species!

Hi, I’m not sure we’ve met yet! My name is Hannah Pearson and I am Island Creek’s new hatchery manager! We’ve got a lot going on in our hatchery this season that we’d like to share with you and I’ll keep you updated here! There is a

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Consider your Oyster

About 3 years ago, Claudia Vestal gave me a copy of MFK Fisher’s The Art of Eating, dog-eared at “Consider the Oyster”. I had left the city, my (non) job in the arts, and was working on a horse farm shoveling manure for $18 a day (seriously)

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Nelson Mandela and Oyster Farming

Last month, revolutionary Nelson Mandela died at the age of 95. His life was so extraordinary that his humanity is lost to us mortals. His actions transformed him from mere man into a symbol that is practically religious; the marrow of a movement that altered not only

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Thank you Nestor

Working in New York City for Island Creek – we see a lot of people. Between the truck and operations, we’re talking a multitude of chefs and their dedicated staff, unhinged pedestrians, James Spader, adorable babies, James Spader … Some of what we witness is poetic, some

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I Ate the Day Deliberately

This past Sunday morning, I sat at Scarlet Oak lamenting the death of Irish poet Seamus Heaney – my aunt, my mother and myself saddled up at the unusually quiet bar (so early were we, in fact, that my aunt shamelessly delivered their morning newspaper). We talked

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Baby Oysters

As the weather begins to change our Island Creek Shellfish Hatchery begins the arduous task of creating our shellfish babies. Our hatchery started up in early January, prepping to feed our adult studs and their millions of babies. We began growing small starter cultures of six algae

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Sitting pretty in The Catbird Seat

It’s hard to talk about your best meal. There are too many factors that make a moment great. Certainly there is no better meal in my mind than the one my mother cooks on Sunday, one scotch deep, roast chicken with the trimmings, sitting on the couch

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Have Boat, Will Travel

We woke up this morning to a sight we haven’t seen in a few years, a sheet of ice a few inches thick that spanned the width of the Bay from the harbor to the beach.  The forecast is looking like this arctic air isn’t going anywhere anytime soon,

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Resolution 2013: Better Health Through Labels

Well, its that time of year.  The holidays are hay-making time among the bon vivants here at Island Creek.  We all toil: hair-on-fire oyster harvesting is followed by long hours filling immense amounts of retail orders and getting product out to our restaurant customers for the ravenous

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