Slow to Grow…

It wasn’t like we intended to have the slowest growing oyster on the coast of Maine. We picked our location for the idea of flavor, proximity to the sea, as well as our home. However, that does mean we’ve got our oysters growing in some cold waters.

How cold?

Ice House Cove cold. Our farm sits in Deep Cove, where the St. George River empties into Muscongus Bay. If you travel from our farm up into the last inlet of the cove, there you’ll find Ice House Cove. Ice Houses were where ice was stored. Howard Pond, which is a short distance from the cove, was one of two sources of ice on the peninsula. From what I can learn there was an ice cutting business in Port Clyde in the 1870s - the ice would have been hauled over land from the pond to storage in the ice house. Then used locally, or sent on to other markets via ships that would have come into Deep Cove to load up.

Back to our bivalves. Our oysters live in waters between 40 degrees in the winter, when they go dormant and do little eating or growing (I wouldn’t either, would you?) and high 60s in summer on the surface of the cove. Most other oyster farmers are tucked up rivers that offer shallower waters and greater temperatures, meaning their oysters will reach market size ahead of ours.

And this is kind of a drag, when you are growing a food product that is vulnerable to Mother Nature. The sooner they get big and go off to market, the better, right?

It’s true. And we are looking at opportunities to start our spat in warmer waters in the near future, but that is for another post. In the meantime, here’s what we have noticed about our slow to grow bivalves…they taste good. Really good. They are briny, maybe a little metallic, like a Belon, absolutely like the sea and in February and March, they have a sweet flavor, almost floral, as a finish.

If you haven’t tried clocking the flavor of your favorite oyster through the months, I recommend it, Not only do these tasty morsels change flavor depending on where they are grown, their “meroir”, as it is called, they seem to change month to month, with changes in light, food, and temperature.

In the meantime, enjoy slow grown oysters.They’re worth it.