January 29, 2014

Pacific NW Trip

Back in September I flew out to Washington to visit a few oyster farms. Taylor Shellfish, Elkhorn Oyster Company, and Hama Hama Oyster Company were gracious enough to show me around and let me take some photos and ask a bunch of questions. Enjoy the photos!

First stop: Taylor Shellfish on Puget Sound
Taylor Shellfish crew harvesting oysters on the flats. 

Taylor Shellfish grows geoduck, the most phallic of all shellfish. 

(Geoduck is delicious, by the way.)


Second stop: Elkhorn Oyster Company in Willapa Bay
Digging some gigantic oysters out of the mud.

Oysters as far as the eye can see, the crew hard at work. (I helped out, for what is was worth)

Elkhorn Oyster Co. starts their spat-on-shell oysters strung on long lines off the bottom before finishing on the bottom. 


Third and final stop: Hama Hama Oyster Company on Hood Canal
Oysters for sale in the retail store chilling in circulated sea water. 

Growing oysters means working with the tides, in this case low tide was at 2:00 am. 

The shell pile outside the Hama Hama HQ, steadily growing since the 1950s. 

A HUGE thank you to everyone who put up with me on my trip: Marco Pinchot, Andi Shotwell, and Nick and Adam James especially. I hope you are all doing well!

Cheers, 
B.