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
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| Taylor Shellfish crew harvesting oysters on the flats. |
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| Taylor Shellfish grows geoduck, the most phallic of all shellfish. |
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| (Geoduck is delicious, by the way.) |
Second stop: Elkhorn Oyster Company in Willapa Bay
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| Digging some gigantic oysters out of the mud. |
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| Oysters as far as the eye can see, the crew hard at work. (I helped out, for what is was worth) |
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| 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
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| Oysters for sale in the retail store chilling in circulated sea water. |
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| Growing oysters means working with the tides, in this case low tide was at 2:00 am. |
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| 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.
