The post where an oyster boat heads out to farm and returns with the sea.
With the wind whipping up towards 35 knots the other day we were getting bounced around pretty good. And maybe just a little bit wet. There was no staying ashore as we have lots to do as we work our way through autumn, preparing the farm for winter.
On this particular day however we had a different kind of mission, One involving a slightly peculiar harvest.
Salty Spray
A strong west wind makes for a wet bow!
Let’s backtrack a bit.
It should be said that our oysters are briny.
We love shucking them right from the cool deep waters of Peconic Bay, the taste of the liquor like a drop of the ocean itself. As we’ve taken some early samples around on tour, people really love the fresh briny flavors and with the oysters fattening up now the firm protein finish is just awesome.
Briny. Write that down somewhere.
The other day I was thinking about some of the amazing surge of new food and new farmers out here on the North Fork. Even broader I got to thinking about how we seem to be building a new way of working together, of collaborating and helping each other invent, explore, grow, and experiment.
Back when we were just getting underway with the Kickstarter project, we “virtually” met up with a few other local startups. One of which was the North Fork Sea Salt Co.’s Scott Bollman. Scott is farming some of the most amazing finishing salts from the bays and ocean right here on the East End.
Briny. So damned good, I wish we could bottle it.
We fired a note off to Scott to talk salt. Within minutes we’d worked up a collaboration. Next thing I know we are getting a delivery of collection buckets to complete our first water harvest! Water harvest? Still seems weird.
With the cooler weather, the water is absolutely beautiful. The color and light on the bay is amazing this time of year. As we hauled up the water we were thinking on the importance of our role as stewards and champions of a clean Peconic Bay. Here was another food wrought from this estuary that we hadn’t thought much about before.
After our water harvest, we set back to our regular duties- more counting, sorting recording, and general mucking about in the briny spray.
Suddenly we are thinking about our salinity again, but for a whole new reason.
Now comes Scott’s turn to work his magic. Stay tuned to see how the experiment progresses!
Related articles
- The Apron Project (northforkoysters.com)
- A pinch of [gourmet] salt (rappler.com)
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