Oyster Blog — Farm work

Introducing Ruby, the newest member of Team Hama! This beautiful refrigerated truck arrived last month from Arizona. She has big plans to revolutionize our local oyster and clam delivery. Seattleites: keep yer eyes peeled for Ruby and her faithful companion, Louie. Own or manage a restaurant or store? Want Ruby to stop by? We deliver to Seattle every Monday and Wednesday. Call our wholesale office at 360-877-6938 and speak with Diana or Adam for more information.

The camera caught up with Adam and Louie wandering through the single oyster pens one blindingly-sunny day in late March. It was the first daylight low tide of the season. Hello there! Finding an oyster to sample wasn't terribly difficult. Adam opens the oyster and eats it while Louie looks on in approval.

The stork recently dropped off a crate of oyster seed from a California hatchery. Here's a handful of them:     Jose and Cleo spent an afternoon putting the babies into grow-out bags:     which will protect the seed from predators such as snails and crab. The bags were strung together and then placed out on the beach. In 3 months, the oysters will be big enough to face life on the beach without the protection of the bags. And after another 2 years or so, the oysters will be big enough to hit the market as beautiful, and...

John and Juan at the shucking table. Roberto and Nathan. Roberto's hand is blurry because it's moving wicked fast. We only shuck oyster clusters, and save the single oysters to sell in the shell. The shuckers have to shuck both big and little oysters. We sell four sizes of oysters: yearling, extra small, small and medium. Pictured above are oysters from both ends of the spectrum, the yearling and the medium.

As it turns out, human inhabitants of the tideflats are shyer than barnacles in a shadow whenever a camera comes around. We did some camera habituation this past Friday, when the shucking plant employees were held captive by the intriguing tastes of Olympic Mountain Ice Cream. Debate continues as to which is OM's best flavor; our short list includes huckleberry cheesecake, toasted coconut, Kentucky mud pie and Jack Daniel's fudge praline. (Their chocolate flavor recently made this guy's top ten list). Shuckers Juan and Miguelito. Funny stuff. Shuckers Miguelito and Nathan. Shuckers John, Nathan, Roberto with oyster packers Brenda and...