Oyster gardening

[AndyK]

As a hobby the wife and I enjoy raising oysters and clams.
It’s really easy & fun.
We enjoy serving and eating fresh shellfish at our parties.

We have 3 different types of oysters and 7 types of clams.
The Olympic oysters are our native ones and the only ones that reproduce.
They grow wild here like weeds.
Our Kumamoto and Pacific oysters are triploid and can not reproduce.
Their plus side is they grow extremely fast because they don’t spend any energy on reproduction.
They can also be harvested year round where as the native Olympic oysters should only really be harvested in the winter months due to being filled with spawn yuk in the summertime.
My favorites are the Kumamoto’s.
They grow fast here because our water is pristine and filled with nutrient.

Any ways here are some pics of them and our journey.
The ones next to the quarters are 13 months old.
The baby ones are about 4 weeks old.
We buy them when they are about 4 weeks

 

[BFletcher]

That's pretty cool, Andy; thanks for sharing!

 

[DanHoo]

The oysters look great. Much better than gardening zucchini, tomatoes and peppers.

 

[AndyK]

I dig veggie gardening too.
That’s one of the things I miss the most from NorCal.

This was our first harvest and re-seeding so I still have a lot to learn.
Did have a nice party that night though.

 

[JimK]

What a cool hobby!

 

[Timothy F. Lewis]

My wife and I celebrated our anniversary when we were out there (good grief, 31 yrs ago) and had the best oysters I’ve ever eaten in Quilcene! We honestly tried them at as many places we could for the ten days we were in the PNW.

 

[Tim Campbell]

That is cool as heck, Andy. How'd you ever get started in that process??

 

[ChuckO]

Nice to see you staying out of trouble Andy. Awesome hobby

 

[AndyK]

Tim, we do a lot of kayaking and most all the neighbors are doing it.
Between looking at their set ups and countless hours on YouTube it came to place.
Timothy, congrats on your long marriage we got #41 coming in a few weeks.
Quilcene is just down the road and where catch my trout.
Chuck, I was born with a capital T stamped on me .

 

[GrantT]

I grow basil!

 

[Joan]

Grant, so do we I also want to grow cilantro.
DH used to clam for a living when he lived on Long Island. He loved it.