a year on the farm

Oysters take about 2-3 years to grow to market size, and the upweller is the first step on their journey. The upweller is a nursery for the baby oysters which will be prepared and will await their arrival from the hatchery in late May. The upweller holds the oysters in wooden silos with small mesh screens and allows for lots of flow to provide nutrients to help them grow. In July, we begin to move the seed out of the upweller in batches as it becomes big enough to retain in 9mm bags on the farm in Jamestown. Jamestown’s location allows for lots of flow and gives the oysters a great head start!

During the bulk of our season, we focus on sorting oysters that are ready for market and drying the cages to get rid of any fouling (other organisms that attach themselves to our cages and oysters, such as mussels, seaweed, tunicates, sponge, barnacles). This provides better flow for our oysters and increases the amount of phytoplankton (what the oysters eat) available. We handsort all of our oysters, methodically going through the oldest to newest product on the farm. Our farmers make sure they are the right length, depth, and look great so we can ship them off to their final destinations! Oysters that haven’t quite made it to market size will be put back and will have the opportunity to grow more.

When the oysters have been sorted and are market size, we will bag them up and our farmers will deliver them to our chefs and seafood markets. We usually deliver to restaurants 2-3 times a week.. Look out for our WCO box truck on the roads and say hi!

During the winter, our team works to prepare the farms and gear for the upcoming season, while continuing to harvest and sell our product.