Oysters ready for a Spring take-off!
Winter time is turning into one of the busiest harvesting periods for the oyster farms with excellent sales through December, a small respite in January and then even better sales through February culminating in the big push for St. Valentine's Day. This is surely a boon for all oyster farmers in what used to be traditionally a quiet time of year. So well done to SSMG staff for working hard on the marketing to make this happen.
An article about our own farm in the Waitrose magazine will have no doubt helped sales. It is great for consumers to understand what goes into producing a quality oyster and of course the photograph that accompanied the article highlights the wild, remote location.
While all this is good news for oyster turnover, it also brings with it some logistical problems particularly for Island farms who are always constrained by transport problems in winter.
The weather this winter has been particularly unpredictable, with a number of named storms creating havoc with ferries and for us potential problems in meeting delivery dates. However with a careful watch on the forecasts we have juggled deliveries to meet all our commitments - and now the Spring approaches surely it will get easier.
Coupled with this poor weather is the unusual fact that there has only been one week of proper working low tides since November. Low pressure systems that bring all the storms and push the tide high, conversely, don't go out far. Intertidal oyster farming depends on the tide dropping enough for the tractor and trailer to get round the trestles and pick up the oyster bags that are strapped to them. Our own farm anticipated this might be a problem and had built up good stocks of marketable oysters higher up the beach, accessible at all but the poorest of tides, still, this didn't stop us plunging up to the top of our waders to get oysters when it looked like we needed more. A small hole in the wader at this time of year and boy do you know about it! Like other oyster farms we managed to keep grading even when it looked impossible, it is amazing what you can do when the pressure is really on.
The last big tide in February allowed us to work longer and with our first delivery of seed, thankfully gave us time to have all this securely strapped down at low water, before the next storm rolled along.
There is much work awaiting us as the weather improves and the tides finally reveal all the oysters that have been lurking under the water for the last three months. Our farm is investing in new equipment including a water grader -- this should improve the stock and allow us to grade the smaller oysters throughout the year. An added benefit allows us to grade at any time of year rather than trying to do everything in a short time in the Spring as we normally do.
So there we have it - the oysters have hunkered down, battled against the winter odds and are ready for a spring take-off much the same as those who farm them!
Have a good season.
Nick
