OT: from sea to belly in 30 minutes

JethroVA

Decided to pull 6 of my two year old oysters outta my grow cages for a lite lunch of fried oysters yesterday. I'm an amateur oyster grower. Not pro yet. Sometimes you can find other tasty things in the oyster cages and crab traps. Yesterday my treat was a recently shed soft shell crab. So I dialed back to only 4 oysters. Not to worry, I did not go hungry. Notice the size of my oysters. Chap stick in the picture for size scale. Just a simple flour and old bay dredge cause that's all I had in the cottage. Heavenly.

Angus1978

nice!  

johnkitchens

Wow! That was a quick turnaround. Looking good Jethro. 

Fred19Flintstone

Don't you mean "From seament pond to belly in 30 minutes?"

eggforever

Looks great. Did you cook them and how?

berndcrisp

Jethro, that is a great looking meal! I need to encompass/enjoy more of the Chesapeake Bay's bounty. In the Va Beach/Knotts Island area I am.

Eggcelsior

berndcrisp said:

Jethro, that is a great looking meal! I need to encompass/enjoy more of the Chesapeake Bay's bounty. In the Va Beach/Knotts Island area I am.

Nothing better than the Chesapeake Bay.

Mickey

I would like to be your friend.

GeorgeS

Damn that look awesome!

nolaegghead

Love me sum oysters. 

I would like to hear more about this little operation.

JethroVA

@nolaegghead, 2 years ago I put in 10,000 young 'uns.  I've been harvesting those since last fall.  Pic attached of my cages that rest on the bottom beside my pier.  I occassionally pull them up to powerwash, sort, harvest.  Since I'm about half way thru harvesting the 10k (actually much less than that due to natural mortality), I put in another 10,000 young 'uns last month.    I'm a hobbyist at this point but I'm tracking and measuring everything so that I can do a pro forma of what a small 100k -500k commercial operation would look like.  I hope to semi-retire in 8 years and do something non-corporate.  Tired of working for da man.  Wanna be da man!

travisstrick

I'm so your new best friend. I love oysters.

Gogogordy

Darn you! Thats a great looking fry. Now I'm craving some delicate and petite oysters like you just showed the world! Having lived in the Pacific NW for a long-time the Olympia oyster is my favorite, primarily due to its "perfect" size like those in your picture. Darn you! Now what, Im in the desert area of Southern California....a tuna sandwich isnt gonna cut it.

NPHuskerFL

^:)^ I'm liking what I see! That's quite a lil oyster sweat shop ya got going there. Nice man nice

berndcrisp

Oysters are great on the egg as are dry scallops.

JethroVA

@Gogogordy, you sir, are incorrect! We here in Virginia do not have "petite" oysters.  Yours is a different (gasp, ASIAN) species.  A bit more fishy tasting than Crassostrea virginica (genus, species) IMHO. OK, some of my oyster raising brethren will sell you small ones but not me! Actually I don't sell, not legal cause I'm not properly licensed and taxed for retail. (I said that because "the current administration" is listening). Actually, i have a day job and just don't want the IRS attention. Not trying to start a fight with my left coast brother, just protecting our "brand". And bored, so trying to start a witty dust-up. With SGH offline for 5 more days, gotta do something to amuse myself. Old timers: notice how I used "brethren" and "brothers"? I love to flush out those who are easily offended. It's a southern thing. Just hope that we don't say, "bless your heart". That is about a high an insult as it comes in the south. Ok SWMBO said I'm all done for tonight.

Bayarad

You can't beat a freshly shed soft shell and those oysters look to be the bombdiggety!

JethroVA

@Bayarad, this softie still had some old shed shell clinging on.  He was that fresh.  So tender, no chewy day-old shell.  I say it was a "he" because we're having a down crab season on the bay vs. last year and if he had been a she, I'd prolly let her go.  

JethroVA

Ok, for those who don't know, it's pretty easy to tell a female crab from a male crab.  @henapple and @cazzy are male crabs, for example. Just kiddin brothers!

henapple

I'm the male....not sure about @cazzy I'm holding.

travisstrick

Jethro, I love soft shell crabs and used to catch them off my dad's dock in north west Florida. He's had a bum year for crabs too. We just did about a doz and a half with 5lbs of ga shrimp we got.

Bayarad

Damn Travis that looks like what I expect upon my arrival to Heaven!