“He was a bold man that first ate an oyster.” ~Jonathan Swift
My agreement with that statement made me somewhat of an outcast among my trendy Baby Boomer friends. I’d watched them shuck open some unsuspecting barnacle-laden shell, tip it up, and let a pulpy, slimy mass of flesh slide down their throat.
No thanks, I’ll pass.
Until I met the Lynnfield oyster. Now all bets are off.
On a recent visit to Virginia Beach, I was invited by Chris Ludford, owner of Pleasure House Oysters, to take his eco boat tour into Chesapeake Bay. “It’s not only educational, but it’s also a lot of fun to see… and to taste!” he said.
I was skeptical. But I was told I would be joining a group of Millennials doing the tour as a birthday celebration. Ha! They’re going to join me in shunning raw oysters, I said to myself. They don’t know ostreaphiles are fashionable.
Chris met us at the marina in the late afternoon, and I was immediately taken with his friendly, low-key enthusiasm. His crew – Ty and Nick – lowered me into the boat and we set off on the Lynnhaven River, while Chris began to tell us about the area. The Lynnhaven River is a tidal estuary that flows into the Chesapeake Bay a few miles from the Atlantic. Once famous for its oysters, it declined when the river became polluted. Recent restoration efforts by Lynnhaven River Now – a group of locals working to improve water quality in the river – and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation have proved fruitful; the river was partially reopened to shellfish farming in 2007, and the oyster business is once again exploding.
“Our theory is based on a three-legged stool of conservation, restoration, and aquaculture,” said Chris. When asked to define aqua theory, he said it’s when you get to eat the bounty, while the other two legs of the stool get built back up. It occurred to me that this is a proverbial win/win/win scenario.