It’s true that many notable events took place during the Tangier Island Oyster Co. trip to the island last Wednesday.
Yes, Ken Cuccinelli greeted a member of Governor Terry McAulliffe’s staff on the dock of TIOC headquarters and then delivered a stunningly knowledgeable primer on oyster cultivation to Virginia Secretary of Agriculture Todd Haymore and his small entourage.
Dr. Jim Wesson of Virginia Marine Resources Commission later stated that our Tangier Island oysters were among the best-looking oysters he’d seen in his many decades of studying oysters and repeated what he’s been saying for years: that Tangier is the ideal place for growing them.
Tangiermen Allen Parks, Dan Dise and Tracy Moore repaired the engine of Allen’s deadrise boat, the Elizabeth Joy, on the fly when tooling us out to the grow area, a spot of water in Tangier Sound called Cod Bay (Dan assured us that there has never been a codfish around there, and he has no clue why it is so named).
Meanwhile, History Channel camera crews were ferried around on Tangiermen’s skiffs as they shot footage for a series pilot.
The underdressed and overly fashionable among our group endured the cold; there were tears in windblown eyes. Even Allen admitted to having “a bit of a chill.”
Everyone ate soup and crab-cake sandwiches back at Lorraine’s, the only restaurant open during the slow winter season. One restaurateur and crab-cake aficionado from New York ranked it among his all-time top five crab cakes.
All of this happened. But the most significant moment of the day took place out on the water after twenty-five people huddled for warmth and watched as Allen hauled up one of our cages and dumped a thousand miniature oysters onto the engine box. There they were, perfectly shaped and quarter size, a distinctive black stripe down their centers. People handled them. They had come from Richmond, D.C., and New York for this. Phones and cameras documented the moment.
Allen re-bagged the oysters, caged them, dropped the cage back in the Bay and readied for the return to the island. TIOC team member William Darr noticed that one oyster had been left behind on the box. “Tighten up, Allen,” William said. “We just left money out of the water.” VMRC oyster expert Andrew Button unsheathed his filet knife from his hip, pried open the oyster, and offered it to William. William sucked it down. The first TIOC oyster had been consumed. He later claimed that the taste was excellent, like a subtle saline embrace, or something like that. It was his anniversary and his wife was on board. The moment’s on video somewhere.
The upweller is empty and dry now, the water pump shut off until spring and the next round of spats. Our nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand oysters are floating in the Bay.
Back on the mainland, some of the team reconvened at Lowery’s seafood restaurant in Tappahannock for happy hour and to reflect on the day. Oysters from the Rappahannock were on the menu. They ordered two dozen on the half shell, another half dozen fried. They may have been biased, but the patrons had criticisms: grit in the shell, a slight aftertaste of river bottom, the necessity of hot and tartar sauces. Missing was the clean, bracing jolt of the cold Bay that William had experienced earlier. Maybe next year at this time their menu will offer a better selection.
There’s so much good writing on the subject of eating oysters that we ought to include some quotes in these updates, and we might as well start with what is one of the most well known passages, one from Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast:
I closed up the story in the notebook and put it in my inside pocket and I asked the waiter for a dozen portugaises and a half-carafe of the dry white wine they had there. After writing a story I was always empty and both sad and happy, as though I had made love, and I was sure this was a very good story although I would not know truly how good until I read it over the next day.
TIOC update: 11/22/14
ReplyDeleteIt’s true that many notable events took place during the Tangier Island Oyster Co. trip to the island last Wednesday.
Yes, Ken Cuccinelli greeted a member of Governor Terry McAulliffe’s staff on the dock of TIOC headquarters and then delivered a stunningly knowledgeable primer on oyster cultivation to Virginia Secretary of Agriculture Todd Haymore and his small entourage.
Dr. Jim Wesson of Virginia Marine Resources Commission later stated that our Tangier Island oysters were among the best-looking oysters he’d seen in his many decades of studying oysters and repeated what he’s been saying for years: that Tangier is the ideal place for growing them.
Tangiermen Allen Parks, Dan Dise and Tracy Moore repaired the engine of Allen’s deadrise boat, the Elizabeth Joy, on the fly when tooling us out to the grow area, a spot of water in Tangier Sound called Cod Bay (Dan assured us that there has never been a codfish around there, and he has no clue why it is so named).
Meanwhile, History Channel camera crews were ferried around on Tangiermen’s skiffs as they shot footage for a series pilot.
The underdressed and overly fashionable among our group endured the cold; there were tears in windblown eyes. Even Allen admitted to having “a bit of a chill.”
Everyone ate soup and crab-cake sandwiches back at Lorraine’s, the only restaurant open during the slow winter season. One restaurateur and crab-cake aficionado from New York ranked it among his all-time top five crab cakes.
All of this happened. But the most significant moment of the day took place out on the water after twenty-five people huddled for warmth and watched as Allen hauled up one of our cages and dumped a thousand miniature oysters onto the engine box. There they were, perfectly shaped and quarter size, a distinctive black stripe down their centers. People handled them. They had come from Richmond, D.C., and New York for this. Phones and cameras documented the moment.
Allen re-bagged the oysters, caged them, dropped the cage back in the Bay and readied for the return to the island. TIOC team member William Darr noticed that one oyster had been left behind on the box. “Tighten up, Allen,” William said. “We just left money out of the water.” VMRC oyster expert Andrew Button unsheathed his filet knife from his hip, pried open the oyster, and offered it to William. William sucked it down. The first TIOC oyster had been consumed. He later claimed that the taste was excellent, like a subtle saline embrace, or something like that. It was his anniversary and his wife was on board. The moment’s on video somewhere.
The upweller is empty and dry now, the water pump shut off until spring and the next round of spats. Our nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand oysters are floating in the Bay.
Back on the mainland, some of the team reconvened at Lowery’s seafood restaurant in Tappahannock for happy hour and to reflect on the day. Oysters from the Rappahannock were on the menu. They ordered two dozen on the half shell, another half dozen fried. They may have been biased, but the patrons had criticisms: grit in the shell, a slight aftertaste of river bottom, the necessity of hot and tartar sauces. Missing was the clean, bracing jolt of the cold Bay that William had experienced earlier. Maybe next year at this time their menu will offer a better selection.
There’s so much good writing on the subject of eating oysters that we ought to include some quotes in these updates, and we might as well start with what is one of the most well known passages, one from Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast:
I closed up the story in the notebook and put it in my inside pocket and I asked the waiter for a dozen portugaises and a half-carafe of the dry white wine they had there. After writing a story I was always empty and both sad and happy, as though I had made love, and I was sure this was a very good story although I would not know truly how good until I read it over the next day.