Oyster-rama on the Charles River

Cousin Elizabeth’s Gorgeous Oysters

Woo hoo! Citizen action really rocks my world. This article in the Globe notes that it was citizens who prompted the start of a river clean-up using the magical mollusks.

“It’s citizen-based,” Brodie said. “That’s a coup in and of itself. I find this experience as compelling for its nature as a grass-roots initiative in Charlestown as I do for the nature of its cause. It’s about diving in and making a difference.”

What the good people of Charlestown knew were two things: (1) oysters might help save the river and (2) they, the people of Charlestown, working together, might make it happen.

Oysters, you see, are filter feeders – this is one of the reasons that of all the types of aquaculture that are disastrous, oyster aquaculture and mussels are both great for the surrounding environment.

According to “my” very knowledgeable resource on tout les choses Françaises, Clotilde (whom we admire for many things: beautiful blog, writes well, shoots nice photographs, and she never admits to wincing at my bad French!)

In French, mussel farming is called la mytiliculture; oyster farming is ostréiculture; shellfish farming in general is conchyliculture, which sounds like an obscure insult.

More on Oysters

I recommend two books:

1. Kurlansky’s “The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell” and
2. Rowan Jacobsen’s “A Geography of Oysters”. Both can be found here. Jacobsen also has a great site here.

My friends at James Hook gave me a private shucking lesson, remember? They proved they’re not just about lobsters.