Culling involves sorting the oysters into six piles: "threes", "cocktails", "uglies", "throw backs", holding cars, and shells/seaweed. The standard culling tool, with the inside circle having a diameter of 2 inches and the outside having a diameter of 3 inches, is used to measure the size of the oysters. In addition to paying attention to size while culling, I had to focus on weight of the oyster and think about how it would look sitting on a bed of ice once shucked. If the oysters were just about sellable size, they went into the holding car crate. If the oysters were much too small (still seed) they went in the throw back crate. Those oysters would be thrown back into the ocean on our grant. The uglies were any oysters that were misshapen. All of the "threes", "cocktails", and "uglies" are bought by restaurants; the "uglies' are used for soups and stews. Determining which pile an oyster should go into is very important, but Kevin also emphasized the need for speed. It took me about an hour to get through four crates of unculled oysters. Once I started, I developed a rhythm and was able to spot the "threes" and "cocktails" without having to use the measuring tool. I think I owe my ability to cull to many years of eating oysters, as I know what a raw oyster on the half shell should look like. Culling is subjective, and I tended to be more or less harsh depending on what types of oysters were needed for orders that day. Many oysters were on the edge of holding car and "cocktail", but if we needed 3,000 oysters by the end of the day, I put all those oysters right into the "cocktail" crate.
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