The Duxbury Oyster Company has seed delivered from a hatchery at the end of May/early June each year. The hatchery is a hot and moist warehouse. Carefully selected, ideal oysters are dumped into large blue tanks full of warm water, so they can ripen and build up gamete. When the oysters are ready, they are moved to a spawning tray where the oysters spew their gamete into the water.
The tiny larvae are left to set for some time and when they are the size of a dust particle, the oysters are ready to begin building their shell. They need calcium carbonate to wrap themselves in, so the larvae are poured into a calcium carbonate bowl with a super fine 130 micron screen. The bowls are then placed in a "downwelling system" (a trough under a constant flood of water and algae) for 4-5 weeks where they grow to the size of a flake of ground pepper.
At about 5 weeks, the baby oysters are delivered to the Duxbury Oyster Company. They are TOP PRIORITY, as this is an expensive purchase and is the key to future harvests. The babies get placed in the upweller - a dock with screen-bottomed boxes underneath. Each box connects to a central trough which pumps water and nutrients to the baby oysters. When the oysters are about the size of your pinky finger nail, they are moved into large black mesh bags which slide into a system of cages that sit in rows at the bottom of the ocean. They will live here for about 6 months.
Once the oysters reach a certain size in the nursery, the oysters are scattered along the bottom of the bay. They will continue to grow in the mud for 1.5 to 2 years before being ready for harvest.
Because oysters take a long time to grow and require so many touch points I understand why oysters on the half shell are so expensive!!
Duxbury Oyster's Upweller:
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