Burlap sacks, and seagulls, awaiting incoming oyster skiffs
The winter oyster beds in Apalachicola Bay opened Monday, and the Florida Seafood Festival takes place in the city of Apalachicola this coming weekend. I just got back from a week in “Apalach” (pop. 3,000), which sits at the tip of a delta in the Florida panhandle, but I’m ready to go back. I’ll be posting more about it, including the food, soon. Mouth-watering good. I’m ready to go back. Or did I say that already?
Not surprisingly it’s been a tense time there over the past few months, what with a couple of hundred million gallons of oil having been spewed into the Gulf of Mexico. By some miracle of wind, currents, divine intervention and/or other forces, the oil stayed away–thankfully for the people who live and work in Apalach. And thankfully (and selfishly) for seafood lovers too.
Apalachicola Bay is oyster heaven, a brackish mix of nutrient-rich waters bounded by barrier islands. The estuary created by the fresh water of the Apalachicola River and the salty Gulf produces between 80 and 90 percent of the oysters Floridians, and between 10 and 15 percent of the rest of the U.S. population, eat. And these oysters are sweet, meaty but tender, succulent and ever so slightly salty, although I’ve been told that the brininess fluctuates from day to day depending on the tides and other changing water conditions. Ari Weinzweig, one of the brains and palates behind Zingerman’s gourmet deli, food market and Roadhouse restaurant all here in Ann Arbor, wrote a piece about Apalachicola Bay mollusks. It seems he, too, got hooked on the town and its bivalves.
Staff parking at Leavins Seafood, Inc.
Oystermen (and several women), also known as ‘tongers,’ harvest oysters by hand in Apalach and neighboring Eastpoint. They ride out on skiffs to the bay’s oyster bars. Then, using a very long contraption, the tongers gather the craggy mollusk shells and lift them out of the water. (Imagine two 12-foot-or-longer chopsticks connected like a pair of scissors. Then add a metal rake to the end of each so that the teeth of the rake can clasp and unclasp. These are tongs.) Tongers pile the harvested oysters onto a culling board on the boat and sort them, throwing back any that are under three inches. Shells that pass muster are put into large burlap sacks and brought in to seafood houses where the oysters are shucked and cleaned (several times) or labeled for raw consumption.
As you can imagine the shucking houses amass quite a collection of ‘empties,’ which are trucked to a nearby marina and taken by boat back out into the bay and to other Florida bays, too. The recycled shells resting at the bottom–also called cultch–serve as a good base for oyster spat, or larvae, to attach and grow.
Weeds and flowers growing among oyster shells
Even with replanting efforts, you see oyster shells all over the place in Apalach and on nearby St. George island; basically anywhere you’d see limestone or gravel anywhere else, you see oyster shells here. One enterprising pet owner even makes dog treats, Oyster Bones, using ground shell. She got the idea from watching her own dog chew madly on empty mollusk shells. (You can find Oyster Bones at the Petunia pet shop, the dog-friendly Up the Creek Raw Bar, or the Old Time Soda Fountain.)
The 13 Mile Seafood Market on Water Street
If you like oysters, or want to try them, here are two recipes I found–one for oyster stew with artichokes and another for oyster bisque from Paula Deen. I plan to make the bisque once I get my paws on some fresh Apalach oysters this season. Weinzweig says they’re sweetest between January and March. The 13 Mile Seafood Market, which I visited several times to buy fresh shrimp and smoked fish during my trip, does mail order: (850) 653-1399.
And in case you’re wondering about potential contamination of Gulf seafood from the oil spill–and I definitely have wondered about it myself–the way I see the issue is like this:
1. So far very little has been found. Just last Friday, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Food and Drug Administration announced that testing for DOSS (dioctyl sodium sulfosuccinate), a major chemical component of dispersants, turned up trace amounts in 13 of 1,735 samples. The amounts detected found fell “well below” the previously set safety threshold of 100 parts per million for fish and 500 parts per million for shrimp, crabs and oysters. DOSS is found in household and pet products (flea shampoo, for example), so it’s not unfamiliar to regulatory agencies, which is why a safety threshold had already been set. Government findings don’t typically put me at ease, nor can I vouch for the validity and healthfulness of the threshold, and of course these findings are based on a snapshot in time and we all know things can change for better or worse at any time. But it’s the most we have to work with at the moment, and…
2. I LOVE oysters. Besides…
3. We take our lives into our hands everyday doing presumably more dangerous things–like driving and talking on the phone, not exercising, scarfing fast food, and that’s just the legal stuff. I’m no scientist, but I’m skeptical that the parts per million in a few pounds of oysters and shrimp I might consume over time could be worse than the BPA I ingest when I open a can of (healthy) beans or drink bottled water. Or the mercury in salmon, traces of others’ Prozac, Viagra and Lipitor in my tap water, or the radiation from my wireless network. Do you see my point?
As for eating raw seafood, this is an individual decision–or a medical one if you’re pregnant or have a compromised immune system. Personally I don’t eat raw shellfish ever, from anywhere. I used to, and I miss it. I may be overly cautious or neurotic in this regard (among others), but that’s me.
So back to Apalach. Wish the oystermen–and the city–a good season.
P.S. I paid for my trip–airfare, lodging, rental car, food, etc.–myself. I contacted the Chamber of Commerce to get a visitor’s guide and other information. The Chamber was extremely helpful in answering questions, giving me some history and helping me understand the lay of the land (I get lost easily).
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