How Oysters Are Made with Brad

Alright, me, me, me.

Check, check, check.

I'm gonna hit those marks.

Look at this, feels like we're standing on clay.

Alright, can I wear my sunglasses?

Alright, Vince.

We're up here in Duxbury Massachusetts.

We're at Island Creek Oyster Farm.

Kind enough to have us up here, show us their operation.

From the moment they start farming them,

to second you eat them.

Oysters should be very much alive.

We figured it would be a perfect place to come up here

and learn about oyster farming since we love them so much.

Yeah, take two.

So I think this is uh...

Take three.

Start from the beginning.

Oyster farming company.

(laughs)

Take five.

That was good though, right?

We're gonna be oyster farmers.

I didn't like that one.

Champagne and your oysters, that sucks.

Kind enough, no, (bleep).

Me and old Vinnie, no, no Vinnie right?

Damn!

I thought that dramatic exit was gonna be...

The intro's the hardest part!

(lively music)

This is the lab we need.

The science lab we need.

Science, Vinnie.

You know what this is Vinnie.

This is that ecto stuff.

Remember the old Hydia juice boxes.

The ecto slimer juice?

Remember that Hi-C made it?

Slimer stuff?

Ghostbusters?

Vinnie, we're out here Island Creek Oyster.

We made it into, this is what, your hatchery?

This is where you take baby oysters,

raise them, feed them.

I'm assuming this is algae you're growing.

[Chris] This is algae.

So you're growing that and you're feeding the baby oysters

and you're mating adult oysters in here.

Raising them to a point

where you can bring them out into the bay?

Yeah, there's two things we're growing here.

It's oysters and oyster food.

Everything that you see around us is oyster food.

We've got millions and millions of baby oysters.

They grow out in here until they're the size

of a flake of a ground pepper.

Okay.

So at that point, you can hold 800,000 of them

in your hands cupped like that.

Weighs about two pounds.

Wow.

From that point forward,

you flash forward 18 months,

that same handful will weight about 200,000 pounds and

take up an entire acre of Duxbury bay.

[Brad] Wow, so they grow pretty rapidly.

So it starts as a larvae where they're actually little

swimming little oyster critter and once it gets,

it mixes in it gets, what do we call it?

When it all happens, when the sperm hits the egg?

What are we calling that?

[Chris] Fertilization.

Yeah.

(laughing)

Fertilization.

That's when it becomes a seed?

Once it gets fertilized,

it turns into this free swimming larvae cruising around

eating algae and then,

after a couple weeks, it forms its shell.

So then, after the hatchery which we're in,

where do we go next?

Next step in the process is the upwellers.

So they're in natural habit water

but in a unit or something?

Exactly.

Alright, maybe we go check that out.

Huh Vin?

Vincenzo, what do you think?

They made this little system Vince,

where the water comes pumped up from the bottom so they're

constantly in a flow of water.

That will keep them alive and feeding them

and allow them to grow?

Yeah.

[Olav] They're feeding off of the abundant nutrients in the

water column here in the bay.

And it allows them to eat to their heart's content.

What we're doing today is they're going to be

going through a grader.

The groups that have hit the quarter inch mark,

out to our nursery system and the ones that aren't quite

there will come back into our upweller.

You got the bottom?

[Brad] Yeah.

We'll start falling them into that.

[Brad] Here we go.

[Olav] We got some extras, we'll just rinse them out.

[Brad] This stuff right here Vinnie, cost a million bucks.

I don't know if that's true.

[Olav] Very nice.

Grab the hose.

Did you get that Vinnie?

Hey, Vincenzo, is this your first boat ride?

It's our first boat ride Vinnie.

You want to hold me over the front?

(whistle blows) (laughing)

We're heading out to our oysterplex.

You'll see a bunch of basically floating houses.

Cool.

For all the different farms out here.

[Brad] Look at that tumbler.

Looks like you guys are mining out here.

[Olav] That's our sorter.

[Brad] Alright.

[Olav] Tanner, he's our resident high schooler.

[Brad] Alright, Tanner.

Tanner, what are you doing Tanner?

[Tanner] We are--

You've got 15 seconds!

Tanner make it quick!

[Tanner] Okay, we're taking the seeds, we're storing it,

these ones are going back in the upwellers and these

other ones are gonna move on to something bigger.

Very cool.

Did I make it?

You made it.

[Brad] Vinnie, you getting some good shots

of before the drought?

Before the tide?

Vinnie pay attention bud, we're working!

[Olav] Let's get this guy up.

These came right from that upwelling system that

we were at on the docks.

How long have they been up here?

[Olav] These guys have been out here about three weeks.

About three weeks.

Oh, yeah.

[Tanner] Much bigger.

[Brad] Look how much they grew there Vinnie, get in there.

Went from about, I'd say, doubled in size.

[Tanner] Yeah.

[Brad] What are we doing with these again Olav?

These are coming up to our nursery system

up in the back river.

Ah, the back river.

♫ Out back

♫ Out back river

[Brad] Hee hee!

Get a lot of water on in!

Aw!

Backfired Vinnie!

(laughs)

Why do you want to drop oysters in a river bed?

As you can see,

the water's quite murky.

There's a lot of growth here in the water.

A lot of nutrients, warmer water.

You drop them here so the oysters will

essentially grow faster?

They'll grow faster.

It's one of the reasons why the Island Creek oyster has

that unique flavor profile to it,.

It's a mixture of the estuary water and the seawater that

together gives it a combination of brine and really

nice earthy flavor.

[Brad] Cool.

Alright, that's it.

When they go to high school,

they're not on the bottom?

They are.

They are.

Island Creek oysters are bottom planted.

How the hell they get 'em?

Either by picking or we dredge them.

When I go to a restaurant and I eat

an Island Creek oyster,

it goes through this whole stage that we did

and they finish on the mud bottom?

On the bottom.

Ah, just like mother nature would intend.

Our Aunt Dotty products are grown in trays.

Which you guys will see at low tide.

[Annie] Hi guys!

[Brad] Hello!

This is Brad and Vince.

This is the crew.

They are taking the market size oysters that they have

dragged up earlier this morning and they are sorting them

by size and counting them up by hundred counts.

These are market size and these will be bagged up and

shipped to Manhattan tomorrow.

[Brad] Wow, hey Vinnie look.

I found your relatives.

Crabby bastard.

We're culling through oysters right now that dragged.

We use a three inch ring to check the size for that.

If it's a little flat, a little shy,

we're gonna wanna throw that one back?

I would put that in select because it has a nice--

A nice cup? Cup.

Okay.

What about this mammer jammer?

What do you guys do with these monstrosities?

That guy, right down here, these are jumbos.

Jumbos.

I got a little small but a good cup.

Maybe a little Tommy?

Oh no, it has to be round.

Oh, okay.

That's looking like a Keller.

Select.

Okay.

I know.

Alright, Vince.

It's not very easy Vince.

A little flat, kind of a little cup.

Maybe throw it back?

Yeah, give it a little time.

[Brad] Give it a little time.

Now, would you, how does that work when I know she was

telling me before about breaking off the new growth?

Vince, I found another one of your relatives.

You know what that is?

Horseshoe crab.

Look at that prehistoric sum bitch.

There you go bud.

I ain't here to do no harm.

Alright Vinnie, enough with the horseshoe crabs, come on.

Remember before Vinnie?

When we came out here in the little skiff with Olav,

and we pulled those bags with the seeds out of these.

This was all under water and we actually drove

over those cages over there.

[Annie] Do you want to run the car?

We got a little rain.

The oyster Gods are on our favor Vince.

[Annie] Will this screw up your camera?

Don't worry about Vince's camera!

[Annie] Okay.

God is speaking to us Vince.

Don't interrupt the oysters gods.

Let's just have a moment.

Oh, look who joined the party.

A little Vinnie afraid of the rain.

We sorted them all out by size and these are at the

right size so we're gonna bring them

to finish into the Bay waters.

At two years is when they pull them and that's when they go

right to the restaurants and the consumer.

You following me here Vin?

What do you think Vinnie?

We fold up this whole little video idea and we just

become oyster farmers up here?

Not a bad life.

Do oysters, this might be a stupid question,

Vince you might want to pay attention,

do oysters, can they move like clams?

[Brad] Where'd Vinnie go?

Vinnie did you hear that about the winter?

So in the winter,

they take every single oyster out of the water and they put

them in the basement of that house down there.

Go ahead, take a look.

They have a big root cellar and they can stay out of

the water that long.

Come spring time, all of them go back out here.

Vinnie, oysters?

That's the new way of serving an oyster.

Vinnie, oyster?

No one's doing that yet.

That might be the stupidest thing I ever said.

We're standing here with the founder?

Starter, owner?

Yeah.

Man with the plan.

Skip Bennett from Island Creek Oyster.

When'd you get started?

How long you been oyster farming?

I started growing clams in 1990.

Clams you started with.

Then they all died.

(laughs)

1995 I switched to oysters.

There's so many different influences

that create the flavor nuance.

These are exposed for a long time but they're also really

close to the opening of the bay here.

Where pure sea water comes in.

When we started growing them out here,

I was sure that these were gonna be super salty.

And they're not.

[Brad] A little more mineraly?

Yeah, real sweet.

Real sweet?

They almost have a crab meat flavor.

Oh, wow, cool.

I know in some places they're using oysters not just to eat.

They'll put them in polluted water systems.

They do that in New York in the harbor,

they're trying to grow some oysters.

Even out here,

they're doing an ecological service by removing excessive

algae blooms and they can remove nitrogen too.

Oh wow.

They turn nitrogen back into gas.

It's a perfect food.

Yeah, it's a super food.

Win win for everyone.

[Brad] Oh, good googly moogly.

Reminds of the time I sold my fortune 500 company and

now it's just golf and rosé.

Hard day oyster farming.

We'll have one of the gentlemen maybe show us how to

properly shuck an oyster.

Vinnie this feels a little weird.

[Man] Ice cream spot down the street...

(bleep)

[Brad] Shut up, Vince.

[Man] He grows all his own...

[Brad] Vince don't film this one, come on man.

(Vince laughing)

[Man] What we like to say about these things is

these oysters take two years to grow,

it takes two seconds to screw them up.

Not to jump in front of you but I see how you're holding

it and you notice an oyster usually has a cup.

Absolutely.

That's where you're gonna wanna put the cup down, right?

Yeah, if you think about it,

you want the cup to hold all the meat and you definitely

want to hold all the saltwater inside.

That's that good...

Part of the experience right?

You're getting a little sip of Duxbury Bay water

in New York City.

When you're shucking,

if you hold the oyster in the palm of your hand,

you have the hinge, the little pointy part,

pointed back at you.

What you want to do is

you go into that pointy part right there.

The other thing,

the reason why I put it in my hand facing away from me,

the abductor muscle,

the little thing that holds the two shells together,

is right there.

Those are the two key points that you're trying to separate.

The hinge is where the two shells attach to each other.

And then the..

And the muscle is what keeps the shell attached

to the oyster.

So you want to go want to go in at a 45 degree angle.

45, okay.

The oyster will tell you the angle you want to go in at.

You know, when you do a good one it just kinda,

it's like putting a key in and it just pops.

Exactly.

It's like it wants to open.

Exactly.

What you do is put it into the hinge and then you twist

back and forth and you wiggle.

When I say twist and wiggle, I mean, you're going

back and forth like this and you're twisting the knife.

So you're going like that.

Exactly.

Mine even wanted to pop open.

There you go.

What you want to do at this point is,

you're gonna twist the knife all the way around so

that's perpendicular to the shell.

What you're doing is you're popping that shell up.

Mine broke.

Yours broke.

User error.

You can start over if you want.

Can you fix this?

Yes, you can do oyster surgery.

Let's do oyster surgery..

You gotta cut the muscle out.

You do the Philly flip as we call it.

Oh.

Hide it, hide your boo boos.

You flip it over so that the bottom belly is exposed

and not the part that you screwed up.

What'd you call it?

The Philly flip.

The Philly flip?

(laughing)

Absolutely.

Where does that name come from?

I think Philadelphia.

Oh, okay, yeah.

(laughing)

Getting back to your standard shucking.

Now you want to, remember that muscle's right there.

This is the number one way people screw it up.

What you want to do is,

think about it like you're peeling an apple

or a potato or something.

You want to grind this knife right along

the top shell like that.

The goal is that when you take that top shell off,

there's no gross meat dangling off it.

Okay.

So you're grind it along the top like so.

Look at that, clean.

It's good that you got no meat on the top shell there.

You might have some schmutz in here.

Just take your pinky and clear that out.

Now you're looking at it, you can see the muscle.

This is another part that people screw up because what

they do is they try to go in and use the sharp blade of

the knife to cut away at the muscle.

What you end up with is scrambled oyster.

What you want to do here is,

instead of using the blade of the knife,

again, you're taking it and you're putting the knife

kind of on the shell and you're just clearing it away.

Just kind of scraping.

Just like you're peeling a potato.

That way the blade isn't going into your oyster.

Exactly, because if you do the blade,

you're gonna cut through the meat of the oyster.

I've been doing it wrong the whole time Vincenzo.

There you go.

This is the first day of the rest of your life.

There you have it, you cleared away.

Shit.

[Man] Then you savor it.

Cheers.

Cheers buddy.

That's how you shuck an oyster, Vin.

Pretty sure I can eat about four dozen of those.

Absolutely.

[Vince] Scoter, enough, we're trying to be quiet.

[Brad] No, we're done being quiet for God's sakes.

(laughing)

[Man] One of the main differentiators

with oysters is the texture.

You want an oyster with,

a healthy oyster has a nice toothy bite.

[Brad] This plump body.

[Man] It's got a nice plump body, it's not like chewing

on a plastic bag full of water.

That's why you don't want to screw it up.

(gentle music)

Alright guys, there you have it.

We learned all about oyster farming.

It takes two years to grow them.

As you saw, it's a lot of work.

They're kind of high maintenance, you know?

A little needy.

Thanks Island Creek Oyster for showing us how they do it.

Oysters, I mean, no brainer.

Cleaning the water, clean protein for you.

Just a win win situations.

Buy some oysters,

learn about farming them and go work on a farm,

do whatever you want to do.

Get out there get dirty and get involved in your food.

Bon appétit.

[Brad] Not a bad day at the office.

You know what I always wanted to do Vinnie?

Look at those guys.

My whole life Vinnie.

My whole life I wanted to be a rower.

I always wanted to do rowing.

Look at that.

Hoo, hoo, hoo!

Going fast, working together.

Cutting through the water.

Yeah, I want to be a rower, Vin.

Hoo!

How does it work?

They push with their legs right?

Hoo, hoo!

(laughing)

Hoo, no it's the other way.

So you push and then you pull.

It's like hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo.