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Bainbridge Island’s backyard shellfish farms
STORY AND PHOTOS BY CAMERON KANE
Shellfish have been a northwest staple for thousands of years. Over the millennia, oysters, clams, mussels and geoducks have made substantial contributions to the health of Puget Sound by filtering out excess nutrients, while providing us with some of the best-tasting seafood in the world. Recently, an increasing number of waterfront homeowners on Bainbridge Island have begun helping nature along, growing their own palate-pleasing shellfish and improving the health of Puget Sound in the process.
Joe Michael was an early convert to shellfish gardening; he’s been at it for over a decade. It hasn’t always been easy. His beach on Port Madison gets the full brunt of northern winds and is hit hard by container ship wakes from the nearby shipping channels. Young oysters—the seed—are tiny and fragile. The usual method of staking a plastic grow bag full of them to the beach didn’t work for him.
“I was the first person to plant shellfish on this side of the island,” says Michael, “and I lost the whole first batch. I had them tied down pretty securely and the water just beat them to death.” Through years of trial-and-error though, he’s found ways to mitigate the bay’s destructive forces. He only ties bags of baby oysters at one corner now, so they can move with the waves and better absorb the battering force of the sea. He’s also created a breakwater for the metal crab pot ring that overflows with mature Pacific oysters. “We just throw them right on the grill,” he says, “and they taste great.” When they get too big—two-bite oysters he calls them—it’s time to make chowder.
Over the years, he’s expanded his operation. Currently 2,500 mussels are suspended from a buoy, just far enough out that they remain submerged even on a low tide; under a rock-free patch of sand, Manila clams are growing fast. “I put 2,000 in last year and I have no idea what to expect; this is the learning curve,” says Michael.
While it may sound like a lot of effort, there isn’t much work involved in shellfish gardening. Beyond his struggle with Mother Nature, Michael doesn’t do too much. He sets out new grow bags of seed, occasionally flips the bags to keep the oysters separated and harvests his crop. “We have a saying down here,” he says, “You come down, plant your oysters and drink a beer. Three months later you come down, flip the bag and drink another beer.” And soon you’re enjoying a steady supply of delicious, homegrown shellfish with your beer.
For years Michael has been sharing his surplus with friends and neighbors along the beach, but more of them are beginning to grow their own. In the past few years half-a-dozen homeowners along his stretch of beach have waded into shellfish gardening.
The surge in interest is largely thanks to the Puget Sound Restoration Fund (PSRF), a Bainbridge Island-based non-profit that spearheads water quality projects throughout Puget Sound. To get more residents involved with, and thinking about, the health of Puget Sound they created the Port Madison Community Shellfish Farm.
It doesn’t look like much. Eighty-six rectangular plastic-mesh bags lay on the tide flats—underwater much of the time—secured to ropes that are staked to the beach. But those eighty-six bags contain a total of 30,000 Pacific oysters, many ready to eat. While they sit there, the oysters are also cleaning the bay. Each one can filter up to fifty gallons of water a day, playing a critical part in the health of the water by straining out excess nitrogen. This overabundance of nitrogen is almost entirely due to wastewater treatment plants and stormwater runoff, and untreated it leads to reduced oxygen available for all marine life. An abundant population of healthy oysters is critical for Puget Sound, if we want to avoid the “dead zone” disasters growing in other regions.
The Port Madison farm depends entirely on community volunteers and PSRF’s various outreach programs. High school science students have been put to work, and at least one local Girl Scout troop proved itself to be voracious oyster eaters.
“We’re trying to give people a greater stake in the environment,” says Morgan Rohrbach, the farm’s manager. “We want to close the gap between our health and the bay’s health. They aren’t two different things; they’re the same.”
Besides slurping briny bivalves right off the beach, farm maintenance entails scraping seaweed off the grow bags, flipping the bags to keep the oysters separated and silt-free, and harvesting.
The oysters—Port Madison Petites they’re calling them—are available at the Bainbridge Island Farmers Market in the summer. PSRF has also created a CSA, which in this case stands for Community Supported Aquaculture. Subscribers receive between two and six-dozen oysters weekly throughout the summer. Island non-profits like IslandWood and the Bloedel Reserve have also partnered with PSRF and serve Port Madison Petites at a variety of functions, and several area restaurantsare serving the locally grown shellfish.
PSRF’s vision goes beyond the shellfish farm. They hope to get waterfront homeowners all over Bainbridge to plant their own shellfish gardens. To that end they sell seed and equipment every summer and offer their expertise and assistance to island residents.
Mary Terry lives on Murden Cove, a shallow, placid bay well protected from wind and waves. “Morgan said we had the perfect beach so we signed up to do it, and it’s been a blast,” says Terry. For her, one of the best parts has been the sense of engagement shellfish gardening brings. “When you’re eating right off your tide flats, it really makes you pay attention to water issues.” she says.
About fifty yards from the beach Terry is growing three kinds of oysters: the small, briny Kumamoto; the larger, fast-growing Pacific and the native, mildly metallic Olympia. Recently she’s added clams and mussels to the mix. It’s still a small operation, but for minimal effort it provides her and her husband with more shellfish than they know what to do with. “We have barbecues, we give them to neighbors. We have a party down the beach and I think ‘we’ll just take a whole bag of oysters with us.’” It’s a gesture sure to make her plenty of new friends.
Besides building community and fostering a sense of shared responsibility, the PSRF and folks like Mary and Joe are helping carry Puget Sound—and the shellfish that have sustained people on these shores for centuries—into the future.
Cameron Kane is a freelance writer and aspiring oyster farmer.
Grow Your Own
The Puget Sound Restoration Fund sells shellfish seed and growing equipment on Bainbridge Island every summer (www.restorationfund.org).
Taylor Shellfish has several seed and equipment sales throughout the summer in a number of Puget Sound locations www.taylorshellfishfarms.com.
Eat the Oysters
Several Bainbridge Island stores and restaurants offer Port Madison Petites grown at the Port Madison Community Shellfish Farm.
***The Harbour Public House
231 Parfitt Way SW | (206) 842-0969
www.harbourpub.com
***The Pegasus Coffee House and Gallery
131 Parfitt Way SW | (206) 842-6725
www.pegasuscoffeehouse.com
***Hitchcock
133 Winslow Way E | (206) 201-3789
www.hitchcockrestaurant.com
***Town and Country Market
343 Winslow Way E | (206) 842-3848
www.townandcountrymarkets.com
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