Oysters being cultivated on ropes at Mallet Oysters, New Brunswick
As I type this Toronto Chefs Amanda Ray (Biff’s), Paul Boehmer (Boehmer), Mark Ota (416 Snack Bar), Thessavan Maniceavasakan (Southern Accent), and Kyle Deleary (Canoe) are outside in the bright Nova Scotian sunshine, grading and sorting oysters on the dock of Eagle Ledge Oysters on Eel Lake. You may ask yourself just what this merry band are doing in the middle of nowhere, dressed in oversized waterproof overalls, covered from head to toe in some rather fragrant seaweed and mud? Well, let me tell you…
This journey, or Oysterquest as I like to call it, was the brainchild of Adam Colquhoun of Oyster Boy. For the past five years Adam has been working with a tiny family fishery just outside of the town of Tusket, assisting them through the long and often arduous process of maturing oysters from seed.
After 60 or so months the beautiful bivalves are finally ready for market, and so he invited five of his best customers (and a token journalist/court jester) on a once-in-a-lifetime road trip. The plan was to visit a couple of his favourite oyster farmers in New Brunswick, and then finally settle in at Eagle Ledge, Nova Scotia to learn the age-old craft of oyster farming, and help the Babin family achieve their goal of running a successful oyster fishery on Eel Lake. We can expect to see Eagle Ledge oysters in Toronto over the next month or so!
Over the next few weeks I’ll be publishing a number of pieces centered around our work out here.
The following short pieces are videos I produced to document our exploits, and are just a little taster of what’s to come…
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Edinburgh-born/Toronto-based Sommelier, consultant, writer, judge, and educator Jamie Drummond is the Director of Programs/Editor of Good Food Revolution… And expect much more footage from the Oysterquest over the coming weeks!
