Life Aboard SERENADA: Oysters Rockefeller

(this blog is for yesterday – October 1st)

For the second straight morning we were awoken by the Star Spangled Banner. Smith Creek is not a quiet little fishing village! Someone here is too patriotic.

The watermen come out in the early morning, and today was the opening day of oyster season. How fortunate we were to be awoken, to witness this harvesting.

The waterman here used both long handled tongs and rakes to dredge up the oysters from the creek’s bottom. The oysters often come up attached to rocks, and the watermen then use a club to break them away from the rocks. If they’re too small, they throw them back in.

We met an 83yr. retired watermen, whose name we did not get L but he was such a pleasure to chat with. We traded him wine (he didn’t drink beer or wine, but his daughter "enjoys her wine"), for some of his oysters and cooking and shucking tips.

Then Gil decided to go and test his own luck at finding and harvesting oysters. Shhh!…. don’t tell the authorities …. you probably need a license for this. He came home with a *#%@#! load.

We pulled up anchor after Gil’s oystering, and motor-sailed upstream; dropping anchor in Canoe Neck Creek of St. Clement’s Bay, off the Potomac.

Opening Day for Oyster Season

Hey! That's Tom! He served us yesterday (and cooked?) in the restaurant.

His catch of the day is literally his catch of the day!

I didn’t need to take anything out of the freezer for dinner. We had an oyster feast! We tried them steamed, and also on the half shell with a modified version of Oysters Rockefeller (given our galley’s constraints). We still have lots left, and apparently they keep for several days J