Your Guide To Oysters
there are few things in the culinary worldthats simple and pure as the oyster. it's one of the rawest forms of cuisine. farming this bivalve is an art. the shape, flavor and texture all play intothe care it was given. neil maloney has perfected the craft of perfectingthe best california gold oyster. -you know it took a lot for the oyster toget like this. oysters, and a lot of people don't know, requirea lot of attention. i was a science nerd. i've loved the ocean since i was a littleone.
i studied marine biology. i've learned some of the craft, but more ofthe science behind it. but when i got into farming a lot of it isjust being connected to your farm and, you know out in the water everyday, seeing howthe oysters are growing. maintaining 'em once they're out there. we're trying to like pump the brakes on what'smother nature's doing out here. because mother nature doesn't stop. -so i think i see neil in the distance. so let's see if he'll pull up and get me.
yes. that's neil. let's do this! what's up brother? -good to see you-good to see you man. -let's do this! -so this is the beginning of the commute righthere this is the daily drive to work. -(laughter) that's a nice drive. no 9-5 traffic!
and that's that famous rock? -yeah that's the second largest rock in theworld -- only to the rock of gibraltar. -really? -yeah-the morro bay rock. -used to be an island and then they blastedit and quarried it. and so back here there used to be a lot moresurf. and ever since they did that it totally reshapedthe bay. and probably without them doing that, morrobay wouldn't be hospitable to oysters as well as it is now.
-yeah. -so is this it right here? is this you guys? that's it! there it is. -here's the barge. where all the magic happens-500 sq ft floating! -right? -here's the work barge.
-wow. and what is this? -empty the oysters in the baskets, hand sortem and everythings back and it goes right back into the water, so. -so different color bag for different coloredoysters? -yeah the racks here hold all different sizes. you know we sell stuff from 2.5 inches allthe way up to like 6 inch, 7 inch large oyster. say we get an order in --- start pucking 'emout of the water. they're washed and on ice.
-and then straight away drived into santabarabara. peppered the coasts. and i do the same thing on thursday goingto monterey. and then we ship over to los angeles and sanfrancisco. -you're the one stop shop! -awesome so i mean --- i guess we're goingto get into it. -we'll probably gonna get a wet suit on. -can't wait-let's do it. -and who built this uh, this floating office.
-it was kind of a collaboration of all thedifferent employees we've had over the years. we started with one barge, just a small littlebarge and we kept adding to it. and so. it's become a little, a little water world. -so these are you boys here? -yeah! we got the crew out here. and the crew out there. -so every single one of these floatation devicesare log? -yeah, what you don't see underwater is about700 oysters.
i think i know what's coming next. -alright i'll jump in first. -oh yeah that is wonderful hahaha-welcome to the farm. -so now we're surrounded by approximately2 million oysters. -how small do the oysters start off? -you know, 150 oysters i can hold right herein my hand when i first put them in here. and by the time it goes to harvest this bagmight weigh 80 pounds. -each one of these strips, different ages? -um yeah the bags here, the better the linesare floating, typically the light the oysters
are. but before we take all the effort of pullingthis entire line to our barge at the boat we open a few bags up. -okay. -so you're just going to cut that. -i don't want to slip over here...... opening ceremony. feel like the mayor of the town. -drop it down a little bit.
-get it! every one of those is cha-ching cha-ching! -wow! alright those are perfect size-so they're just, they're on the smaller side. but it's gonna need to have some more timein the bag, but the next time it goes to layer a new shell - it's going to be nice and thickand deeper and deeper. -so the perfect half cup is actually, i meanit's natural but you actually play with it a little bit. -right, you chip off all the shell and thenhe has to work.
it's like going to the gym- oyster gym. so by the time you get this oyster, it's beenlike pumping iron on the farm and it's got a really strong muscle so it can keep itsshell close. we do come out and the crew will come outand shake the bags. you know we'll come through and just (shakes)give each bag a little shake like that and all it does it break up any oysters that aretrying to grow together. it just kinda... -yeah sometimes when the oysters grow togetherit's just lack of... lack of... maintenance -maintenance-so this one oyster over 16 months is going
to be shaken every day, it's going to be chippedaway, it's going to the gym. it's going to be resting. and just... what a process. -and it might get pulled up and denied andsent back to the water to do it all again. and it might do that a couple times but eventuallyit'll make it's way to the plate. -people say why are oysters so expensive. this is why. -this is why haha. -here's some oysters that need to get sorted.
everythings hand sorted and grated right here. -so these oysters are all different sizes? -this is about the smallest oyster that iwould sell right here. -what do we call them smalls? cocktails? what do we call these? -this is a cocktail. next size up is our extra small. they're going to just hang over the end ofyour thumb.
-right. -two fingers wide, a finger width deep. and then right here we're going to start gettinginto the smalls. so when we get up here to the table. we try not to pick up every oyster you wannatry and group em together. so if i know that all three of these are extrasmalls, my cocktails will go down here. and my smalls up here. sorting, sorting, sorting! and that's howi start moving around the table. -nice.
i'm going to mess up your batch. -it's okay! so you want to give it a try? -i guess so, so obviously this is going tobe small. largest to smallest. -largest to smallest. -alright and we'll grade you from there. -alright. clearly yeah that one goes there.
-so far good! i mean you have an advantage cause you'veseen a lot of oysters -haha-so you already know i mean... -i have an idea but... -haha-i know the west coast don't have hurricane or typhoons but el nino or is anything thatsignificant that could really damage your oysters? -well it's kinda weird but the tsunami injapan had a large effect on our farm. -yeah, the water went up 8 ft and then downnegative 8 ft.
all in about 5 minutes. you just imagine that tiday surge it's kindacarved out a 20 ft deep channel in the bay right here. and this barge actually used to be a 150 yardsto the south. -thousands of miles away from the tsunami. these oysters, this species wouldn't naturallygrow in my bay. so every oysters that's in this bay it's becausei brought it here. i got lucky in that i was able to settle intothis farm and it's just naturally great bay for growing oysters.
a little windy right now and this constantwindy just brings cold nutrient rich water that's also high in salinity. -and so the oysters take on that flavor. so if it was in a shallower part of the farm,the oyster meat itself is going to be a little tougher, a little stronger, the muscles willbe more developed. you'll get an oyster further back in the bay,especially in a rainy year. that's a little sweeter than something that'sa little closer to the mouth of the bay. that's going to be a little saltier and brinier. about 90% of what leaves this farm is thissize oyster right here.
-it's the ideal size for customers-exactly. -it's easy, one shot. -so what we're going to do is go in with thehinge you guys know this drill. here we got a nice beautiful oyster in here. -for me? -this is for you. cheers! -thank you so much man. god.
you ever see the live at the pompeii pinkfloyd? -*hm the oysters are good today*-yes! -oysters are nice this time of year. i like to think that oysters transcend nationalbarriers. -oysters don't transcend barriers! *laughter*if you like this episode and want to see more clink here!
