January 22, 2018, Eden, Australia

January 22, 2018, Eden, Australia

Another lovely small town at the bottom of New South Wales, Eden is near the Pambula River, which is home to a significant oyster farming community. Sustainability and a clean environment are key attributes, and the water is so clean that, unless a storm muddies the water, the farmers are permitted to sell their oysters direct to the consumer—no inspections required. We had a delightful tour and farming lesson from Captain Sponge on his oyster punt. 

He was hugely educational, including several demonstrations of how to open oysters with different tools. We learned that he farms all his leases pretty much by himself, including And, best of all, we got to sample fresh Sydney rock oysters—delicious! One must be careful not to snatch an oyster from the leased areas, as the fine can be up to $250,000. The oysters take 2-3 years to reach market size.

The oyster punt returning with the first group.

Posts mark the boundaries of each area leased to an individual farmer

Captain Sponge (childhood nickname that stuck) explains how oyster larvae (called spat) will attach to and grow on groups of these slats in the water.

Every few months the oysters are graded, and first tumble in a cylinder in the water, then are sorted into oyster bags like this one the following year, to get larger. The bags are usually on the underside of this contraptionm but have to be turned to the top side to prevent accumulation of algae on the shells.

Captain Sponge shows how the bags are turned; the river is shallow enough at low tide that he can walk on the bottom.

This beautiful plate of very fresh oysters soon looked like the photo below.

Our final stop was The Longstocking Nanobrewery, where we sampled beer and local cheeses.