Olympia oysters and Thanksgiving

All oyster shots were taken by Derek King.

Jay and I spent Thanksgiving Eve out in the intertidal with an awesome woman, Betsy Peabody.  She is the Executive Director of a wonderful non-profit called the Puget Sound Restoration Fund. I'm collaborating with her and our friend Dr. Paul Dinnel in Anacortes on a native oyster restoration project on the Swinomish Reservation. So what was the goal of a few nutcases going out late at night on a low tide hours before Thanksgiving? To collect a bunch of happy adult Olympia oysters and bring them back to a hatchery where technicians would convince them to spawn. The "seed" (think tiny baby oysters) will then be brought back to the Reservation this summer and "planted" (this means you just throw down oyster shells with the seed attached to the shells) at specific spots on the beaches.

Betsy, Jay, and Julie

Why bother with all of this? Aren't there a ton of oysters in Puget Sound? Well, yes....but the vast majority of oysters in Puget Sound are non-native. That's right - all the oysters grown and harvested here are actually from Japan. Olympia oysters are special because they are native to Puget Sound. But (here is a quote from the PSRF website) "pollution, habitat loss, and overharvesting have taken their toll; it is estimated that less than 4% of historic core populations...remain in Puget Sound." So Betsy has been working on restoring Olympia oysters at various sites throughout Puget Sound. Last year, Betsy and Paul approached me because they were interested in restoring a few spots on the Reservation and I jumped at the chance to work with them on such a cool project. Furthermore, Olympia oysters served an important role in Native American traditions throughout Puget Sound, and restoring their population on the Reservation will hopefully bring back more than a healthy ecosystem...it should help restore some of the Tribe's connections with their history and culture.

 Olympia oysters are much smaller than the Pacific oyster most people associate with Puget Sound.  There are about 500 individuals here, all going to the hatchery for some lovin'.

After harvesting all those oysters, we went down to Kirkland (just north of Seattle) and hung with Ralph and Jackie at Jackie's parent's house (they were off on a cruise) for Thanksgiving.  Ralph and Jackie had gone up to a turkey farm a few days before the holiday and picked out a free range turkey. Then they slaughtered and dressed it themselves and served it up! I didn't eat it because I'm a veggo, but I was proud of my friends and their healthy, sustainable choices.

We had quite the spread! Everyone brought stuff, Cleo the pooch tried to eat all the stuff, and we had a great time! I brought a potato, garlic and smoked mozzarella strudel as well as a homemade apple pie and rustic homemade bread. Leo and Melissa brought tasty brussel sprouts and pumpkin pie (with fresh whipped cream mixed with rum). Jackie and Ralph had the turkey, mashed taters, gravy, and a great veggo stuffing with chanterelles! We all played mad-libs while cleaning up the kitchen....this should become a tradition as it makes Turkey Day clean-up much more fun.

 Note Cleo the pooch....

The rest of the Thanksgiving weekend was kinda lame because I worked the entire time for the geoduck fishery!  But one day involved bad weather and Jay came down to where I was staying (in Kingston on the Kitsap Peninsula) and we spent the day wandering around the very cute town of Bainbridge.