Invitation to Travel

Wild Oyster Project has gone international! Last month we had the pleasure of being interviewed by the french television program - Invitation au Voyage (Invitation to Travel) a show about unknown stories in well known places. The film crew, consisting of dynamic duo Liza and Pierre, interviewed Wild Oyster Project and Hog Island Oyster Co. about the history and production of oysters in San Francisco. They were drawn here by the story of our famous oyster pirate turned oyster patrolman turned author, Jack London.

A foggy morning in Marshall.

Our interview took place at Hog Island’s farm in Marshall on the eastern edge of Tomales Bay. George, our host, explained how oysters were the perfect food in a time before refrigeration and speedy continental transit, and why oyster farming shifted to Tomales Bay from San Francisco Bay when the latter became too polluted in the early 1900s. After a tour of the farm, a lesson in proper shucking, and some oyster eating, of course, we had a chance to talk about how the dramatic decline of native Olympia oysters in the decades after the Gold Rush led to commercial oyster farming, imported Eastern oysters, and the privatization of a public resource leading people to so called “oyster piracy”. A hundred plus years ago, oysters were popular in ways we can hardly imagine - a daily foodstuff of the working and upper class alike. Demand was high, people wanted their oysters, and in Jack London’s time, they didn’t care if the oysters they bought at the dock might have fallen off the back of a boat, so to speak.

While this episode might be centered around oysters in Jack London’s time, it was clear the love and respect that farmers and environmentalists have for oysters today. An oyster is a wonderful thing, a nourishing protein that travels well in delectable bite sized repurposable packaging. Although it is very much an animal, farming oysters feels more like gardening. A baby oyster the size of a seed is planted and it then grows itself, filtering the water as it does so. Although we might not be able to grow oysters in the Bay for consumption anytime soon, our native Olympia oyster is an ecosystem engineer, a foundation on which we can build a Bay that is more wild, richer in species abundance and diversity and more accessible than it is now. 

It’s exciting to know the story of San Francisco’s oyster will be seen overseas and we are so grateful to Liza, Pierre, and George for making it happen.