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Now slurp-able year-round Oysters continue to have a renaissance October 10, 2019 | Photo courtesy The Local Oyster On a recent visit to Baltimore, Nick Schaumann of The Local Oyster graciously gave me and my family a private tour of his soon-to-be opening restaurant. When we stood inside the beautiful space, he laughed and reminded me that 150ish was his first ever interview. We reminisced about his roving oyster bar, how he taught me to shuck my first oyster, opening his first location in Mount Vernon Marketplace and how far he has come since meeting him five years ago. Last night my heart was filled with joy as Nick achieved another milestone when True Chesapeake Oyster Company restaurant opened. Located in the historic Whitehall Mill along Baltimore’s Jones Falls, True Chesapeake Oyster Company restaurant is a partnership of the longstanding friendship and collaboration between Nick and Patrick Hudson, the oyster farmer, and Zack Mills, their chef. What follows is the story we wrote back in 2014, which stands the test of time about the current oyster renaissance and one true ostreophile! Here’s the dish. Oysters used to dominate the shores of the Northeast, from Boston Harbor to Chesapeake Bay. As New England and New York over-fished their waters, Mid-Atlantic “oysters wars” arose in the nineteenth century. Poachers traveled south from New England and were commonplace around the Chesapeake, sneaking around oyster beds late at night. This extreme poaching and over harvesting, along with general pollution and run-off led to an overall decline in the oyster population, a tragedy not just for oyster lovers, but for our local waters as well. Wild oyster reefs offer protection against soil erosion and make our shorelines more stable in the wake of storms and hurricanes—they’re even playing a role in post-Sandy shore development projects. And because oysters filter the water as they feed (one oyster filters approximately 50 gallons of water a day), re-establishing oyster reefs gives us cleaner water, a healthy habitat for other local sea life, and more sea grass, which provides further protection against storm surges. So, whether you’re an oyster lover or an oyster avoider, we all have a vested interested their comeback. The Local Oyster is one business that’s working hard to bring local oyster knowledge and accessibility back to communities around Baltimore. It all started when Nick Schaumann decided to bring home a box of oysters “just for the hell of it” and share it with his neighbors a few winters ago. “We put a couple on the grill, and we steamed a few of them, put a couple in the oven, and it was a lot of fun!” This small action turned into a frequent occurrence, and Nick’s neighbors started asking him when he was going to do it again. From there he realized that this could become a business. He did some research, made some contacts, and thus began The Local Oyster. The name primarily marks his usage of only local (Chesapeake Bay) farm-raised oysters and he seeks to “raise awareness for how important oysters are for the bay” through an enjoyable and edible education. Crassostrea Virginica are what you’ll find at The Local Oyster, as they’re the only species native to the East Coast. Skinny Dipper, Huckleberry, Rappahannock, War Shores, Chesapeake Gold, and Sewansecotts are just a few of the varieties within that species that are found locally around Baltimore. Nick often serves “fleets of oysters, that way you can taste the differences of various oysters side-by-side, as you would at a wine tasting.” You may really enjoy a salty Chincoteague oyster on the half shell one day, and a non-briny Choptank oyster in a potpie the next. Nick explains, “similar to grapes for wine being described by their ‘terroir,’ in oyster culture, it’s called ‘merroir’; oysters are defined by how the water is in the location where they are harvested.” To get a better understanding of “merroir,” Nick suggests that you first sip the liquor, or the juices that the oyster sits in, in the shell—you’ll actually taste the flavors of the bay. Then you can also decide if you want to add any condiments to the oyster before quickly slugging it back. The three most common oyster condiments are cocktail sauce, vinegar-based Mignonette, and lemon wedges. Use these sparingly, as you don’t want to mask the flavor of the oyster completely. After enjoying mass quantities of oysters, what do you usually do with your shells? If you compost, spent shells will add important calcium to your soil, or you can participate in a larger shell recycling effort, as Nick does. The Oyster Recovery Partnership is one such non-profit that collects oyster shells at various restaurants and pick-up locations around the city, and takes them to their facility in Cambridge, Maryland. There they clean the shells and put them into tanks aiding in the growth of baby oysters. Once the spat, or baby oysters, attach to a shell they are put onto a barge and are placed onto existing oyster beds around the Bay. The addition of these baby oysters is helping improve the health of the Chesapeake tremendously, and similar recycling efforts are developing across the country. The old adage of eating oysters only in “R” months no longer holds true with the advent of oyster farming. Since oysters spawn during the summer, or non-“R” months, this was initially a way to prevent harvesting during that time. Also, when oysters spawn, they become creamy and milky, a quality most oyster lovers don’t enjoy (although Nick does). Genetically altered, non-reproducing oysters are now available that can be harvested and enjoyed year-round. With increased accessibility there are even more ways and times to enjoy oysters. Raw, roasted, in chowder and stews, pan-fried, deep-fried, submerged in a shot glass with cocktail sauce and vodka, the options really are unlimited. Often referred to as an aphrodisiac, these bivalves are full of omega-3 fatty acids and high levels of zinc. With all of these benefits, the world really is your oyster. To learn more, seek out Nick and his crew at either of the The Local Oyster locations in Baltimore, MD or Ballston, VA or now at True Chesapeake Oyster Company restaurant. |
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