Our Oysters
Fire Island Blues Oysters are harvested year round and range anywhere from 2.5” to 4”. But our perfect size oysters are 3-3.5”.
Fire Island Blues have a very distinct flavor that can really take you back to your childhood sailing small boats or treading for clams. They start with a strong briny punch then a deep nutty almost vegetal notes. At that perfect time of the year when the meat is full and a very strong abductor muscle, the Blues have a strong minerality and buttery finish.
Fire Island Blues have a very distinct flavor that can really take you back to your childhood sailing small boats or treading for clams. They start with a strong briny punch then a deep nutty almost vegetal notes. At that perfect time of the year when the meat is full and a very strong abductor muscle, the Blues have a strong minerality and buttery finish. Fire Island Blues take anywhere from 1.5 to 3 years to reach your plate.
The Process
Fire Island Blues start off as oyster seed from shellfish hatcheries stretching from New York to Maine and we purchase the oyster seed at various sizes from 2mm to 10mm. Regardless of the seed provenance, every oyster is placed in appropriately sized heavy duty mesh grow out bags, housed in multilevel cages in shallow intertidal conditions ranging from 2-4’ in depth. Every oyster seed will be handled and tumbled once a month through our tumbler machine to help shape the oyster and concentrate shell growth.
By the end of the summer/early fall the seed has grown from tiny grains of sand to a few inches. Bags of baby oysters are either placed on the bottom in our trawl system or back into multilevel condo cages in deeper water for the winter. The following spring begins the tumbling and sorting process to search for plump 3” oysters. Before Fire Island Blues make it to your plate, they are finished off in our intertidal, two-tiered stacked trays roughly 6” off the bottom to plump up the meat and harden the shell for great shucking.
Founders
Sean O'Brien and
Chuck Westfall
Sean O’Brien and Chuck Westfall have been growing oysters in the Great South Bay for over a decade. Originally established by Chuck Westfall in 2012 as a gentlemen’s farm, it has since grown into one of the biggest oyster farms in New York State.
Founder Sean O'Brien
Founder Chuck Westfall, Photo: Newsday