How Long Does it Take?

Wave-action tumbling gear drying to remove fouling.

Awhile!

It takes 3-5 years to grow a market-ready oyster in Jakolof Bay, depending on conditions that change year to year. Some summers give us 20 hours of bright daylight and abundant phytoplankton blooms. Other years are cloudier, which means less plankton growth and slower-growing oysters. We work with what mother nature gives us.

But time isn't the only factor—creating the right environment is an ongoing, year-round endeavor.

Shaping and sorting

We grow oysters for the half-shell market, which means we want deep cups and plump oysters, not long skinny shells with weak meat. To get that shape, we use growout gear that moves with the waves, constantly breaking off the growing edges and forcing the oyster to grow deeper instead of longer. We also tumble and sort them multiple times a year—keeping similarly-sized oysters together so the bigger ones don't outcompete the smaller ones for food.

Fighting the foulers

Jakolof Bay is a productive ecosystem, which is great for oysters but also means we're constantly managing competition. Mussels, barnacles, kelp, and worms all want the same space and food our oysters need. If we don't stay on top of it, fouling organisms can block water flow through the gear and reduce available plankton within the gear that the oysters need. Regular handling, tumbling, and cleaning keeps our oysters thriving instead of struggling. When they thrive they grow fat, when they struggle they become thin and translucent.

Why it's worth it

Those same challenging conditions—the powerful tides mixing warm Pacific currents with icy, mineral-rich glacier runoff—create an incredibly rich environment for phytoplankton. By the time our oysters are ready for harvest, they're plump, firm, and sweet with clean liquor. All that work, all those years, all that attention to detail—it shows up in every slurp.