History
“He was a bold man that first ate an oyster” (Johnathon Swift, listed as a cliché In “Polite Conversation”)
Indigenous peoples have harvested oysters
from coastlines all over the world for thousands of years.
According to the
British oyster expert, John Philpots , artificial oyster beds existed in
China long
before the Greeks and Romans...
The Chinese ate oysters raw, but preferred them
dried. Some historians favour the Ancient Romans and Greeks as the first to
cultivate oysters.
As early as the fourth century B.C. the Greek fishermen would throw pieces of
broken pottery on natural oyster beds, so the young oysters would have something
to attach themselves to.
Lifestyle of the oyster
Although few people bother themselves with the monotonous
lifestyle of the oyster, many, throughout
history till now spend enormous amounts of money
and time growing and seeking out this delicious
little humble creature of the sea.With a change in the water temperature, on
the full moon on an outgoing
tide adult
oysters spawn. They shoot millions of eggs and sperm into the water, so many
that the water can
take on a milky appearance. Fertilization takes place on
the running tide. The baby oysters drift in the currents for 3 weeks until they
become too heavy. They then find something hard to attach themselves to.
The
baby oysters are by now about 7mm long and are called spat. To grow to
a size fit for your table will
take from 18 months to four years. Most,
if not all oysters begin their lives as male and change to female later
their life.
