One lease, worked by hand
We hold a tideland lease of just under four acres in Willow Bay, granted by the state and renewed every five years on the condition that the water stays clean enough to grow food in. Everything on it is worked by hand from a flat-bottomed skiff at low tide.
Oyster seed goes into mesh bags staked a foot off the mud, where current keeps the shells clean and predators mostly out. It takes eighteen to twenty-four months from seed to a market-size oyster, depending on how warm the summer runs.
Three of us work the lease full time. The state samples our water monthly and we test it ourselves before every harvest - a closure means we do not sell that day, however far out the orders already go.
