Tip# 7: SPAT Happens

This morning I headed over to SPAT, located at Cedar Beach in Southold, to check on my approx 900 oysters which I've been raising (and eating) since last summer. SPAT is the word for the tiniest form of shellfish that has settled onto the place where it will live out its life and also the acronym for Southold Project in Aquaculture Training which is part of the Cornell Marine Program.  Through grants and fund raising, SPAT provides volunteers with oyster seed and tools to raise their own shellfish garden.  For a fee of $150 to join, SPAT volunteers can drop by the center anytime on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8:00 am - 12:00 pm to help out in the hatchery as well as grow 1,000 oysters each season and harvest half for personal use.

Oysters are farmed in netted cages that hang in the water from buoys or docks.  They feed on algae in the water all the while filtering the bay.  The oysters and their cages need to be cleaned once a month to maintain good water flow and access to food - as well as remove that crafty crab that finds a way into the cage to feast on oysters but then gets too big to get back out. Now this is the kind of farming that I like - you can leave them alone for weeks and they'll survive on their own!
'
The Southold program is run by Kim Tetrault who is very engaging and really loves his work. He gives scheduled lectures on various shellfish topics on Thursdays and Fridays which are open to volunteers.  His lectures can be quite a comedy show - but still educational - and sometimes involve (eating) oysters and (drinking) beverages. Also on hand is a crew of 'regulars' who seem to all be retirees and spend many mornings at SPAT drinking coffee, counting oyster seed, exchanging stories and helping the newbies out. The program is very community-oriented and everyone makes an effort to learn your name.  I also find that I constantly run into familiar faces from the gym, supermarket, down the street - we are all SPAT members.  I found out today that even our organic certification inspector has a shellfish garden growing.

July is the month to start oyster seed, so today I put another 1,000 babies in the bay and by doing so, signed up for at least another two years of oyster farming.

SPAT is always accepting new volunteers on M-W-F mornings and is located at 3690 Cedar Beach in Southold. Go and sign up - once you start harvesting your own delicious oysters next summer you'll wonder why you didn't join sooner.

Link to NYTimes article about SPAT:

"Marine Dreams: an Oyster in Every Plot" (from the Long Island Journal section of The New York Times on January 21, 2001) http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/21/nyregion/long-island-journal-marine-dreams-an-oyster-in-every-plot.html?scp=1&sq=long%20island%20journal:%20january%2021,%202001&st=cse