The Doran’s 7th Annual Oyster Roast. How can you resist?
A couple of weeks ago I went to an oyster roast, one of my favorite fall events. It was my friend’s 7th Annual Oyster Roast to be exact. There is just something about gathering with old friends around a warm fire and slurping down bivalves that makes me feel all warm and tingly inside. I haven’t been able to convince my husband to try them – too much of an ick factor for him. But that’s OK because it means more for me. This year I tried something new – oysters on Doritos! Apparently it’s the new thing that everyone is doing. Slap a steamed oyster on a Dorito, add a little hot sauce, and pop it right in. It was tasty but I still prefer mine drenched in butter on a saltine cracker. Of course pretty much everything tastes good drenched in butter.
At last year’s Annual Oyster Roast I was happy to hear that my friends were going to recycle the oyster shells, and they planned on it again this year. Instead of throwing oyster shells away, you can donate empty shells to be recycled into oyster reefs, which will populate our waterways with more oysters. Little baby oysters attach to the shells and once they get big and strong they are planted in rivers and the Chesapeake Bay. At HRSD, where I work, we even help raise the baby oysters until they are big enough to go out on the oyster reefs. We just created a new reef next to one of our wastewater treatment plants on the Elizabeth River, in partnership with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. These little cuties in the photo below are about 6 months old and will be headed out to our reef in about 6 more months. Ah, they grow up so fast, don’t they?
Baby oysters that will find their permanent home in the Elizabeth River.
Why do we want more oysters in our waterways? Oysters are filter feeders, which means they improve water quality while they filter their food from the water. An adult oyster can filter and clean up to 50 gallons of water per day. They gobble up algae and remove dirt and nitrogen pollution, so if you SOS (Save Oyster Shells) you are helping keep our waterways clean. There are 2 local programs that will take empty oyster shells. Lynnhaven River NOW has a SOS program with the City of Virginia Beach. They collect oyster and clam shells from select restaurants and provide public drop-off locations throughout Virginia Beach. Don’t worry if you are not in Virginia Beach, because you can also SOS for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. They provide public drop-off locations in Norfolk, Newport News, and Williamsburg, and also collect from select restaurants.
Being green has never been so delicious!