OysterMom tales of raising premium nurtured oysters

It is official.  OysterMom is a Certified Shellfish Processor and open to sell my - or anyone else's farmed oysters!    OPEN FOR BUSINESS!  Thanks to Frank and Anne Ashcroft, I have a corner behind B&B Sporting Goods at 1139 E. Tennessee Street in downtown Tallahassee in a place we fondly refer to as Oyster Alley. Cooler in place. Binder with page after page of records I must keep, WIFI, remote temperature gauges to monitor the cooler's every temperature shift, hand washing sinks, paper towels, toilet paper and hot water all in order as required by the State of FL Division of Aquaculture. I'm out peddling my oysters and taking orders. Come see me.  We'll shuck a few and tell tales of the sea.

Florida has been in a hurricane dry spell since 2005.  And then, one August day, this tropical storm seemed to be headed our way.  Poorly organized, the meteorologists struggled to predict just where it might head.  The forecast map looked like a child's first drawing - squiggles on the page.    We opted to take a few precautions.  We dropped the oyster baskets to the lowest point on the riser   poles, Stabilized the riser poles. And waited.   As the Tropical storm got its name, Hermine, I was on the east coast of FL on Amelia Island for the FL Forestry Association annual meeting.  Weather there was blustery as another storm was headed along the east coast to NC.  I worried. I knew that wouldn't help, but still, I could not stop thinking about the farm and all the time and money invested and how this one storm could wipe the work clean.   Thursday at 10:00 am, I and most of the other meeting attendees opted to check out of the wonderful Omni Resort and head home