Jason Weisman of Lucky Lips Oyster farm in Wellfleet, has been coming to Cape Ann each week all summer to deliver shellfish.
Jason Weisman of Lucky Lips Oyster farm in Wellfleet, shucking an oyster on a porch near Lobster Cove in Manchester. He has been delivering oysters once a week to restaurants on and around Cape Ann this summer. Recently, though, more and more people want to shuck and cook them at home.
A GREAT DELIVERY of oysters came to Manchester recently. Jason Weisman of Lucky Lips Oysters farm in Wellfleet, MA, was on Cape Ann for his weekly drop off of product to area restaurants like Frank McClellan’s FRANK in Beverly.
But over his last several weeks of “drop offs,” some were treated to a hands-on tutorial near Lobster Cove on shucking, from a master.
We connected with Weisman after learning the town of Essex agreed to participate in the Massachusetts Bay Oyster Project (MBOP), an environmental non-profit based on the South Shore working to restore native shellfish and local coastal estuaries by donating thousands of silver dollar-sized baby oysters to towns willing to host them. The program’s been pushed by Essex Shellfish Constable Billy Novack, and Gloucester has been participating for two years.
Oysters dramatically improve water quality because of their incredible capacity to filter water of its pollutants and leave behind clean water. Studies show a single oyster can filter 50 gallons of water a day. Weisman works with an oyster non-profit that partners with MBOP.
Weisman’s weekly trips up north have come as people have been doing more at home, which means widening their food routine, especially outdoors. Lucky Lips is a family operation, with Weisman and his wife Elisabeth running the farm on a site surrounded by Mass Audubon land, idyllically located on the outer end of the “other Cape” (wait … it’s Cape Ann that’s “the other Cape,” no?).
Earlier this summer, a study from WGSN, a NY-based consumer tracking group, said outdoor food trends have become more adventurous as consumers look for more healthy and premium flavors. Shucking oysters or clams at home fit into the trend.
We picked up shucking gloves and an oyster knife at Three Lanterns Marine & Fish in Gloucester, and after some training from Weisman, we hit prep on five dozen oysters. The first night, it was oysters on the grill (foregoing knife skills) with chili oil and lemon. Really good. The next night was shucked oysters with a classic mignonette sauce (see recipe). Most didn’t make it to the mignonette, though. They were immediately eaten, no sauce required.
