Oysters are a specialty of spring!?The taste of fresh oysters is a milky flavor that melts in your mouth. You can also enjoy them in hot pot which warms the body. In winter, one longs for oyster dishes. It is generally thought that oysters are a specialty of winter. Actually, the season for oysters is spring, Shin Hatakeyama, the oyster farmer told us. |
Oysters nurtured in the seaHatakeyama took us on his small boat, and showed us the farm. It was quite close to the coastline within a bay, yet the sea was 20 meters deep. In the water, there were huge wooden rafts about 15 square meters each. Underneath the rafts hung many ropes with a huge amount of oyster shells attached to them. These oyster shells are beds for baby oysters. There are approximately 300 seed oysters attached to a rope, and the oysters grow in the sea, eating plankton. |
After the Quake.The Moune area in Kesennuma-shi where Hatakeyama has his farm, was also hard hit by the Tsunami. The 70 farming rafts and boats he owned were all washed away. It was so devastating that the number of oyster farmers was reduced to less than half. But the seed oysters of Mangokuura in Ishinomaki survived. That left great hope for reconstruction. ”If the seed oysters had been washed away too, the oyster industry of Miyagi would have been totally finished.”he said. |
ACCESS
- Mizuyama Oyster Farm Co., Ltd.
- 133-1 Nishimoune, Karakuwa-cho, Kesennuma-shi, Miyagi
- URL http://mizuyama-oyster-farm.com/