A Ston~ishing Oysters in Bay of Mali Ston

A Ston~ishing Oysters in Bay of Mali Ston

We drive for an hour and stop just near Ston at a small village on an Adriatic bay that is dedicated to harvesting oysters. On account of its clean hydrological waters, this bay was declared a Special Natural Reserve and hosts the largest oyster cultivation farms in the Adriatic. Oyster farming here dates back to the Roman Empire and now there are approximately 50 licensed oyster farms in this area. Bobbing on the water we see hundreds if not thousands of black buoys each of which we learn has strings hanging to them with dangling oysters attached. 



We are met by one of two brothers who together manage an oyster and mussel farm that has been in their family for three generations.  One brother takes us by boat out to where the other brother is working on a floating platform scrubbing mussels. 




It is an amazing and rather unbelievable site.  After 2-3 years of oysters maturing on the strings from the size of a pinprick to about 2 inches width, each oyster must be glued by hand to another oyster onto the string. It takes 4 years to produce an edible oyster. 

Oysters size of rice 

  

3 year old oysters

If the oysters are not glued together in pairs across the strings they will fall off the string onto the sea floor and be eaten by the fish. In addition to this gluing procedure there are also huge nets surrounding the rows of oyster beds to keep the fish out of these areas so that the oysters are not eaten.  I am reminded of nets put over cherry trees to keep the crows from the eating the crop.

We arrive at a small, idyllic island that brothers own that has a stone barbecue and quaint picnic table in the shade. The setting is unbelievably magical and I can’t imagine a more peaceful and heavenly place to eat oysters.  

The brother pulling a string of dangling oysters from the Adriatic Sea, shucks these extremely large oysters easily, puts some lemon on them and demonstrates how to wash down the slippery goodness. He hands us each an oyster to taste ~ has heaven arrived?

 He sends us to the picnic table and serves us home made grappa first, followed by home made red wine, home made bread, and home made olive oil made by his father. Each of us is presented with a plate of 6 oysters.  

Can you imagine anything more incredible?  The brother tells us that they supply 80-100,000 oysters a year to a restaurant in Dubrovnik and proudly tells us that in 1996 they got the gold medal for oysters.  He also tells us that his father says it is necessary for healthy eating to have 3 oysters a day because of their aphrodisiac and medicinal features.  John is already asking for 2 or maybe 3 more to his original 6. Do you think you can overdose on oysters?

I have not eaten many oysters in my life but I find that I cannot let them slither down as suggested by Seth and John but must bite these fresh creatures and kill them before I can swallow them.  I think they are tastier when I chew them at least once and my teeth cut them easily.  

A Ston~ ishing Mussels

However, our meal is not finished. Next we are served an enormous frying pan of mussels.  I have watched him cook these mussels in fresh water (no sea water he says) and he tells me the importance of this recipe that has been passed down for generations. First you boil the mussels for 5 minutes and while you are doing that in another pan you are frying onions and garlic in home made olive oil (the very expensive kind or they won’t be as good he says). Then you add the mussels, white wine and parsley and voila! 

I cannot tell you how many mussels we ate.. but we still couldn’t quite finish them all. 

Absolutely delicious and I wonder if we can replicate this on Vashon by our waterfront using our barbecue?  Perhaps we need to build a bigger barbecue and put in an outhouse! I think it could work….

We hate to leave this magical place but need to be on time for the public ferry from Drevnik ferry port to cross the channel to reach Hvar Island. Once on the island we have a scenic 2-hour drive to Stari Grad town, the oldest town in Croatia, a former Greek colony, once the capital of Hvar and a UNESCO protected site.

Three more oysters