The impressed odostome, Boonea impressa, is a tiny marine snail that parasitizes oysters by perching atop and piercing their shells and sucking their insides. Because the snails have a predictable 12-month life cycle, their length can record the time of death of their oyster host, allowing researchers to date ancient oyster harvesting. [Kristen Grace/Florida Museum]
I find it hard to impress an odostome. I have to really work at it. Tough crowd.
So January, February, March, April, Mray, Jurne, Jurly, Aurgust, September, October, November, December?
As a new aficionado of Apalachicola oysters, I inquired of a local as to any truth to the myth. She said: “Nah, we eat them year round.” I figured the “month without an R” taboo was due to shipping them in summer months when they’d be more likely to spoil.
The warm months, without the ‘R’, are also when the water is warm and bacterial levels are high, making the oysters possible sources of intestinal infections, so that may have been more of a concern than ‘sustainability’, which I doubt was a concern at all.
How would these native peoples even know when they spawn or how?.......................
About the only ones you see around here are Apalachicola oysters. A few Choctawhatchee Bay ones too.
I would add September to those months not to eat oysters.
On one of our frequent biz trips to Florida I was seated across from my buddy who would eat 2 buckets to my 1.
About half way through I looked up and he was gagging and turning green.
He'd got into a bad oyster.
That was enough for me....I quit.
Always amazed me they don’t have them everywhere in Louisiana yet.
The same Rule applies to Mallomars.
You can skirt it by freezing some for the “off” Months.
Everyone knows the old maxim about oysters increasing your sexual powers. Like most myths it is a canard. Whenever I ate a dozen or more, they only worked about 8 times on average.
Turns out oysters are traditional Christmas fare there. The chocolate yule logs were amazing, too.
Months with an “R” didn’t exist 4,000 years ago.
Vibrio vulnificus is the bacteria that is more active in coastal waters during warm weather, it’s what’s usually the cause of getting sick from oysters, it’s also the flesh eating bacteria that’ll really mess you up if it gets into an open wound.
Like many other things, ancient people might not have known the reason they got sick from eating oysters in the summer but they could observe it happening and were plenty smart enough to avoid it. The old saying of “if it hurts when you do that then don’t do that” applies. Many things we consider to be wives tales had their root in practical reality like Jewish kosher rules. Ancient Jews might not have known why they got sick when they ate pork but they could see it happening so they decided pork was bad. We know now that pigs raised outdoors are usually full of parasites and you can make it safe by cooking it thoroughly. Internal thermometers weren’t really a thing then so all they knew was when people ate pork they got sick.
If there’s an old rule like the “only eat oysters in months with R” there’s usually a reason behind it. That might or might not still be applicable based upon modern practices but it’s never a good idea to dismiss them out of hand, there’s usually a reason behind them. Ancient people weren’t stupid, they just didn’t have access to the information we do now.
Once you read the first paragraph, there is nothing to either dispute or support the claim about months with R’s........that was a waste of time.
“A brave man it was who first an oyster et”
![The impressed odostome, Boonea impressa, is a tiny marine snail that parasitizes oysters by perching atop and piercing their shells and sucking their insides. Because the snails have a predictable 12-month life cycle, their length can record the time of death of their oyster host, allowing researchers to date ancient oyster harvesting. [Kristen Grace/Florida Museum]](https://media.eurekalert.org/multimedia_prod/pub/web/217620_web.jpg)