Always amazed me they don’t have them everywhere in Louisiana yet.
Posted on 11/27/2019 8:57:31 AM PST by SunkenCiv
Snails known as impressed odostomes, Boonea impressa, are common parasites of oysters, latching onto a shell and inserting a stylus to slurp the soft insides. Because the snail has a predictable 12-month life cycle, its length at death offers a reliable estimate of when the oyster host died, allowing Florida Museum of Natural History researchers Nicole Cannarozzi and Michal Kowalewski to use it as a tiny seasonal clock for when people collected and ate oysters in the past.
Stowaways on discarded oyster shells, the snails offer new insights into an old question about the shell rings that dot the coasts of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Mississippi.
"People have been debating the purpose of these shell rings for a very long time," said Cannarozzi, the study's lead author and Florida Museum environmental archaeology collection manager. "Were they everyday food waste heaps? Temporary communal feasting sites? Or perhaps a combination? Understanding the seasonality of the rings sheds new light on their function."
Cannarozzi and Kowalewski, Thompson Chair of Invertebrate Paleontology, analyzed oysters and snails from a 230-foot-wide, 4,300-year-old shell ring on St. Catherines Island and compared them with live oysters and snails. They found that island inhabitants were primarily harvesting oysters during late fall, winter and spring, which also suggested the presence of people on the island tapered off during the summer.
The seasonality of the shell ring may be one of the earliest records of sustainable harvesting, Cannarozzi said. Oysters in the Southeast spawn from May to October, and avoiding oyster collection in the summer may help replenish their numbers.
(Excerpt) Read more at eurekalert.org ...
Yeppers!
Lynn’s Fine Oysters in Eastpoint and Boss Oyster in Apalachicola.
Boss Oyster was totaled by the hurricane and doesn’t look like it will re-open.
But Lynn’s is still in business.
We had a similar experience at the bar. The grilled ones are fantastic. I think we had 3 dozen.
L
Waters are warmer in May, June, July, and August.
i sued to shuck oysters for customers at a fairly high end restaurant— clams too- cut myself real bad one evening- bled everywhere- Lucky i didn’t get infection as sea stuff can cause them if you get it in a cut- soem pretty nasty stuff from what i hear- but i did get pretty good at it after awhile- we used to eat the oysters and clams o n halfshell at the end of the might because we couldn’t store the un-bought ones overnight- Never got a bad one-
George: You know, Ira, that just doesn't quite sound right.
“How would these native peoples even know when they spawn or how?”
There were a lot of things Native Americans which didn’t understand, one was some tribes did not venture underwater for anything, because what they couldn’t see baffled them with superstition and a type of fear of the unknown. But some tribes made their living off of sea creatures and fishes of all types.
Also some Native Americans were befuddled by staircases and had trouble negotiating them without resorting to crawling up stairs on all fours.
And I don’t think I’m disparaging Native Americans in general as in the natural they were superbly outfitted with generations of experience and knowledge gained for being closely associated with the natural landscape.
While all that may be true, I still say they ate them in the summer they got sick, so they waited until fall, no problems..................
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.
Im sure that something like that was the reason. There are other old sayings like that for a number of things and they have different reasons behind each. Two others that come to mind just related to the “never in a month without an R” are harvesting venison and horseradish.
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.
I’ll have to try them next time.. I am a Wellfleet fan myself.
Turns out oysters are traditional Christmas fare there. The chocolate yule logs were amazing, too.
“Two others that come to mind just related to the “never in a month without an R” are harvesting venison and horseradish.”
Rabbits and squirrels as well due to tularemia.
Nasty illness commonly known as rabbit fever or deer fly fever. Commonly attacks the skin, eyes, lymph nodes and lungs.
Even with prompt treatment the illness can last several months.
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.
Kumamoto are great, have you ever had shigoku oysters?
I’ve been meaning to buy some shigokus, haven’t tried them yet. Taylor Shellfish Farms is a big producer locally, their facility is about 12 miles from us - pass me a lemon wedge, please.
I read somewhere that it was more of a sexual cycle thing. After the oysters had expended all their energy making new oysters, there just wasn’t a lot of meat on the bones, so to speak. :)
Don’t know if that’s the reason, though. I’ve read a lot of stuff that isn’t so.
Only months with an R in the name.
Well that eliminates
May June July August
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