It’s a sunny summer afternoon in Cape May County. I’m on a shallow stretch of tidal flats along a remote shore of the southernmost part of the Delaware Bay, my feet slowly being swallowed up by mud. I’m standing — rather, sinking — alongside the oyster farm manager for Atlantic Cape Fisheries, Brian Harman, who’s far more adept at navigating these muddy shores than I am.
Right now it’s low tide, which means we’re able to see the several hundred yards of exposed racks and bags of Cape May Salt oysters stretching out into the bay. Workers quickly, but carefully, tend to the rows and rows of oysters slowly growing in the mesh bags. In just a few hours the tide will reclaim the flats, covering the oysters with five feet of water, and the workday will be over.
"This location produces the tastiest oysters in the whole bay," Harman says as he looks out onto the water. "Here on the beach, there’s lots of wave action, and that helps our oysters develop a harder shell and high meat-to-shell ratio."
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