The two busiest times of the oyster-growing year are spring, when we put our gear and seed out, and fall, when we take it in. Each has its satisfaction. We finished buttoning up the farm in January, when we took in almost all our equipment. We left nine trays, densely packed with about 10,000 almost-legal [...]

Imagine, if you will, an oyster farm. Seriously. Take a moment and picture it. If you’ve never seen an oyster farm, I can give you a few visual cues. A sandbar at low tide. Flat wire mesh cages, held up on legs, filled with oysters of various sizes. People, kneeling at the trays, measuring and [...]

Allow me to introduce you to Myron. Myron is the number-two guy at Ketcham Trap, the New Bedford fishing supply business we buy our oyster cages from. The number-one guy is Bob Ketcham, and both Bob’s wife Mona and Myron’s wife Michelle work alongside them in the office. The four of them, essentially, are Ketcham [...]

This is our fourth winter on Cape Cod, and I didn’t like any of the first three. It’s not just that my cold tolerance is decreasing as I age, the snow turns our driveway into a carnival ride, and my husband insists on winter activities centering around the possibility of falling through ice into water. [...]

We all of us have a favorite Monty Python skit. (All of us of a certain age, that is.) Maybe it’s a classic like Dead Parrot or Argument Clinic. Could be the Silly Walks or the Spanish Inquisition. Maybe it’s more obscure. Upper Class Twit of the Year, anyone? Or maybe you’re just a sucker [...]