THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 4, 1995 TAG: 9412310129
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Coastal Journal
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines
A decade ago, I had my last Lynnhaven oyster, an evening that I remember every year when cold, ``oyster'' weather is upon us.
A friend and I share the same winter birthday and it happened that health department officials opened the river to oystering just in time for us to celebrate.
Even then and years before that, the river was closed most of the time to shell fishing because of pollution. But occasionally during cold weather, water quality improved and the health department would open the river to oystering for a short time. Openings occurred only every few years and our birthday was the last, as I recall.
I went to longtime Lynnhaven oysterman Irvin Evans and came home with Lynnhavens in the shell and shucked Lynnhavens in a glass jar. On this joint birthday, we had no steak, no cake, no ice cream. We just reveled in oysters - oysters for appetizers, oysters for dinner and oysters for dessert.
Lynnhaven oysters were generally so big they were known as ``counts.'' Small oysters are known as ``standards,'' and average large oysters are known as ``selects'' in the trade. It took a hardy person to down a raw Lynnhaven count, even if I admit it myself.
But they were delicious. Lynnhaven oysters were good and salty, an important oyster trait to aficionados. The Lynnhaven River mouth is so close to saline ocean waters that the oysters naturally picked up that salty taste.
Oysterman Evans used to tell me that the difference between Lynnhavens and other oysters was like the difference between ``chalk and cheese,'' a distinction that is only a memory now.
Years ago, local Lynnhaven lovers turned to ``seaside'' oysters from the Eastern Shore as their next best bet. These were good and salty too because they were taken from the inlets behind the barrier islands on the east side, or seaside of the shore.
Today, sad to say, there are no more Lynnhavens and even worse, few Chesapeake Bay oysters, seaside or bayside. Disease, pollution and overharvesting have taken their toll on one of Virginia's most famous products.
Now when you buy oysters in a restaurant or at the seafood market, you are usually getting oysters from the Gulf of Mexico. You ask a waiter where the oysters are from and he'll respond with something like ``Texas'' or ``Louisiana'' - not a good experience for us Virginians.
John Galloway at Virginia Beach Seafood purchases his oysters from a man on the Eastern Shore. Galloway said his dealer trucks the shellfish in from Texas and then puts them overboard on the seaside for a few weeks to pick up a saltier taste.
But like the difference between a Texas accent and a Virginia one, Galloway said, anybody who knows their oysters can tell the difference between a gulf oyster and a Chesapeake Bay oyster. They don't have to taste them; the two look different. The gulf oyster is prettier and more rounded while our Bay oyster is more rugged looking.
Pretty is as pretty does. When it's oyster-eating time, a Texas oyster will surely have to do.
P.S. CHESAPEAKE BAY BLUE CRABS are about to go the way of Virginia oysters.
One of my New Year's wishes is that we stop eating dredged crabmeat. In our area, most of the crabs burrowed under the sand for the winter are females that have migrated to the mouth of the Bay where they will spawn in spring. And most every time we eat crabmeat in winter, we are eliminating thousands of baby blue crabs that may be born the next year. Besides, dredged crabmeat is gritty with sand.
Will we see the day when we ask where the crabmeat is from and the waiter says ``Texas,'' too?
TO WASH OYSTERS in the shell before you shuck them, carry them to one of those car washes where there's a high pressure water hose. You can rinse all the mud off those oysters in no time, John Galloway said.
TWELFTH NIGHT will be celebrated in 18th century fashion from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Friday at the Francis Land House. Music, dancing, Twelfth Night cake and the traditional burning of the Christmas greens are all part of the festive evening. Admission is $2.50 for adults and $1 for ages 6 to 18. Call 340-1732 for information.
THE HERB SOCIETY of America will meet from 1 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday at Norfolk Botanical Garden. Ginny Tyson Barnes of Potomac, Md., will speak on the crafts of spinning, weaving and using natural dyes. The meeting is open to the public. MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know about
Tidewater traditions and lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555. Enter
category 2290. Or, send a computer message to my Internet address:
mbarrow(AT)infi.net.
ILLUSTRATION: Photos by MARY REID BARROW
John Galloway at Virginia Beach Seafood purchases his oysters from a
man on the Eastern Shore.
Lynnhaven oysters were so big they were ``counts.'' Small oysters
are ``standards,'' and average large ones are ``selects.''
by CNB