From Spawn to Table

All of the clams and oysters grown by Chapin Sea Farms start right in our own hatchery and nurseries. When the “seed” is about ½”, it’s placed out on one of the farms to grow to market-size. Clam seed gets planted under rows of netting to prevent predation from birds and crabs. The clams will use their “foot” to dig into the sand and mud, where they will stay until harvest time. The oysters remain above ground, either in hard bags placed in cages or on racks, or in wire trays. 

 

From the time the seed makes it out to the farms, it will be 1.5-2 years until the oysters are ready for harvest and up to 3 years for the clams. But this doesn’t mean that the farm crew sits idly by in that time! The clams nets have to be cleaned of seaweed and silt to allow the algae in the water to reach the clams for them to eat. Once the clams are larger enough to deter predators, the nets are stripped off, allowing the clams unfettered access to the nutrients in our bays. 

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In order to get the desired deep cups on the oyster shells, the new growth at the edge of the oyster shell has to be periodically knocked off to promote cup growth. This can be accomplished through a number of different methods, and we use both a mechanical “tumbler” and natural wave and tidal motion to create uniform oysters that look great on any raw bar. 

 

Once the shellfish is big enough, the harvest can begin! We harvest our clams by digging them up with large basket rakes, known as bull rakes. Oysters are sorted by hand, using either a 3” ring or a really good eye to choose which ones get harvested and which need a little more time to grow on the farm. During the warmer months, we follow strict harvest and storage guidelines from the state and federal regulatory agencies to keep the oysters (literally) ice cold and our customers safe. 

 

When the day’s harvest gets back to our 5,000 sq. ft. warehouse, it gets cleaned and sorted in our FDA approved facility. Oysters are placed directly into our walk-in cooler to retain their crisp, right-from-the-sea flavor. Clams get sorted by size on our roller machine and are placed into our unique flow through wet storage tanks. These tanks are fed directly from a deep salt water well on our property, allowing the clams to purge any sand or mud in their systems. 

 

As the orders come in, our warehouse crew packs all of the shellfish by hand in everything from 6 count bags of cherrystones to 240 count bags of pastas. They not only look at every piece, they also listen to them as well - dead or cracked clams and oysters make a hollow sound.