The Western & Sydney Rock Oysters

Pacific & Indian Ocean Oysters

Around Australia there are basically three common oysters available. The most popular being the Sydney rock oyster which grows on the eastern seaboard in temperate waters. They are low in cholesterol and high in omega-3, calcium, iron and zinc. The fun is really in the prising, gathering and eating these delicious shellfish. All my life, I have fished from the many bays, inlets & now islands of my home in the West.

Poem of the Day
Oysters

Oysters are the barnacles at land's edge.
Tangled together, we prise them from rock,
gather their gritty caves, as if leaving the reef
wrecked with tiny-white burrs of empty skulls.
Now the sea is touching our tongues,
our minds not listening to each other
as we slide the muscle between teeth;
taste the oyster, if only in one gulp.
We work all morning, the tide inching its high
watermark, renewing a chipped & mottled look.
We bend & stiffen in the gathering,
amble back to the quadrangle for ice.
Olive trees shading our walk, to our own
private view of a cafe island;
the wind gathering in our hair,
pushing us forward to cutlery & tablecloth,
cane chair, eyes swallowing an ocean.