The World is Your Oyster

New experiences are a gateway to growth. Whether learning a new skill, traveling to a new place, or meeting a new person, new experiences have always provided me with opportunities to grow.

A few weeks ago, I found myself in the Northeast, an area I have explored very little. This region never really appealed to me as much as other places like the Southwest or Pacific Northwest. Fortunately, a recent opportunity to document Chef Rasheed Philips’ journey to Stonington, Connecticut, for The Roost Festival allowed me to explore more of the region. We arrived on Wednesday and stayed in Mystic, Connecticut, an interesting little town known as the setting of the 1980s coming-of-age film Mystic Pizza.

Part of the itinerary before the event was a visit to the Behan Family Farms, an oyster farm famous for producing the ningret nectar oyster. Rasheed met up with Brad Leone, famous for his series on the Bon Appetite YouTube channel, to farm and cook some oysters. We were joined by the talented Jeremy Charles, a film team from Gozney, and guided by the beautiful team from Behan.

This was my first time on an oyster farm, but also my first time filming from a boat. To add another wrinkle to the situation, I noticed the boat was nothing like I had imagined. Instead of a traditional boat with siding to prevent occupants from falling overboard, this one resembled a flatbed truck on water. I would typically hesitate to board such a vessel, especially with thousands of dollars of camera gear, but after seeing everyone else jump on, I knew I could not stay on land.

The boat with Brad, Rasheed, and Charles left ahead of the boat with the film crew causing me a bit of concern as they began to get further away while we were still docked. We eventually caught up to their group just as they prepared to jump into the water to start their oyster harvesting. Behind them was the Gozney team in a boat being pulled by Cameron, one of the team members from the Behan Family Farm. The remaining Gozney team and I worked from the anchored boat, trying to grab images and footage from afar. As they gathered oysters from the trap, Matthew treated us to oysters; he filtered through a cylindrical gadget, my first experience eating them.

Knowing very little about the process of farming and harvesting oysters, it was interesting to see the lengths the team went to gather these delicious mollusks. It was made even more interesting since I do not typically eat seafood. Seeing the process and having a fresh taste allowed me to expand my knowledge and palette. After a few more minutes, the trio returned to the boat, and we headed back to shore. After de-boarding the boat, we thanked the entire crew, grabbed a few beers, and gathered our belongings to head off to the next part of our adventure — cooking our harvest.