The next morning (Wednesday) we got a chance to learn more about the growing, harvesting and processing of shellfish in Taylor Shellfish Farms in Shelton, a family operation since 1890 and nowadays the largest producer of farmed shellfish in the U.S.. Beginnings were humble: the great-grandfather began to farm Olympia oysters in the Puget Sound. Now they have their own hatcheries and nurseries, farms and oyster beds in different areas of Washington and B.C. as well as in Hawaii and in California, and they grow clams, oysters, mussels, and geoducks. China is their largest market besides the U.S. and they operate Oyster Bars in Seattle.
The company’s headquarters are huge: several buildings, large grounds, oyster shells where ever you look. On our tour we learned that the shellfish business seems to be all about location: every tideland has its own character: some are perfect for the original, small, but nowadays rare Olympia oysters; others make Kumamotos happier, and still others grow the most delicious Manila clams. One especially interesting, really strange looking clam (Muschel) is the geoduck (which is pronounced „guidack“) - see pic - it’s popular in Asia for sushi but the body is also good sliced and prepared as a steak. Apparently it just looks ugly but tastes delicious.
Don’t ask us about the specifics and looks of all the different oysters we saw, it got sort of confusing for people like us, not growing up with seafood. The biggest share make the common Pacific Oysters, which also come as „Shigoku“ or „thumbled oysters“ (they are moving in the water with the tides in their bags and grow differently). There are speciality oysters as Kumamoto, too. All of them are either sold in whole, on the half-shell (nitrogen frosted) or as shuck meat. Didn’t envy the guys at the lines, sorting, opening, cleaning or packaging the oysters and other seafood: it’s cold in the big warehouses, it’s wet, it smells and oysters don’t open up easily!
In the little store adjacent, we bought some smoked fish for our train trip (not produced by Taylor, but for them) and headed out to Seattle afterwards. We were fortunate and it took us only a little over1,5 hours to get into downtown. Our „room“ was ready, which in reality was a nice, large suite with a three-sided view towards Pike Place Market, the Puget Sound, Olympic Peninsula and Mount Rainier. What a nice surprise!
After returning our rental car at Sea-Tac Airport - we had driven about 2500 mi (4000 km) in total in 16 days - and after getting back to town by LINK, the local light rail system, we explored the city a little more, this time we weven had sunshine!
We visited SAM, the Seattle Art Museum (pic), Pioneer Square and, of course, Pike Place Market (pic), where we bought provisions: really good cheese from Beechers (produced in house!), donuts, Greek yoghurt, bread and fruit for our train trip. Since we had such great accommodations with such a spectacular view from the room as well as from the guest observation deck (pics), we returned to the hotel early in the evening. That was, when we finally got a view of Mount Rainier (pic), for the first time, as well as of the Olympic Mountains (pic) the next morning. We never before had such a good time in Seattle!
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