By BLK ELK Media, Daniel Mitchell, Logan Dial, Neiagha Thomas, Erin Byers Murray, and Maggie Ward

In the Field

ShellBound: An Anthology of Southern Oyster Culture | Episode 1: Virginia

By: The Local Palate

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Part one of our three-part docuseries celebrating the Southern oyster

Everyone has an oyster story. In the South, oysters are baked deep into our culture. From the steaming table of a late-fall oyster roast to the glittering, ice-packed raw bars manned by shucking maestros. From the wild reefs and thousand-year-old shell middens to the rows of vineyard-like cages now dotting the coastal landscape. Southern oysters and the people who work with them have a rich story to tell.

ShellBound is a three-part docuseries that delves into the wild, wonderful, and challenging world of Southern oysters. In partnership with Oyster South and BLK ELK, The Local Palate takes you out to the water’s edge to better understand three destinations around the South where oyster farming has captivated the community.

In Virginia, we journey from White Stone to get to know Steamboat Wharf Oyster Company, to Gloucester where farm owner Sarah Matheson shares her passion for pursuing excellence, and over to the campus of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, where Bill “Dr. Oyster” Walton shares how aquaculture is having an enormously positive environmental impact on the Chesapeake.

Just as oysters can’t live without the support of one another, this collaboration would not be possible without the support of our partners. Our deepest thanks go to Oyster South, a nonprofit that connects communities, provides resources for Southern oyster farmers, and promotes healthy waters, for providing a storytelling grant which allowed us to enlist the team behind BLK ELK, a cutting-edge Arkansas production outfit to help shape this compelling look into the world of Southern oysters.

Explore Our Oyster Feature

Southern Oysters 101

We’re sharing all that we know and love about Southern oysters— from why they matter to some of the many people who are harvesting or farming them; from how to shuck and taste them to how best to pair them with a drink. Consider this your Southern Oysters 101 and then some.