The Farm
Cowan Bay is situated in the beautiful Upper Mahurangi Harbour. This North Auckland harbour is renowned for producing the creamiest, plumpest and delicious oysters. It takes twelve to sixteen months for oysters to become adults or grow to market size, approximately eight centimetres in size.
We farm wild caught spat grown on wooden sticks that are caught in late Summer. In previous years our oysters have been harvested from March - January with a change in texture and taste as the year progresses:
As water temperatures cool down, food in the harbour is slowly growing more abundant for our baby oysters. Oysters are hermaphoditic bivalves that spawn when temperatures fluctuate drastically. In the wild, this typically happens in the Summer. Depending on the oyster’s environment or life stage, the oyster can be male or female, but never both at the same time.
Adult females can release as many as five to eight million eggs at one time! Once the eggs are fertilised in the water, the developing larvae float until they are ready to attach to a nesting spot. These young oysters, also known as spat, will now need ample food (and time) to develop their hard shells for protection as they grow in size.
Farmed oysters don’t harm or rely whatsoever on their wild cousins. In fact, they help seed wild populations, clean waterways, and feed many species of fish, crustaceans and birds.
Oysters ask so little of their natural surroundings and they give back so much in return, just by munching on the ambient phytoplankton in the water and by being a source of protein that brings a great deal of happiness to people.