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WBM november 2011
since the mid 80s, providing oysters
to local fish markets and restaurants
like Dockside and Motts Channel
Seafood.
Five-gallon bucket and welding
hammer in hand, King wades into the
shallows of the ICW to scrape a living
off its bottom-dwellers. “If you’re
going to harvest oysters for a living
you really do have to love it, because
it is much harder than other types of
fishing, and at the end of a full day
harvesting you don’t make a whole
lot,” King says.
Once the oyster is secured,
preparation methods vary. In one
of Washington Irving’s historical
accounts of the colonial era, he
writes about a shipwrecked crew in
New York harbor marooned on the
island of Mana-hata. Faced with the
daunting possibility of starvation, the
men were able to survive by roasting
the oysters they collected from the
shoreline.
Dire circumstances aside,
many local families still
observe the oyster roast
as a seasonal ritual. The
only excuse the Ellis family needs is a
cool weekend afternoon in late fall or
winter. Lifelong purveyors of oysters,
from Scotland to Oregon and everywhere
in between, Phil and Trish
Ellis say their favorite way to enjoy an
oyster is with a few bushels of local
oysters roasted on their backyard grill
with a group of close friends and family
members. Any doubt about this
is quickly laid to rest when they pull
out their oyster-shucking table, custom
built by son, Jeff. The octagonal
table is fashioned with a large hole
in the center, perfect for the efficient
discarding of empty oyster shells,
and is proudly festooned with the
purple and yellow brand of Phil and
Jeff’s alma mater, the East Carolina
University Pirates.
The Ellises prefer them raw or
steamed on their outdoor grill until
they are, as Phil says, “rare, so the shell