BANJO: NOT JUST A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT

Made from maple wood, the Banjo Knife fits easily into the hand | photo credit: Cheryl Young/Salty

Handcrafted oyster knives created by champion shucker find niche market Jason Woodside is a lot of things: skate punk, oysterman, dishwasher, restaurateur, musician, champion oyster shucker, and now a knife maker. An oyster knife in particular, but a knife that brings all of Woodside’s past and interests into one beautiful little thing. “So I started…

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THE MAYOR OF TYNE VALLEY, & KING OF OYSTERS

Jeff Noye and Damien Enman want you to come to their kitchen and feel like you’re home Tyne Valley is the perfect place for an oyster business. “This is the centre of the oyster universe,” Jeff Noye, co-owner of Valley Pearl Oysters (and mayor of Tyne Valley) said. “Even the rink here sells fried oysters.…

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THE SALTY CHEF-OYSTERS

It’s funny that the sorts of foods rumoured to be aphrodisiacs are things you really don’t need an excuse to eat. Red wine? Drink away. Chocolate? Don’t need to ask me twice! Oysters? Bring them on. This is all just myth. No food is an aphrodisiac, but some foods can certainly set the mood for…

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WHAT’S IN A HEARTBEAT?

New research method monitors oysters’ health one beat at a time The quality and taste of an oyster is related to its health, but how do you test an oyster’s health while letting it to continue to grow? One possible indicator is heart rate, and researchers at the University of Prince Edward Island have developed…

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Shellfish Venture in Souris

Entrepreneur Johnny Flynn juggles multiple businesses and roles “Keep it simple. Stay calm. Specialization is for insects.” These are all words to live by for PEI shellfish producer and retailer Johnny Flynn. Even under the challenge of running more than one business, and filling multiple roles within those operations, it is apparent that he knows…

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Oysters on the Pier 2017

“Do not ever, ever, ever in any circumstance let anybody standing near you say that it’s okay to just swallow an oyster. That is never, ever okay. You always chew the oyster. Period. Full stop. No arguments. You can tell I feel strongly about this. And if you ever see somebody, some buttercup somewhere in…

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Bivalve Love

PEI delicacy comes out of its shell One hundred and seventeen years ago the Malpeque oyster was proclaimed “the Best Oyster in the World” at the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris. It’s still considered the best by many in the culinary world. If you haven’t had the pleasure this year’s Feast and Frolic dinner at…

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A Shucking Good Time

Tyne Valley Oyster Festival is all it’s cracked up to be The eyes of the oyster world will be focused on Tyne Valley again this year for the 53rd edition of the village’s Oyster Festival, which runs from August 2 to 6. “We are extremely excited for this year’s festival, and it is shaping up…

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New Shellfish Hatchery at Bideford Marine Centre

Numbered oyster shells.

PEI’s only shellfish hatchery will be owned and operated by Lennox Island First Nation After 10 years as a storage shed, the facility that saved the Island oyster industry back in the 1930s is rising from the dead. In 1930, a laboratory was established on the Bideford River in Ellerslie to help restore the oyster…

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Island Oyster Exports

La Mer director of operations François-Xavier Dehédin

Island shellfish has a global reputation for quality of product and great suppliers It goes without saying that oysters, alongside Anne of Green Gables, potatoes, and Stompin’ Tom Connors, are Prince Edward Island’s most recognizable exports, to the point that some Islanders may roll their eyes, determined not to be reduced to a set of…

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