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From the moment a Hillard Bloom Shellfish oyster settles down to grow, it's under the company's supervision until sold to an approved distributor. Hillard Bloom Shellfish oysters are cultivated on company beds, harvested by company boats, and packed and shipped by company employees under the most rigorous quality controls. When you order Hillard Bloom Shellfish oysters and clams you can be confident; they carry an unconditional guarantee for purity, freshness, and premium quality.
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Oysters are harvested daily, from stringently tested waters |
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Hillard Bloom Shellfish oysters are harvested daily in quantities to fill current orders from customers. State, local and federal inspectors go right out on the oyster grounds to test water purity. Samples must conform to standards considered safe for shellfish. The shellfish themselves are tested by state inspectors at the packing plant. Every Hillard Bloom Shellfish oyster and clam is certified as to date of harvest and the bed from which it was taken.
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Spawn, set, time to marketable size- "one in a million" |
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A spawning oyster can release up to a half-billion microscopic eggs into the water each year in July. The few that collide with sperm from a male promptly develop into tiny, free-swimming larvae, smaller than a sand grain. The minute fraction of larvae that survive their first 2 weeks as free-swimmers, begin to develop a foot and settle to the sea bottom. If they "set" on a suitably clean, hard surface (culch), the young oysters, or "spat", cement themselves to it and normally remain there for life, growing as they filter phytoplankton and other nutrients from the water. A mature oyster can filter about 100 gallons of seawater daily. It takes about 4 years for a Hillard Bloom Shellfish oyster to reach marketable size. Only one in a million makes it.
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Preparing productive setting beds |
Some oyster beds are highly prized for their consistent production of good sets of young oysters, year after year. Why one bed will produce a good set while a neighboring bed produces no set at all is a complete mystery. Hillard Bloom Shellfish prepares its choice setting grounds with a combination of traditional know-how and modern aquaculture science.
Oyster boats with powerful suction dredges vacuum the bottom, clearing debris and predators--starfish and drills. Next, the boats lay down a layer of clean oyster shell as the July spawn begins. Young oyster have no choice where they settle, but oystermen know they take hold and grow best if they land on a hard bottom, covered with clean oyster shell.
Timing of the shelling operation is crucial; too soon and the shells may silt over; too late and the brief setting period is missed. The state aquaculture authorities inform Hillard Bloom Shellfish when the oyster spawn begins and oyster larvae are in the water.
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Transplanting to seed or retard growth- as the market demands |
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Oysters are among the most valuable and costly shellfish. Small wonder. Every cultivated oyster is likely to have been transplanted several times before it reaches a raw bar. About 10 months after the set, when the baby oysters are about the size of a dime, they are shifted from the setting beds to shallow, nutrient-rich growing beds or to deep, cool storage beds where they grow much more slowly. At this stage, a bushel of shell bearing the set might contain upwards of 2,000 young oysters, equivalent to ten or more bushels at harvest 3 or 4 years down the line. By shifting oysters from growing beds to storage beds and vice-versa, Hillard Bloom Shellfish can control the growth rates of their stock to assure distributors a steady, uninterrupted supply.
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