Oysters and cider

This past weekend I had a visitor/customer, Rowan Jacobsen, another Calais resident. This is a funny town I live in; there are still a pretty good number of old-school Vermonters, as well as plenty of new transplants of the past 35 years to now. Being so close to the capitol, as well as in a fairly artistic community, many of these folks, natives and newcomers alike, tend to develop interests and talents that are pretty unique. I guess my little cider operation is a good case in point.
So Rowan came by for some hard cider fixin's. As often happens talk came to my cider, which I informed him wasn't for sale. "You like oysters?" he asked. Turns out Rowan, a young guy about my age, is quite the expert on oysters, and even wrote an excellent book on the subject (The Geography of Oysters). Packed away in a cooler in his car, just drop-shipped from an oyster farmer in Rhode Island, were three varieties of these little bivalves, fresh and ready for snacking. So cider was poured, shucking knife whipped out, and a nice little raw bar set up on the hood of his Subaru in my driveway. Now I'm no expert on oysters, and had only snacked on them once before, but it was really cool to have such a delicacy offered up. Thanks Rowan!

Rowan's website (www.oysterguide.com) is an excellent starting point to learn about these creattures. Or better yet, buy the book!


TB