We had a blast at Sunday’s New Amsterdam Market. The weather was perfect: sunny yet dry and cool. We had a team of five with lots of help here and there (everything from unloading the products, setting up, to making a run for quarters and singles!). By 9:30 AM we were all set up an ready to go. We took time to walk the market and check out other vendor offerings. We even had some early interest from passerbys, who were excited to see fresh shellfish on display and asked when the market would be open. In hindsight, we should have taken advantage of the hour we had before the official 11:00 AM opening time and eaten a huge sandwich and hydrated, because we did not get one break during the remainder of the day!
We would have never guessed that the public had such an appetite for oysters! We offered three types of oysters (Island Creeks, Wellfleets, and Moon Shaols) all from Island Creek Oysters. They were a big hit! Folks were so excited to see a variety and taste a contrast between all the oysters. On average, most people ordered 3-6 pieces. Many also purchased a knife and some loose oysters so that they could shuck at home. One customer went home with a bag of 40 oysters. Nothing gets us more excited than seeing happy slurpers with a smile on their face after tasting our oyster offerings. By the end of the day, we shucked and sold close to 1,000 pieces!
We also offered a cooked mussel dish in a garlic and white wine broth. It was also a hit seeing as the smells of cooking mussels were wafting through the air enticing potential customers. We also sold our Captain Louie’s mussels by the bag and many people were excited to cook them for dinner that evening.
After a long day of shucking and meeting fellow shellfish lovers, we were all definitely quite exhausted, but we’re already psyched for the next market day on November 22! If the stars align, we will definitely be returning. What would you like to see at our next market event? We’ll definitely be shucking more oysters! But would you like to try some more cooked shellfish dishes as well? Possibly an oyster stew or mussel chowder? We’d also like to offer shucked oyster meats at the next market since it will be so close to the Thanksgiving holiday and our west coast oyster meats are just perfect for stuffing.
Some photos from the day. We didn’t get many pictures after setting up because our stall was packed from the time we opened!
We’re not the only ones who had a good time! Check out some great blog posts about the market and our shellfish over at Food Mayhem, High/Low Food/Drink, The Faster Times, and Cheese and Reality.
And also a very special thanks to Dana Drummond of Atlantic Aqua Farms who stopped by to help us with the market Dana shucked a tremendous amount of oysters for us and we couldn’t be more grateful!