Olde Salt Oyster

Olde Salts are rack and bag cultured oysters from Chincoteague Bay, Virginia. Chincoteague Bay is a renowned and historic oyster growing area located on the Atlantic Ocean side of the Eastern Shore of Virginia, lying between Assateague Island to the north and the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay to the south. The site produces a very salty oyster, thanks to the direct influx of clear, salty Atlantic Ocean water that pours through Chincoteague Inlet with each tide. The farm is a family run affair and their history in the industry goes back to 1899. The oysters were wild, and bottom grown for most of the company’s history but today the company, as run by the founders’ two grandsons, is focused solely on aquaculture as a means to returning the Chincoteague Bay oyster to a place of prominence. Their use of the rack and bag system is new to the area and keeps the oysters up out of the mud and in the water column where food quality and quantity are vastly improved. The oysters are watched carefully over the course of their grow out. Bag densities are kept low, slow growers and those with misshapen shells are culled out. The results of this effort are wonderfully uniform and well shaped oysters with a plump meat