Roadtrippin’ 2022: A first-time visit to an oyster farm in Homer - Alaska's News Source

HOMER, Alaska (KTUU) - It couldn't have been a more picture-perfect day. A six-mile boat ride across Kachemak Bay to Moss Island courtesy of Coldwater AK landed the Roadtrippin' crew at Sean Crosby's oyster farm.

Crosby has been farming oysters for 11 years and explained the patient process it takes to get them full-grown and ready to sell to markets.

"So every year we pull up the nets and thin them out, put the smaller ones here, the bigger ones there, before you know it, you get something like this," Crosby said.

It's a process Crosby said takes years in the making. In fact, oysters start out about two and a half millimeters in size.

"You plant it, you weed it, you clean it, pick out the slugs, or in this case starfish, and at the end, you get a product you can be proud of," he said.

Crosby had about 400 nets on his farm.

"Some of them have 30 dozen in them, some of them have 300 dozen in them," he said.

It takes about three or four years to grow an oyster, but every year the nets are pulled because they have to get thinned out. What makes Alaska's oysters so fresh, is they can't reproduce because the water here is too cold.

"They store up their glycogen and it makes for a sweeter, crisper oyster," Crosby said.

You can taste some of Crosby's fresh oysters at the Broken Oar Oyster Bar in Homer or learn more about the farming process at Kachemak Shellfish Growers Co-op.

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