The inimitable Olympia oyster has been bringing people together for 15,000 years—for as long as people have been poking around the coast of North America—and it did the trick again this month, when OysteRater welcomed Salinity Seafoods into the family. Like us, Salinity cofounder Emily Wilder has long been a devotee of the small but mighty bivalve, which, like Wilder, is native to the Pacific Northwest. “There’s so little recognition of the Olympia,” she said in a recent tete-a-tete. Salinity marks the latest step in her quest to change that.
The Wilder Arc, in a nutshell: Grew up on Whidbey Island, a marine Eden of oyster farms, mussel farms, salmon runs, and other good things. Went to Evergreen State, that Puget Sound bastion of edge (the only college in America with a crazy perfect strip of shellfish beach). Took the helm of the Evergreen State Shellfish Club, need we say more. Got friendly with oysters, geoducks, and more, oh my. Inculcated a couple thousand students in the joys of sustainable seafood. Realized that “the issue is how it’s communicated. How do you actually change people’s minds?”
Went to business school and got her MBA to figure it out. Led tours at Island Creek Oysters in Massachusetts. Changed 50 minds a day. Good, but she was looking for more impact. Sold shellfish (including Olys!) to restaurants for Taylor Shellfish. Good, but…pandemic.
And out of the pandemic, epiphany: Salinity Seafoods! “It’s a culmination of all these things,” Wilder says. “How do I have the largest impact possible?” The goal? “Change 100 million minds.”
Everything is sourced from Whidbey Island and the Pacific Northwest. Oysters, clams, geoduck, salmon, seaweed, salt. But also cheese, pickles, coffee, bagels, pottery, and a lot more, including Olympia oyster earrings that Wilder makes herself and sells on a sliding scale—pay what you want, proceeds going to Puget Sound Restoration Fund.
The goal is to celebrate local producers who go above and beyond in their commitment to sustainability, and to go above and beyond in turn. To that end, Salinity Seafood will be pioneering a returnable box program, one of the first in the country. It works like this: You order oysters, salmon, clams, whatever. It gets shipped to you in a super-tight box filled with reusable icepacks. Like, so tight that it could go days without losing its chill. (But fear not, it will reach you fast.) You eat your stuff, and send back the box with the ice packs inside. Everything gets rinsed, sterilized, and sent out again. No waste! Genius. The program will only launch if enough people show interest, so show interest.
But let’s get back to those oysters, because this is, after all, OysteRater, and we don’t care about your damn clams. Salinity is working with two amazing but little known producers in the area: Skagit Shellfish and Swinomish Shellfish. Swinomish is farmed by the tribe of the same name, with many youth members working the farm. It’s doing Olys, Pacifics, and Kumamotos, all with a classic midlevel Puget brine. Skagit is near the mouth of the Skagit River and thus gets lots of glacial meltwater running out of the Cascades, making for sweet, low-salinity oysters “like a juicy cucumber spring salad,” says Wilder. The Kumamotos, she says, have a taste of “pure cream.” Very different styles of oysters, and they add fantastic breadth to our offerings. Especially good for cooking (like unsalted butter). See what you think.
Coming for the holidays: Oyster Lover gift boxes and Kumamoto Lover gift boxes. That alone should be reason enough for the oyster junkie in your life to be very, very nice, because right now at Salinity HQ they’re making their list and checking it twice…
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