Heaven on the half-shell
One sure bet around this part of the country is that if you have a hankering for an oyster treat, you’ll probably be getting an oyster from Washington’s Willapa Bay.
The Willapa was carved out by glaciers long ago. When the ice retreated, the ocean rushed in to fill the void. Eventually, sand collected, forming the Long Beach Peninsula, a 24-mile spit that protects this shallow bay and creates a unique cool rich upwelling of marine water mixed with fresh water from the many streams draining the Willapa hills. It makes a perfect place for algae to grow, and shellfish happen to love the stuff.
Depending on whom you believe, Willapa Bay supplies either one in six oysters or up to 30 percent of the oysters that oyster lovers throughout the United States crave. Either way you shuck it, that’s a lot of oysters.
Oysters are packed with nutritional goodies: They’re rich in proteins, vitamins and such trace elements as iron, iodine, copper, phosphorous, cobalt and manganese – all of which make for a healthier body. But above all, these little bivalve mollusks are tasty and fortunately very available here in our area. I’ll get to that a little later.
[Read the whole article at the Daily Astorian]
