August 9, 2016 — As a lifelong Maryland resident, Stephanie Hall has eaten plenty of oysters. But she’d never shucked one herself until she received a share of the shelled mollusks from Old Line Fish Co. this summer.
Hall was among the earliest customers of the region’s first community-supported fishery. Similar to community-supported agriculture, Old Line Fish Co. allows customers to buy shares of local seafood for biweekly pickups. The seafood in each delivery varies from week to week depending on fish and shellfish in local watermen’s catches.
An offshoot of the Oyster Recovery Partnership, a nonprofit that works to restore the Chesapeake Bay’s oyster population, Old Line Fish Co. is as much about educating customers as delivering fresh seafood. In its first season, the organization introduced customers to the watermen who caught their meals, provided some unfamiliar foods and suggested new cooking processes.
Oysters were just one of the species that made it into Hall’s reusable bag stamped with an “Old Line Fish Co.” seal — the Annapolis resident didn’t even have a shucking knife until she bought one on the way home from picking up her share and grilled the oysters on the half-shell.
“If I’m going to say I’m a Marylander, I better be able to shuck an oyster,” said Hall, a Maryland Department of Natural Resources biologist who monitors water quality.