NSB Features Excellent Local Oysters

Did you know that the only oyster farm on the East Coast of Florida is right here in New Smyrna Beach? Indian River Oyster Company (IROC) has been delivering their prized shellfish to select area restaurants for nearly a year, and the reviews have been great. We have feasted on them and love the distinctive taste. Last week, we decided to learn a little more about this interesting local business.

Indian River Oyster Company (IROC), is a family owned and operated business run by longtime Floridians and current New Smyrnans, the Norris and David families. They are new to the oyster business, but they do things right, and their product is fantastic.  Tender, tasty and just the right size for raw consumption. 

We’ve taste-tested them side-by-side with Panhandle, Florida and Texas oysters, and we prefer the local variety.  They’re a little saltier, more tender and cleaner. 

The oyster farm itself is a leased 5-acre plot in the Indian River, and Dennis David and Ryan Norris offered to take us for a working visit.  Our crew of four launched from the boat ramp at Canaveral National Seashore and headed North. The area is a beautiful, natural escape from the hustle and bustle of summertime NSB.  Not far from Shipyard Canal, we zipped through some narrow passages and suddenly arrived at the oyster farm location.

The oysters are raised in hundreds of floating baskets tethered together in shallow water.  The shellfish spend most of their life under water, near the surface, but once a week they spend about half a day above the water line.  The rotation happens as a way to minimize barnacle build up, which is one of the reasons the oysters look so appealing.

On this day, we were rotating the baskets back underwater, and pre-sorting a few of the older batches, as those year-old oysters were reaching harvest time.

Flipping the heavy baskets is physically demanding, but you can’t beat the work location.  Fish and crabs darted about frequently while the work progressed in comfortable waist-deep intracoastal water.  The IROC oysters are suspended a few feet above the silty bottom which helps accent the taste profile.

After wrapping up the basket flipping, we worked on the pre-sorting. A few baskets at a time were brought on board, where the crew sorted the oysters into three areas. 3 inch and deep-cup oysters went into a bag for near-term harvest, smaller oysters went into a different bag to continue to grow, and opened oysters were discarded.

The baskets were quickly dropped back into the water and reattached into the farm matrix.  On harvest day, the crew bring a sorting machine on board to speed the process as they like to quickly get the oysters on ice.

The IROC oysters are purchased as fingernail-sized babies which take a year to eighteen months to reach harvesting maturity.  We stopped by to check on their latest batch of 250,000 which were added a few weeks before.  Hard to believe they’ll be on our tables in a year…

One nice side effect of the flipping and moving of the bag is that each action removes some of the sediment that the shells capture over time – and another reason the IROC oysters are so clean and fresh.

After a few hours of pre-sorting, we headed back to shore.  Make no mistake, this is hard work, and there aren’t many days off, as IROC delivers 3,000 per week to local restaurants. But, there’s a lot to like about spending your days out in the beautiful Indian River.

A few days later, the harvested oysters are brought in to the IROC facility.  It’s another long day, as each oyster is cleaned and polished, before being bagged for delivery to their local restaurant vendors.

Based on the early success of Indian River Oyster Company, other competition is on the way.  They are subleasing some of their lease to a new company and there is more on the way.  Perhaps IROC has paved the way for a future burgeoning business for NSB?  Either way, we love having another fresh, local seafood choice at our fingertips.

You can taste these delectable IROC oysters at Off the Hook (NSB and Inlet Harbor), The Local Pearl, Needful Things and Hull’s Seafood.

If you like what you’ve read here, check out other features on our site, and make sure you Like us on Facebook.  NSB Guide is a local blog keenly focused on sharing the best of New Smyrna Beach to fellow locals, and visitors alike. Make sure you Like / Follow Us above to keep in the loop, or just to be nice to us…

Thanks,
NSB Guide