Peer 2 Pier Fellowship – Lost Coast Oyster Company
We were awarded a Peer 2 Pier Fellowship to visit and learn from a fellow Floridian farmer. We selected Cainnon Gregg of Pelican Oyster Company out of Panacea, Florida due to the fact that he employed the same grow-out method that we plan to use and has proven successful in marketing, brand recognition, and relationships with local restaurants and businesses.
Our day with Cainnon started at his storage unit, where we picked up a few additional bags, some line, a buoy, and other supplies needed to set a new line and solve the day’s problem, which was a few bags on the windward side of Cainnon’s lease that kept getting flipped upside down. We dug through some bins to find a potential solution to hold down the lighter bags that were flipping up on the windward side. Once we got on the water, Cainnon showed us around his lease and pointed out different sections with different age classes. In the water, we set sand anchors, tied buoy lines, and laid a new line for his next seed plant. We spent the afternoon sorting, grading, and re-bagging oysters.
As we helped Cainnon in his day-to-day operations, we gained valuable hands-on experience. If you asked 20 farmers about the more minute details of oyster farming—like knot tying, sorting and counting methods, or crop management tips—you might get 20 different answers. All farmers adapt to discover site-specific solutions to the many issues that can arise during oyster culture, and Cainnon had no shortage of knowledge, advice, tips, and tricks that he was willing to share. Seeing some of his solutions to the problems he identified on his farm demonstrated his ability to improvise and provided insight into similarly minded issues we expect to encounter on our own.
The experience was instrumental in providing us the opportunity to visit a farm and physically conceptualize what ours might look like. After years of research and planning, we hope to get our farm up and running this fall. Our visit further affirmed that we are ready to approach oyster farming with as much passion and gusto as Cainnon Gregg of the Pelican Oyster Company.
