Oysters famously taste of the waters that produced them. This is merroir, an idea linked to the wine term terroir, describing the essence of the place that created it. Merroir is its waterborne equivalent and oysters are its fullest expression.
One clutch of Louisiana oysters I tried recently also carried the essence of rebirth and hope.
These oysters were grown near Bayou Rosa, one of the myriad twists and turns where Bayou Lafourche flows into the open Gulf. The look different. The shells are marble white. The meat inside can alternately look as neat as a flower blossom or plump and condensed, as if flexed against the coming slurp.
Bayou Rosa oysters taste different too - meaty and briny, denser and with more salinity than the standard Louisiana oyster.
They are produced by Bayou Rosa Oyster Farm and first began hitting the market this summer as a fourth-generation family operation enters a new chapter.
Proprietor Jason Pitre and his family are members of the United Houma Nation. They watched their late grandfather harvest oysters the traditional way, with a rake off a pirogue.
But they also saw the environment changing, the underpinnings of this traditional way of life falling away. The old oyster beds were no longer producing. But then, they discovered cultivated oyster growing.
Cultivated oysters are grown in enclosures that can be strung in specific depths and locations. They can be moved according to conditions.
They give the oyster growers a more active hand, and yields a different kind of oyster, one with a swiftly growing market among oyster connoisseurs. They have a more intense flavor and fetch higher prices than the standard reef oyster.
This is still a new, developing concept in Louisiana, but it is growing. That is bringing oysters with a greater sense of place and specific regional identity to the table, just the way wines in the same valley will differ by vineyard.
For the family at Bayou Rosa Oysters, it means keeping a Louisiana legacy vibrant even as Louisiana changes around them.
