Duxbury oysters

DUXBURY - Ah, Boston -- the happening, trendy place to be! And some just love the hustle and bustle of working in the city!

"I would run around the city and look for new trends and ideas to cover on a daily basis,” says Erin Murray.

Murray was one of those "city" people as a Web magazine editor for dailycandy.com.

You might even remember Murray, she's been on our show before, talking about what's hot in Boston.

But after nearly eight years as a magazine journalist, Murray gave up the city life for something more, well, hands-on.

“I sort of fell in love with it,” she said. “I came down to the farm for a visit and left here thinking, God, you know, I can see myself working there. I can see myself taking some time away from the desk and learning the biz of oysters.”

What? Oysters?

OK, I guess it makes sense, especially after writing about restaurants day after day.

“I also had a hunger for more food knowledge, so I went to culinary school and did that part time while I was working at Daily Candy,” Murray says.

Since the spring, Murray has been working full-time for Island Creek Oysters in Duxbury, and you can only imagine her husband's reaction.

“A little freaked out, husband was certainly a little, concerned but once we figured out how it will all work out, that we could swing it financially, he could see it was something I was passionate about. He said, ‘go for it,’” Murray said.

And on the flip side, how do you convince an oyster farmer to hire a city girl?

“Well, I thought she was kind of crazy, but we're always looking for help, so I lured her with the idea of working out in the sunshine,” said Skip Bennett, of Island Creek Oysters. “But this has been one of the coldest rainiest years.”

And so far …

“No regrets at all, it feels like this is what I'm supposed to be doing,” says Murray. “I just needed to take a break from the crazy world of the city and from urban life and from a desk.

So, what do you do on an oyster farm? Well, we took a trip to Duxbury to find out. And it all starts with tiny oyster seed.

 

“We get our seed in the spring and when it comes to us it's only the size of a grain of sand,” says Murray. “We basically put it in these protected it in these protected upwelling systems which, as you can see, water is pumping through and the water is full of nutrients which is what oysters eat. So our oysters are just sitting here getting lots of food and getting bigger.”

And once they're about a quarter of an inch in size, they're put into mesh bags, then into cages, where they sit out in the water until they're about the size of a half dollar.

Then?

“Skip goes out with a snow shovel, dumps them all in the boat,” says Murray. “He takes a snow shovel and basically spreads them out over the bay floor on his part of the lease.”

Nearly two years later, the crew heads back to the same spot to retrieve the full grown oysters. And you have to go very early in the morning to catch low tide. The oysters are handpicked, and then placed into crates. The process could take three to four hours.

Hard work, but Murray loves it.

“Covered in bruises, my hands are a little more battered then they were a couple of months ago,” she says. “But being outside is such a great way to spend your day.”

And there is a catch to all of this. Murray only asked to leave her job for one year, so come next spring, she'll have to make a tough decision – that is if the economy doesn't make it for her.

“Seeing what's happening right now, especially with media, I'm happy to be on this side of things,” she said. “And to say I'll give it a year and when I come out on other end, I think things will have really changed a lot in that field and there'll probably be a space for me when I go back, so, I'm hoping.”

If you would like to follow Murray on her blog, click here .