North of San Francisco, Tomales Bay devides Point Reyes and the main land for a little over fifteen miles. It was created by the gradual movement of the Point Reyes penincula north. You see, the San Andreas, the earthquake fault that is so well known by the residents of the San Francisco Bay Area, runs right down the center of the bay. And this movement continues, making the bay longer every year. At the southern tip is a small town, Point Reyes Station. We have been here several times, because from here you can visit Point Reyes or follow the coast up north. That, indeed, is what Sharon and I did one beautiful February day.

We crossed the street. But be careful, this is Highway One, right down the main drag. There is still the Old Western Saloon, with its red light above the door, a few trendy shops and Stellina's at the corner. Since it was still winter, we had the cabbage-lentil soup for starters. It was delicious. Then came the oyster pizza and it was great. There were about a dozen small oysters on a bed of spiced-up leek on a thin crust. Georgio came out to say hello in an Italian accent you could not miss, and that started out search for more information about 'Oysters in Tomales Bay'.

But I am ahead of the story. You should know that this part of the country is 'dairy' and cheese is 'in'. There are a couple cheese 'factories' and places to sample and buy cheese. One is in Point Reyes Station. There is a large barn where I watched ladies wrapping fresh 'brie'. On display were also different cheeses from around the world.

The drive along Tomales Bay is windy, peacefull during the week and quite scenic. There are no crashing waves to admire, but you always have a nice view of the penincula across the waters. Our first stop was the Tomales Bay Oyster Company, a place to buy and barbeque oysters that came right out of the water.

This is a very popular place for those who love oysters 'fresh'. On weekends and during the summer months these picnic tables are full of ice-chests, garlic bread and other goodies to go with oysters 'on the half shell' or barbequed with a nice picant butter sauce and lemon slices. Tables and BBQ grills are provided free. After you buy a dozen or a bag of fifty, you have to 'chuck' your own.
When we arrived they were just unloading a truck load of oysters. They were pre-sorted by size: red were large, blue were medium and the small ones in yellow netting. The oysters are alive and were transferred to these salt water tanks until they are ready to be sold, chucked and devoured.

How do they grow these oysters?' you should ask. Well, the reason oysters are expensive is that it takes a lot of work to 'farm' them. They are normally not harvested in the wild but are cultured by 'sowing' sperm across bed where females rest. That sound easy but the whole process is complicated and takes a lot of care and is labor intensive. Young oysters are placed in bags with net sizes that depend on the creatures maturity. These bags are placed in rows in the mud flats of the bay during low tide. From time to time they need to be 'cleaned' and resorted, depending on the size of the oyster. The whole process goes on for three years. Then they are harvested when the tide is just right for a boat to float across.

At the Tomales Bay Oyster Company the bags are emptied in large flat trays and washed with a powerfull stream of salt water. Further up the coast is another oyster company, Hog Island. They can use a mechanical tumbler with jets of water to clean the oysters. In either case, the sorting is done by hand: extra large, large, medium, small and 'no good' (hence the four colors for the bags), fifty to a bag.

The real adventure for us starts with the tasting. In the town of Marshall, right along the highway, is a small shack, the Marshall Store. They have some tables outside along the water front and inside we watched how oysters are shucked and grilled. Even after our nice pizza for lunch, we had to try half a dozen of the grilled babies with some lemon, hot sauce and garlic bread. They were gone in no time. Then a few minutes later at Hog Island, I talked to a young fellow who let me taste one right out of the sorting table. He quickly shucked it, handed it to me and down the hatch it went; fresh as can be. That is when it occurred to me that oysters are the only animals we eat when they are still alive!

Here is a brief video showing in detail how to shuck oysters: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uhRPJQrZag&NR=1

The first man gets the oyster, the second man gets the shell." — Andrew Carnegie

While we were enjoying the sun and food, we could see some beaches across the water. One of those we visited with our two year old daughter almost forty years ago. The peninsula also reminded me of the hike I took to the very northern tip of Point Reyes. The end can be seen from Dillon Beach further up the road. This large beach is the starting point of Tomales Bay. George Dillon settled here in 1858 and the statue is in his honor.