It’s difficult to imagine food in the Pacific Northwest without thinking of oysters. Five varieties are grown in the region — including the tiny, incomparable Olympia, the only native West Coast oyster, finally recovering from the pollution that almost wiped it out in the 20th century — and sometimes it seems every restaurant in Seattle has the briny bivalve on the menu. Although the prime season for oyster harvesting is winter, when the waters in the Puget Sound are cool, nothing says summer in Seattle like a sunny day paired with a cold drink and a dozen freshly shucked Kumamotos.
One of the primary purveyors of Kumamotos locally is Shelton-based Taylor Shellfish Farms, the largest producer of farmed shellfish in the United States, raising oysters, clams, mussels, and geoduck. Founded in the 1890s by James Y. Waldrip, the family-owned company started by farming Olympia oysters in Totten Inlet in the South Sound.
During the Depression a pulp mill was built in Shelton, dealing a blow to many oyster farmers along the West Coast, but with hardier varieties from around the world Waldrip’s son, James, Jr., and James’s wife, Florence Taylor, persevered, with Florence running the business during WWII and their son, Justin Taylor, taking over in the ‘50s.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Eater Seattle