Day 3 of the Eastern Shore - Candice Dalton

    On day three of our adventures for our E-term we traveled to the Cherrystone Aquafarm where they produce clams and oysters. the farm is 31 years old and the largest culture growing on the Eastern Shore. The Bower family own the business and in 1940 they bought the farm on the Eastern Shore and expanded from clams to oysters. in 1964 one brother bought a camp ground that is the biggest on the Eastern Shore, that is when the brothers split one took the camp and the other took the aqua farm. Cherrystone Aqua farm has 150 on salary and 150 on coop employees. They are not a seasonal farm, they maintain a year round harvest. Aquafarms or seafood has dominated the economy for 400 years. For the clams to grow and hatch it takes two to three years. The Nursery process lasts for eight weeks. To spawn these clams they must increase the temperature to approximately sixty degrees.

The first home outside in the juvenile stage is then moved to water out in the bay and they cover them to prevent predators such as crabs and frogs eating them. Cherrystone is sustainable by raising clams and oysters that improve the quality of the waters they grow in. A single oyster can clear more than 25 gallons of water a day and by feeding, shellfish increase the water quality by filtering sediments, phytoplankton, and their associated nutrients in the water.

There are five steps for clams the hatchery that is the most critical and they are three months in there normally spawning in May. Then the on shore nursery followed by the off shore nursery, and they grow out eighteen months to two years before packaging and moved to the costumer. When in the nursery at nine months old clams are as big as your finger nail. Five years ago Cherrystone were loosing their spawns because of a parasite in a crack in the piping, since then they put new piping in each year for $25,000 which is cheaper then loosing all of their spawns.

Their oyster production is tumbled due to them attaching themselves to one another allowing them to sell them individually. They sell six kinds of oysters and move to seaside only two are wild kinds. Oysters are adaptable to their environment and take on the flavor of their environment. They received oysters from another country and they were extremely salty after a few weeks on the Eastern Shore they began to take on the flavor of their normal product. There are 2000 oyster growers in the state of Virginia. The oyster room is keep at forty degrees for FDA regulations and then

separated and packed in bags or other containers to be sold to the customers. Cherrystone has never had a recall on their products but they have practice recalls to ensure what to do if one ever happens. In Virginia there are sanitation regulations for aquaculture, requiring them to have and maintain a safe, sanitary environment for the facility, workers, and consumers. 

 

         Our second stop for the day was at Pickett's Harbor Farms, the farm use to be a track for horses and had a stable but it is no longer on the facility. On the farm they use plastic trickle irrigation, when they first started they had fruit trees and had four orchards but only have two now. Mr. Pickett had picks the peaches and started selling on his front porch now they have a facility that customers can come in a buy the fruit and vegetables. Pickett farms is known for their peaches and asparagus, but they also grow sweet potatoes, corn, collard greens and much more. He is a bee keeper to help pollenate his trees and plants. Some of his products go to the Senior Nutrition Program and he travels to Suffolk, Norfolk and more to sell to those communities less fortunate, where they use their food stamps or checks to purchase his produce. Mr. Pickett is also a participate in Farm School programs.

The farm has 225 acres and eighty percent of that is small crops or vegetables out of ten percent of his land. The Pickett's Harbor farm has been in his family for 100 years throughout generations. His big five products are corn, watermelon, peaches, cantaloupe, and tomatoes. He has a partnership with ODU to grow sweet potatoes and then they transport them to the area around the school. Mr. Pickett has blackberries that you can pick your own and a few years ago had cane blite that he had to let have new growth and come back after to cut it down to get rid of the blite. There is 28 acres of fresh water behind his home for irrigation use.

 

     Our third and final stop for the Eastern Shore was to David Longs, Potato Farm. Bill Shockly and David Long spoke with us about the potato itself and how to grow and produce them. A potato has nine eyes on a single potato. Small red potatoes bring good premium price at the market. A hundred pound of potatoes make twelve pounds of chips because of oil. On the Eastern Shore they can plant potatoes as early as February as long as the soil is warm enough. At approximately fifty degrees the potato plants will start coming up. In Florida it takes twenty-eight days to kill the vines for the skin to harden and not bruise by getting the potatoes up to early. Russet potatoes have a niche market and one acre of potatoes costs $3200. The fields require 150 pounds of Nitrogen, 110 pounds of Phosphorus and 150 to 180 pounds of Pot Ash. This helps the plants produce and grow quicker although the biggest problem with potatoes is the humidity. Other than the humidity the Colorado Potato Beetle killed lots of plants just out of the ground. The best way to get rid of the beetle is to burn the plant and the beetle, but Neonicotoid kills the beetle by simply walking on the plant and effects their body it is put on the plant through the dust.

The potato farms on the Eastern Shore are primarily for chip production. There is one grower on the Eastern Shore that grows for Lay's chips but Frito Lay does not take any potatoes from Virginia. They plant potatoes nine inches apart and they are dug the day the chip company wants the potatoes to ensure a fresh chip. The market for potatoes is a major importance and there is only one cooperate potato farmer on the Eastern Shore the rest are local farmers. The 15th of June to the 15th of August is the harvest time for potatoes and you can not leave the potatoes in the ground for a long period of time due them melting or becoming rotten.