Calusa Oysters, Aquaculture & Michelin Recognition: Reed Smith & Chef Jon Walker on Florida’s Seafood Future
What does it take to raise Florida’s best oyster and earn a Michelin Guide recommendation—all while surviving hurricanes, red tide, and TikTok critics? On this episode of The Walk-In Talk Podcast, host Carl Fiadini is joined by Reed Smith, founder of Calusa Oyster Co., and Chef Jon Walker, co-owner of Tides Market in Safety Harbor.
Reed dives deep into the science, sustainability, and politics of oyster farming in the crystal-clear waters of Terra Ceia Aquatic Preserve—sharing how Calusa oysters became a chef favorite and why he’s pushing for statewide change through aquaculture policy reform. Chef Jon brings it all to the plate, discussing seasonal dishes, Gulf seafood pride, and what a Michelin nod means to a small, chef-driven market with big heart.
From sandbar dinners to shark sightings, oyster tumblers to culinary teamwork—this episode is a salty, smart, and soulful celebration of Florida’s food future.
Mentioned in this episode:
Citrus America
Citrus America – Commercial-grade juicing systems built for speed and yield.
Aussie Select - Fully cooked, premium Australian lamb
Fully cooked, premium Australian lamb—ready to serve and packed with clean flavor.
RAK Porcelain USA -Tableware
We use RAK for all in-studio tableware—clean, durable, and designed for chefs.
Transcript
You've just stepped inside the walk and talk, podcast number one in the nation for food lovers, chefs, and storytellers.
Speaker A:I'm Carl Fiadini, your host, shining a light on the flavor, the hustle, and the heart of the industry.
Speaker A:We're the official podcast for the New York, California and Florida restaurant shows, the Pizza Tomorrow Summit, the US Culinary Open at nafm, and the North American media platform for the Burnt Chef project, recorded at Ibis Images Studios, where food photography comes alive.
Speaker A:And I get that first bite.
Speaker A:Find out more info@thewalkandtalk.com Today's guests are.
Speaker B:Doing more than just feeding Florida.
Speaker B:They're helping define what local seafood really means.
Speaker B:First, we've got Reed Smith, co owner of Colusa Oyster Company, whose farm sits in the crystal clear waters off of Terracea Aquatic Preserve in lower Tampa Bay.
Speaker B:Reed and his team are cultivating oysters with a deep respect for sustainability, marine health, and Florida heritage, navigating everything from hurricanes to harmful algal blooms to deliver a clean, consistent product.
Speaker B:Chefs love one of those Chefs John Walker, co owner of the Tides Market in Safey Harbor.
Speaker B:It's a chef driven market meats cafe that's become a community favorite.
Speaker B:John and his wife, Mary Kate have created a space where Florida's coastal ingredients, like Calusa oysters shine across a seasonal rotating menu that.
Speaker B:That just earned a Michelin guide recommendation.
Speaker B:So today we talk tide tables, Red tide raw bars, and what it takes to build something lasting in food from farm to table.
Speaker A:Chef John, welcome.
Speaker C:Thanks for having me.
Speaker A:Pleasure's mine, man.
Speaker A:First of all, two beautiful dishes.
Speaker A:I wish there were more.
Speaker A:I'm just.
Speaker A:All I'm saying, there were more.
Speaker A:Yeah, I mean, here.
Speaker C:You just have to come to the shop.
Speaker A:No, I mean here.
Speaker A:All right, so you're doing some really big things up in Safety harbor, and I got to experience some of that today.
Speaker A:Freaking amazing.
Speaker A:Can you tell the audience you're welcome?
Speaker A:Can you tell the audience what.
Speaker A:What you did?
Speaker C:Absolutely.
Speaker C:So we shucked some beautiful Calusa oysters, and then watermelon is in season right now.
Speaker C:And I find that the.
Speaker C:The oysters in Tampa Bay are really salty in a good way, but they need something to kind of cut a little bit of that salt and add a little bit of sweetness to it.
Speaker C:So we took watermelon, we pureed some watermelon meat.
Speaker C:We strained it off.
Speaker C:So got kind of got like a watermelon water, and then mix that with a little champagne vinegar, some shallots, a little mint, and just spoon that over the top.
Speaker C:It's kind of A play on mignonettes.
Speaker C:And it was just what it needed.
Speaker C:And then, you know, again, celebrating oysters.
Speaker C:Oysters are probably.
Speaker C:I have a lot of favorite things, and that's why we open the Tides, because my wife and I love food.
Speaker C:So oysters are one of our favorite things.
Speaker C:And so I wanted to do something.
Speaker C:An oyster poway to me is the quintessential sandwich.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker C:That's.
Speaker C:To me, it's.
Speaker C:It's the best.
Speaker C:But there's more that you can do with oysters.
Speaker C:And so we created a salad.
Speaker C:There's a lot of oyster salads in and around New Orleans, which I draw a lot of inspiration from.
Speaker C:And so what I wanted to do was create something that was purely the tides based on fried oysters and a salad.
Speaker C:And so we did that with some hydroponic gem lettuce, some radishes, tomatoes, a little blue cheese and some bacon.
Speaker C:And then we made a buttermilk, smoked garlic dressing, dynamite.
Speaker C:It's kind of like ranch on crack, but it really does the trick for the salad.
Speaker A:Are you selling that at the market?
Speaker C:We are, we are.
Speaker C:And then the mignonettes, we have a pretty standard mignonette that we do with happy hour.
Speaker C:And then our oyster club, we get to play with different mignonettes and just different preparations with oysters.
Speaker C:Gives us a little more freedom.
Speaker A:Are you an oyster house?
Speaker C:100%.
Speaker C:We do a very robust happy hour with oysters.
Speaker C:It's a Buckishuck.
Speaker C:And then we've just introduced an oyster club which is higher end oysters from the east and west coast as well as southern waters.
Speaker C:Kind of very similar to what Reed's doing.
Speaker C:Anything out of the Gulf needs to be exactly the way Reed is raising his oysters, because that's the way to do it then.
Speaker C:Yeah, we are very oyster forward, very local forward.
Speaker C:We're very Florida seafood forward.
Speaker A:How long have you been open?
Speaker C:Three and a half years.
Speaker A:Three and a half years.
Speaker A:But recently, what has it been?
Speaker A:The last year or so you've had some major waves, no puns intended.
Speaker A:A lot of action and activity around your shop.
Speaker C:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker C:You know, we've.
Speaker C:From day one, we had a pretty strict ethos about where we were going to source products, how we were going to source products, and a standard for quality.
Speaker C:And we've just stayed behind that and stayed true to ourselves and just kept our head down.
Speaker C:You know, hard work pays off.
Speaker C:And I think that's why we've gotten to where we are, is because we have been unabashed in our work ethic.
Speaker C:And we just show up every day and we try to be consistent in the product that we put out.
Speaker C:We try to continually have new products in the market that will draw people in.
Speaker C:And then having new products in the market gives us a whole new avenue for creativity, because then we can showcase those items in the restaurant.
Speaker C:And so it's very much.
Speaker C:The restaurant supports the market.
Speaker C:The market supports the restaurant.
Speaker C:So it's this symbiotic relationship that we have.
Speaker A:And then you have this, like, nasty TikTok account.
Speaker C:Nasty, right.
Speaker C:Nasty TikTok that's supporting everything.
Speaker C:Absolutely.
Speaker A:TikTok social media.
Speaker A:How important is it in your business?
Speaker C:It's not that it's so important to our business.
Speaker C:It's what it's brought to light.
Speaker C:And I think that we've done a really good job of trying to demystify fish and how to cook it, and that's really where it all started.
Speaker C:And so we've had a lot of people that have responded that they've had a newfound confidence to try to cook fish at home, which obviously we want that to happen.
Speaker C:We are a seafood market first and foremost, before anything else.
Speaker C:We're a seafood market, and that's where it all started.
Speaker C:And so if we can get people to feel more comfortable cooking fish at home, it's just going to be good for everybody.
Speaker C:I think that there.
Speaker C:There's definitely a blue movement with farmed and cultivated seafood, much like what Reed is doing, but across many different species.
Speaker C:And so we're trying to bring that to light as well.
Speaker C:And the TikTok has been great because it's.
Speaker C:It's free, right?
Speaker C:I mean, it's free advertising.
Speaker C:You put stuff out there, it's content, and people are going to consume it or they're not.
Speaker C:And that's been pretty widely consumed.
Speaker A:Yeah, you're getting million, million view posts and stuff, right?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:That's pretty impressive.
Speaker C:And it's crazy.
Speaker C:We've really upset most of Europe.
Speaker C:A lot of different countries are not.
Speaker C:Italy's mad at me because I make risotto the wrong way, and Holland is mad because we don't do muscles the right way.
Speaker C:I mean, it's just there's all kinds of things that we have put out there that people have liked and people have not liked.
Speaker C:We're the.
Speaker A:We're the USA and we do it our way.
Speaker C:That's right.
Speaker C:That's.
Speaker C:Believe it or not, here we come.
Speaker A:This is what it is, you know?
Speaker A:All right, so you and Reed.
Speaker A:You and Reed are our besties.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And what makes before we bring him on, why is his oyster so good?
Speaker C:Because he goes to work the same way every day.
Speaker C:He has a way that he's going to do things, and he's not going to take any shortcuts.
Speaker C:He is going to make sure that it's the best product.
Speaker C:Reid and I, he'll drop off oysters, and we'll talk for an hour about diploids and triploids.
Speaker C:We'll talk about how the hurricanes have impacted and shaken the cages, and you can kind of see rounded edges.
Speaker C:I mean, the.
Speaker C:The detail that this guy gets into, you can tell that he loves everything about it.
Speaker C:And that to me, it's.
Speaker C:It.
Speaker C:It's Reed, it's Theo, it's Ellen up at Little Pond, It's Roland at LifeArms.
Speaker C:There's a group of people out there that just have really high standards for what they are trying to put out.
Speaker C:And those are the people we want to support.
Speaker C:Those are the people we get behind every single time.
Speaker A:Well, Reed seems like a pretty cool cat.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker A:We're talking like he's not actually a foot and a half away from us.
Speaker A:He's watching.
Speaker A:He's right here.
Speaker A:Reed.
Speaker D:Yes.
Speaker A:Welcome to the show.
Speaker A:Thank you, my man.
Speaker D:Glad to be here.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:We've had a lot of conversations on the phone.
Speaker D:We have.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker D:Long ones.
Speaker A:Long ones, right.
Speaker A:So a conversation with me on the phone, especially, like, in pregame hour, two hours, stuff like that.
Speaker C:Sure.
Speaker A:And just for.
Speaker C:That's what it's like to hang out with Reed, though, because he's that passionate about what he does.
Speaker A:It's what it is.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:So we have Reed Senior and Reed Junior, but not, like, related, but just the way, you know, I just want to reference that there's another Reed in the room.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:And there's actually two johns here in the room and Chef Carl, where the hell are you?
Speaker A:I needed here.
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:I needed balance, and you're not here.
Speaker A:Reid, what makes Terracea the place?
Speaker A:Why.
Speaker A:Why are you growing or raising there?
Speaker D:Best thing we can say about it, it is in an aquatic preserve, so there are no houses.
Speaker D:There is nothing around it to muddy up, dirty up the waters.
Speaker D:So we're in the shadows of the Skyway bridge, which has tremendous water flow.
Speaker D:So instead of stuff being stagnant and, you know, like up in Hillsborough Bay, which people mostly confuse with Tampa Bay, we are out where we have a tremendous water flow, so we get tons of food.
Speaker D:So our oysters get a lot.
Speaker D:A lot of food to eat as opposed to somewhere that was stagnant, where they're not getting as much food.
Speaker D:So we have crystal clear water to begin with.
Speaker D:We can see the bottom usually about 10ft deep on most days.
Speaker D:So people have no idea that we have water in Tampa in the bay that's that clear.
Speaker D:So it's really clean, really clean water and lots of food.
Speaker A:Most people understand the reason why somebody would open a restaurant.
Speaker A:You know, they can wrap their brain around that.
Speaker A:I don't know that the average person is going to say, you know, I'm thinking about, I don't know, an oyster farm.
Speaker A:How did you and your wife get into this business?
Speaker D:Well, we were watching something on TV during COVID and we saw something on off bottom farming for oysters.
Speaker D:And we both spent our whole life in the, in the water.
Speaker D:We've been at the beach, diving, swimming, fishing, sailing, everything.
Speaker D:So when the thought of having a business that was, took place in the water, it was kind of a no brainer.
Speaker D:And we had no walls, no windows, nothing except for wind, rain, sun and it's, it's awesome out there.
Speaker A:Are you still diving now?
Speaker A:Are you still getting in the ocean like that?
Speaker D:No, no, I, I'll snorkel.
Speaker D:My wife can dive.
Speaker D:But we have a, we have a friend who is a commercial diver who has a commercial diving license.
Speaker D:He doesn't do it commercially but he does all our dive work for us.
Speaker C:Reed does have a pretty wicked backflip off the boat too.
Speaker C:Just for the record.
Speaker A:I am going to have to see that and oh, there's video.
Speaker A:I'm going to, I'm bringing the camera crew like we're going to, we're going to make this happen in a big way.
Speaker D:Is our only TikTok I think out.
Speaker C:There so well and I think that reads being a little, I think he's, he's not really kind of putting to light how beautiful it really is out there.
Speaker C:I mean I've been out once at a tour of the farm and there's dolphins and there's fish and there's turtles.
Speaker C:There's so much wildlife.
Speaker C:There's so much just life in the water.
Speaker C:It's amazing.
Speaker A:What people probably don't know is the depth, how deep is, how, how deep is the bed.
Speaker D:We are on average 8ft.
Speaker D:High tides can get as high as 10.
Speaker D:Low tides can get down to the lowest 6.
Speaker D:But so we are about a hundred, 100 yards from us, it's 3ft.
Speaker D:So if the boat goes down we can, as long as we can swim 100ft then we can Stand.
Speaker D:So we're not really worried about drowning or anything like that, especially we have guests on board.
Speaker C:But when I'm taller than him too, I just stand up.
Speaker A:You stand up.
Speaker C:Stand up.
Speaker A:That's like me.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker D:Well, you can just bounce.
Speaker D:As long as you can bounce in eight feet of water, you can, you can keep getting there.
Speaker D:So.
Speaker A:All right, 6ft of water, 8ft of water, 10ft of water, that's nothing.
Speaker A:But, you know, I've been.
Speaker A:I started diving when I was about 9, 8 or 9 years old with my father.
Speaker A:And I know that there's, there's all kinds of stuff out there, sharks and everything.
Speaker A:I mean, what's your experiences?
Speaker A:I mean, a lot of people are going to want to know that.
Speaker D:We really haven't seen any on the farm.
Speaker D:We see everything.
Speaker D:Bait, sheephead, cobia, trout, all kinds of stuff.
Speaker D:But we did a sandbar dinner about two weeks ago on the night of the solstice.
Speaker D:And so we had about 15, 20 people out there.
Speaker D:We had set up tables out in the sandbar.
Speaker D:Another restaurant, they, they did all the food, all the cooking and all the rest of that.
Speaker D:And right between the first and second course.
Speaker D:So some of us were standing off to the side on the pontoon boat that brought everybody out there.
Speaker D:And all of a sudden we see some fins, a pair of fins and then a trailing fin about 3ft behind it all in about 2ft of water.
Speaker D:So we made sure nobody looked over where we were.
Speaker D:So we had sharks.
Speaker D:So the.
Speaker D:Nobody saw it, fortunately, but they were there.
Speaker D:So they are out there.
Speaker D:We see them sometimes going in and out.
Speaker D:Never seen them on the farm, fortunately, but we were concerned some of those guests might have freaked out.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's probably a hammer too.
Speaker D:I bet you there are a lot of bonnet head sharks out there.
Speaker D:And then either nurse shark, if that's the nerf shark, I don't think that's really dangerous one.
Speaker D:We've seen some of those like six footer, seven footers in the terrace and.
Speaker A:Most of them don't bother you anyway.
Speaker A:But it's still creepy.
Speaker A:It's still a creepy thing.
Speaker D:It's cool to see.
Speaker C:It's still creepy though.
Speaker A:It is.
Speaker A:That's great.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:How deep is it in the sandbar?
Speaker A:So I mean, how much of the sandbars underwater?
Speaker D:When we got out there, because salsa's been the longest day of the year, the tides were absolutely perfect.
Speaker D:So we got there at about four and it was just creeping out of the water and the tides slowly came in the rest of the night.
Speaker D:So it started where your feet were in the water and then it got below your.
Speaker D:Below the knee.
Speaker D:So just mid calf.
Speaker D:So it came in.
Speaker D:It's.
Speaker D:But it's a two tide day, so it's a real long, long incoming.
Speaker A:That sounds pretty cool.
Speaker A:I mean, how many courses?
Speaker A:How many courses?
Speaker C:I wasn't invited.
Speaker C:He wasn't.
Speaker C:Sorry, I can't say.
Speaker D:Same time he was in Ecuador, so he was visiting a Galapagos.
Speaker D:But we did five courses and then we had an appetizer course.
Speaker A:How often are you doing that?
Speaker D:We did it with the restaurant we're doing in conjunction with.
Speaker D:We.
Speaker D:That was the first one.
Speaker D:It went off really, really well.
Speaker D:Fortunately.
Speaker D:It could have been an epic disaster, an epic success.
Speaker D:And epic success was what we got.
Speaker D:Perfect sunset.
Speaker D:I mean, it was.
Speaker D:It was framed.
Speaker D:The skyway in the background.
Speaker D:It couldn't.
Speaker D:It's exactly like.
Speaker D:We drew it up like we hoped.
Speaker D:We hoped, we expected it would be.
Speaker D:So I don't know if they've announced it publicly, but I'll write them out now.
Speaker D:It's.
Speaker D:We plan another one for September 5th.
Speaker D:So it'll be announced on our.
Speaker C:Is that our formal invitation?
Speaker C:Is that what we're hearing?
Speaker D:Yeah, Yep, exactly.
Speaker A:He was looking at me in the eye.
Speaker A:He made eye contact.
Speaker D:I saw it, you know, September 5th.
Speaker D:So they haven't.
Speaker D:I don't think it's been public yet, but I'll go and say.
Speaker D:Because we booked it.
Speaker C:So I think you got four trick at Solar.
Speaker A:I think here we're in.
Speaker D:No guarantee on the sharks, though.
Speaker D:That could be dolphins.
Speaker A:Real quick side story, I was diving from about 8 to about 18.
Speaker A:And the last time I was fishing, we were on my dad's boat and we were way out, way out.
Speaker A:We were trolling and it was hot as.
Speaker A:Just hot, just super hot.
Speaker C:Hot as what?
Speaker C:Hot as hell.
Speaker A:And so, you know, he powers down and.
Speaker A:And we jump in the water.
Speaker A:We're just hanging out, you know, I'm hanging on the.
Speaker A:On the back of the boat and just dangling there, you know, and the lines start to.
Speaker A:To fall or whatever.
Speaker A:And I don't know, 15 minutes in the line hit like.
Speaker A:And it just went.
Speaker A:I was.
Speaker A:We jump in the boat and I'm maybe £160, something like that.
Speaker A:And I'm like, pop, this is.
Speaker A:You know, it's as it's getting, you know, it's getting out there.
Speaker A:I give it to pull to my father and he gives me the gaff and I'm looking over the side and, and, and it Was about eight feet.
Speaker A:This, it was a mako and, and it just.
Speaker C:No thanks.
Speaker A:Yeah, well, so it got, luckily it, it broke the line, right, because it got up to the side of the boat and I'm with the gaff and I'm just looking at this thing like it's way bigger than me.
Speaker A:I'm like, holy crap.
Speaker A:And as I was getting the cajones to, you know, it broke off thankfully.
Speaker A:But after then I thought to myself, first of all, never getting into blue water ever again.
Speaker A:Like never again is that happening.
Speaker C:And then I.
Speaker A:No, no, no.
Speaker A:I just, I lost my, my spirit for it.
Speaker D:Well, we were that we were fishing on the Boca grand when we were in high school.
Speaker D:We in a 17 foot Mako and we're on this sunken shrimp boat and a hammerhead that was, and I'm not an exaggerator, it was as long as the boat.
Speaker D:The dorsal fin was so tall that it, that it bent over.
Speaker D:It couldn't support the weight of its own self.
Speaker D:And we looked at my friend and I looked at each other and said to Wilson, I was like, holy crap, we might be in trouble here.
Speaker D:Fortunately, this guy who, who fishes for sharks came out, hooked him right away.
Speaker D:We, we pulled the anchor like, see you.
Speaker D:Good luck, Armando.
Speaker D:Have fun with that.
Speaker D:We got out of there.
Speaker D:But when this fin went by and it was way by the side of the boat and it was, was bent over the top because it couldn't support its weight, that was.
Speaker D:Made you think twice about being out there.
Speaker A:I don't care what anybody says, that's intimidating.
Speaker A:And you know what the fact is, is yeah, you know, pet its head and push it over and tickle its belly.
Speaker A:Nah, forget about it.
Speaker A:What are we talking about here?
Speaker C:Get me out.
Speaker A:Get me out.
Speaker D:I mean the hammerhead is just, the look of that is just even more menacing.
Speaker A:Truth be told.
Speaker A:True.
Speaker A:I will say, like it's really not an aggressive.
Speaker A:Like they don't typically, you're not going to get attacked by a hammerhead or a school of them.
Speaker A:You know, that's not the one typically.
Speaker A:But when you see them and like even if I saw a little five foot nurse shark or something like that, I'm gonna still be a little like, I don't care.
Speaker A:I'm not afraid to say it.
Speaker A:I'm man enough to say it.
Speaker C:So I grew up on the east coast and we used to catch spinner sharks and you would hook them like right in the surf.
Speaker C:You'd be in a boat and fishing the, the beach.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:And so you catch these spinner sharks, and they would run towards the beach and they would jump out of the water and they would spin or do like a little vertical rotate or whatever.
Speaker C:And so I remember hooking into one of them and, like, he was running towards the beach, and there was like this little family of four swimming right in the breakwater.
Speaker C:And his shark was like breaking water.
Speaker C:And these four people, I swear they got on top of the water and ran out.
Speaker C:So it doesn't have to be blue water either.
Speaker A:I know I'm.
Speaker A:I'm much braver in the shallows.
Speaker A:No, even I know.
Speaker A:I get it.
Speaker A:I understand.
Speaker A:But it's different.
Speaker A:It's still different.
Speaker C:It's the shark's house.
Speaker C:It's the shark house.
Speaker A:Yeah, it is.
Speaker A:You know, we gotta live somewhere.
Speaker A:But, yeah, you're right.
Speaker A:You know, that's where they live.
Speaker A:Chef, you're from Miami, and you somehow made your way to New Orleans.
Speaker A:What was that experience like?
Speaker A:And the reason I'm asking is one of our brethren, our walk and talk brethren, is Put Rivera, which I know, I told him about this, and he wanted to be here today.
Speaker A:He's in New Orleans.
Speaker A:He was going to come out.
Speaker A:The schedule wasn't.
Speaker A:Wasn't right.
Speaker A:But what.
Speaker A:How was your experience there and what made you leave?
Speaker C:So I was 18 when I moved to New Orleans and was ill prepared to live on my own as an adult, going to college for the first time.
Speaker C:And so I went to Loyola in New Orleans for two years, and they politely asked me to reevaluate my priorities and maybe come back in a semester.
Speaker C:So I was out of school and I started cooking.
Speaker C:And it was amazing.
Speaker C:I mean, what a great place to go and learn a craft.
Speaker C:Not to mention that I would work from 2 in the afternoon until midnight and then drink dollar beers and listen to just incredible music until dawn every day.
Speaker C:So it was an incredible experience.
Speaker C:You know, I did a lot of things.
Speaker C:You know, I worked for free.
Speaker C:There were events and things where, you know, I wanted to learn how to do something that Chef was doing at whatever restaurant I was working at.
Speaker C:And so it was a really incredible experience where I got to do a lot of things that I'd never done before, seen a lot of things that I'd never seen before.
Speaker C:I started in restaurants when I was like, 14.
Speaker C:I had to get a work permit from the school I was going to and bus and tables and that kind of thing.
Speaker C:So to be in a different position where I was actually getting to create things was.
Speaker C:It really sparked something in me, you know, I think it's, I've still got that spark.
Speaker C:So it's really been a lasting experience that I draw on to this day.
Speaker A:Reid, take us through a typical day on the water.
Speaker D:Well, it starts early so we usually get up 4:45 5:00am we drive about an hour to get to where we keep the boat stored.
Speaker D:So since we're in this aquatic preserve, there's no commerce, there's no working waterfront.
Speaker D:So everything we have to trail everything in, trailer everything out.
Speaker D:We don't have a dock we can pull up to unfortunately.
Speaker D:So we get there, load the boat up, drive it, put it in the water.
Speaker D:That's usually about, about 6:30 in the morning when we're getting, or 6:30 to 7 we're getting in the water.
Speaker D:We take a slow ride through Noeg zone through just a beautiful, beautiful mangrove protected bay.
Speaker D:We have in the wintertime we have some awesome white pelicans.
Speaker D:When they come down, they're all over.
Speaker D:It's really cool to see them.
Speaker D:We see all kind.
Speaker D:We see dolphins feeding so in the spring they're teaching their little pups how to eat.
Speaker D:So sometimes we'll see them knock fish out of the, out of the air, in the air and you know, to stun them and then little ones eat.
Speaker D:So we just, so we go through just beautiful country, getting out there, slow wake.
Speaker D:And then once we break the mangroves up there, then it's about a short five minute ride to the farm.
Speaker D:So when we get, once we get to the farm we kind of on the way out, Reid and I figure out kind of what we're going to do for the day, reassess if something's changed, if we have a speeded up harvest or something extra we need to do.
Speaker D:And we kind of talked about what we're going to do.
Speaker D:So we get out there and we hook up the boat to one of the lines and then get to work.
Speaker D:So we, we have cages that, so our cages, they have our bags where all the oysters are, they floating the surface.
Speaker D:So what we'll do is we'll pull those up and then depending on what time of day and what time of year and what we've done the last couple weeks, we'll pull each of those bags out and sometimes we'll put them through a tumbler which is a big machine, it has a long tube which is a whole bunch of whole perforations in it.
Speaker D:And what they do is we'll, we'll dump them through that well, the, the tumbler will Tumble.
Speaker D:It will help break the edge of the shells, because end of an oyster shell is like a finger.
Speaker D:So they'll break off.
Speaker D:And when they, when that stuff breaks off, it kind of induces the oysters to kind of grow more deep.
Speaker D:So they put their effort into growing where they can grow that shell.
Speaker D:And so you keep.
Speaker D:The edges keep getting knocked off, then they can grow deeper, and that gives that deeper cup that everyone likes, because then you have.
Speaker D:When you have great water, there's more water in that rather than a flat oyster.
Speaker D:So then it gets a lot more flavor.
Speaker D:So it grows in there.
Speaker D:So we're running through that tumbler.
Speaker D:So the big ones will get to the end, the small ones will drop through the holes and they'll end up in a tub.
Speaker D:So that's how we separate them.
Speaker D:So we'll store them by size, and then the.
Speaker D:And then that they'll kind of help them form and shape and get to the end.
Speaker D:And then we'll separate them out and put them back in the bags.
Speaker D:And then we put them.
Speaker D:Then we'll put those.
Speaker D:Those bags back in the cage and put them down and move to the next one, separate and sort them.
Speaker A:Would that be considered your.
Speaker A:Your quality control?
Speaker A:Is that.
Speaker A:How is.
Speaker A:Is that like the genesis of what makes a great oyster?
Speaker D:It's consistent.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:So when we get out there, the other thing people don't realize is think they see an oyster out of water, think that's like the kiss of death when it actually isn't.
Speaker D:What it does is it helps our oysters out of the water.
Speaker D:It helps kill any kind of parasites, anything, barnacles, anything that's growing on them that's going to make the shell not as pretty or just cause an issue.
Speaker D:Like there's some things that can drill into the shell.
Speaker D:So when they're out of water for a period of time, no more than 24 hours, and that helps kill things.
Speaker D:So that's kind of quality control there.
Speaker D:We put them in the tumbler.
Speaker D:So what that does is, you know, all oyster farms, most all oyster farms will use a tumbler.
Speaker D:And what that does, it helps not only sort, but helps work on that shell, creating that shell that all the restaurants and a lot of people like.
Speaker D:So those are the kind of the two big quality control.
Speaker D:But the other thing is just getting out there and doing it every, every day.
Speaker D:So we're out there and we touch our oysters.
Speaker D:We'll probably touch them twice a month.
Speaker D:So on average, 24.
Speaker D:20 to 24 times before they're harvested.
Speaker D:So it's.
Speaker D:There's a lot of.
Speaker D:There's a.
Speaker D:There's a lot of touching, a lot of feeling, a lot of, you know, massaging kind of what's.
Speaker D:Where they are, what they're in.
Speaker D:And so the big thing for us, we found is when we do that sorting, it's really important because we need to keep the density in the bags low, and that's where we try and keep it about 150.
Speaker D:That way they get plenty of water.
Speaker D:They're not fighting for food.
Speaker D:So when you see one of those long, skinny oysters, that's meaning they were clumped up with a bunch of other ones.
Speaker D:Whether it's a wild oyster or something else, that means somebody had their bags were too.
Speaker D:There were two dents or too many in there, because those oysters are searching for food.
Speaker D:So they're trying to find where they can get fresh water.
Speaker D:It's kind of like grass.
Speaker D:You know, grass towards the sun.
Speaker D:Moisture will grow towards wherever that water flows for them to get oyster.
Speaker D:So we try and make sure we're out there.
Speaker D:We can try and tumble them, try and work them as.
Speaker D:As much as possible, as much as Mother Nature and Poseidon will let us get out there and do it.
Speaker A:Chef John, what does consistency in oysters mean from a chef's perspective?
Speaker C:I mean, we want.
Speaker C:It's tough, too, with the wild product.
Speaker C:It's a. I mean, I say wild, but it's.
Speaker C:Obviously, you're farming them, Reed, but it.
Speaker C:It's still a wild product at the end of.
Speaker C:And so consistency for me is probably going to be a little bit different for.
Speaker C:Than other chefs.
Speaker C:What I'm looking for is the right size, the right meat to shell ratio.
Speaker C:Those edges that Reed keeps talking about, it's.
Speaker C:That's hugely important.
Speaker C:If I get a bag of oysters that's got really sharp edges on it, I know that there hasn't been a lot of care taking in them.
Speaker C:And so that's what we're looking for.
Speaker C:We're looking at the same way when we check in fish.
Speaker C:You know, you're looking for clear eyes, red gills for meat, that kind of thing.
Speaker C:With oysters, I'm looking really a really tight seal between the shells.
Speaker C:I'm looking to make sure that the edges aren't too sharp.
Speaker C:I'm looking to see if there's a good.
Speaker C:What did you call it?
Speaker C:A elbow.
Speaker C:That.
Speaker C:That joint right there.
Speaker C:I want to make sure that I can get a knife in there.
Speaker D:There's a hinge.
Speaker C:The hinge?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Thank you.
Speaker C:You know that those are what, those are the things that I'm looking for in a consistent oyster.
Speaker C:You know, the other thing that I'll say is, is that I have an outlet for, for those oysters that Reed has with the barnacles and things like that.
Speaker C:We do a dollar oyster at the shop and, you know, that's where those oysters are key.
Speaker C:There really isn't anything that Reed could bring me that I wouldn't be happy with.
Speaker D:We call those hurricane oysters because there were lots of times in weeks where we weren't able to get out and work them as much as possible.
Speaker D:So things grew on them.
Speaker D:You can, you know, it's really, really hard to stay ahead of them.
Speaker D:So the hurricanes prevented us where there were a couple weeks at a time when we couldn't go out and do it.
Speaker D:So when those things are on there, it's a lot of work to get them clean.
Speaker D:Because when we deliver an oyster, I don't think if we're getting a luxury product, a high end product, I don't think you should have to do much work to it.
Speaker D:You shouldn't have to clean it, you shouldn't have to do a lot of work.
Speaker D:It should be pretty much pull out of the bag and serve.
Speaker D:So we spend a lot of time trying cleaning and stuff when there are things that do grow on it.
Speaker D:So for like, for John's actually, if there's some.
Speaker D:He's like, you know, we need some happier oysters.
Speaker D:If we have that, then we know, hey, that's great.
Speaker D:We can get him more without having to do a lot of work to it.
Speaker D:So.
Speaker C:Well, and I'm.
Speaker C:One of my favorite movies is White Men Can't Jump.
Speaker C:And there's a line in that movie that says that I would rather win first and look good second.
Speaker C:And to me, that's what it's about with oysters, right?
Speaker C:It's that meat to shell ratio helpful.
Speaker C:Is that oyster, when you open it, is it spawned out?
Speaker C:Is it real loose and liquidy or is it firm and full of meat?
Speaker C:You know, that's, that's what I'm talking.
Speaker C:You win first with the meat and then there's the look.
Speaker A:So are you able to eyeball a Calusa oyster?
Speaker C:Yep.
Speaker A:You can tell which.
Speaker A:You can tell that's.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's a colossus.
Speaker A:That's reeds.
Speaker C:We have four to six, seven oysters on hand at any one time.
Speaker C:We're probably going through five or six thousand oysters a week.
Speaker C:So, yeah, I can by Sight I can tell you the oysters that we use a lot of like reeds.
Speaker C:I can pick those out of a.
Speaker A:Crab, no problem, especially his reed rent hide and hurricanes.
Speaker A:It was a tough season last year.
Speaker A:Talk about it.
Speaker D:Well, we've kind of been known, I'm kind of known some places now as Mr. Red Tide because we were, we were shut down for seven months to harvesting.
Speaker D:So what that says is the state does a very, very good job of monitoring the water.
Speaker D:And if the red tide level is just above, kind of not there at all, then they shut us down for harvest.
Speaker D:And in some ways that sucks.
Speaker D:We always say we have another term red tide sucks.
Speaker D:But what it does, it makes it, it protects the consumer on, on the tail end.
Speaker D:So oysters are the most highly regulated protein in the country.
Speaker D:So our oysters are temped from when they, when they come on the boat till they go in a cooler, till they leave the cooler, till they get to a restaurant.
Speaker D:So when the red tide, when the red tide happens, you know, the state is checking every single week.
Speaker D:So it's unfortunate when that stuff happens.
Speaker D:We have to close.
Speaker D:But it's from a protection standpoint.
Speaker D:So, you know, if you're looking at business, you think, how can I go seven months?
Speaker D:Or how to, you know, why would you want to visit, go seven months without, without any sales?
Speaker D:Well, it sucks there as well.
Speaker D:But what it's done is it caused us to look at other options in order to mitigate, to add resiliency to what we're doing.
Speaker D:So there's a thing, wet storage, that most people are familiar with and don't realize it.
Speaker D:But the old days, if you're old enough, you've seen lobsters and tanks, and they will.
Speaker D:Grocery stores, that's a wet storage facility.
Speaker D:On a small scale, what that does is it preserves that living animal in time before it's harvested, meaning you take it home and cook it.
Speaker D:So what we're looking at is.
Speaker D:And they do it in the west coast and some.
Speaker D:A couple places in Canada.
Speaker D:So it's nothing new.
Speaker D:It's just.
Speaker D:It hasn't been approved.
Speaker D:No one's been approved for it in Florida.
Speaker D:So they're larger, large, large tanks with filtered water.
Speaker D:It continues to run through it.
Speaker D:So what we'll be able to do is when we get that facility up and running, we'll be able to put those oysters in that, in that tank.
Speaker D:And so that filtered water will help purge any red tide, any toxins, anything that's in the water that's undesirable that would make it unsafe in the state's eyes to take to market.
Speaker D:So we'll put it in there.
Speaker D:It'll be in there for three or four days, generally.
Speaker D:That's kind of the regulations right now.
Speaker D:And then eventually after about a week, we'll probably do it a little longer than the state will come in and test that meat from it.
Speaker D:And then if they say that's good, then we can harvest.
Speaker D:So instead of being able to be closed for seven months, we won't.
Speaker D:We wouldn't have a closure at all.
Speaker D:We just harvest, put in the tanks, let it clean, and then.
Speaker D:And harvest it.
Speaker D:So that's a big thing we're looking into.
Speaker D:And we're planning on working on Moat Marine down in Sarasota.
Speaker D:They have built a facility and they worked on some of the regulations, getting them approved for the state.
Speaker D:So we were.
Speaker D:We'll work with them, too, on the tank, build out and all the rest of that.
Speaker D:And they may be able to help out with some manpower to help monitor and do some of the things that we need to do for that.
Speaker D:So that's a big thing.
Speaker D:So that would mitigate all those issues, and we'd be.
Speaker D:We'd be able to work in harvest year round.
Speaker C:I think he's being a little modest, though, because the program that he just laid out is not just for him, though.
Speaker C:I mean, he's working on it for like a.
Speaker C:Like a working waterfront so that it can be something that helps everybody in Florida.
Speaker C:And that's one of the things about Reid, too, is that this isn't a selfish.
Speaker C:A selfish endeavor for him.
Speaker C:It's not just about selling oysters and making money.
Speaker C:I mean, he has to do that.
Speaker C:But there's also a greater good that he's working on for all of the shellfish farmers in the state.
Speaker C:So he.
Speaker C:He kind of needs a round of applause for that, too.
Speaker A:Oh, yeah.
Speaker A:Right on, Chef.
Speaker A:What you're saying, I mean, part of the conversation, one of our conversations that we had.
Speaker A:Reed, you're going to explain it better than I can, but ultimately you're going to get political with this.
Speaker A:How so?
Speaker D:The, like, anything, once you get into something, you realize there's a whole lot more to it.
Speaker D:So if you, like six months ago, you had asked me, hey, are you going to be involved in politics, anything, lobbying, anything on those levels, I would have said, heck, no.
Speaker D:All I just want to do is I just want to farm and, you know, grow oysters for people and sell them.
Speaker D:But as we've gotten involved in this.
Speaker D:We found that in order to get working on this wet, wet storage facility, we're going to need county approval, a bunch of them, state approval.
Speaker D:We're going to need support from fwc, the FDACS people, a whole lot of people around the state in order to come together to help that.
Speaker D:And a lot of that that comes with it, as well as research and other things.
Speaker D:And then so that research thing gets into national stuff.
Speaker D:So the usda, they have a division that of aquaculture, of support and research has devoted a little bit of.
Speaker D:A little bit of support and funding to.
Speaker D:But there's not an office of aquaculture at the usda.
Speaker D:And when the storms come through, we found that there was no insurance for us.
Speaker D:There's no insurance or our equipment or anything else really.
Speaker D:So there is sometimes.
Speaker D:Sometimes there's government support for.
Speaker D:In a disaster effort.
Speaker D:But aquaculture is not considered agriculture in the way that, you know that a strawberry farm would be or a blueberry farm or something like that.
Speaker D:So what we're.
Speaker D:One thing we're working on, and we were lobbying DC with, is to create an office of aquaculture at the USDA.
Speaker D:Be about 14 people.
Speaker D:But what that does is it would consolidate three or four different places that you have to go to for either support or aid or research and all the rest of the stuff and put it all in one spot.
Speaker D:Aquaculture is kind of the redheaded stepchild.
Speaker D:It's getting bigger.
Speaker D:So it's more and more important.
Speaker D:I think everybody we talk to in D.C. from our senators from Florida up there, they understand the nature of the blue food economy and how it can.
Speaker D:How it really needs to grow and needs support in that case.
Speaker D:So they are really behind that.
Speaker D:So we've started to deal with that.
Speaker D:And then there's another thing I never thought I'd know and never thought I'd need to know, but there is hazardous.
Speaker D:There are hazardous imports that come in from shellfish from all over the world.
Speaker D:And you can imagine where most of them probably come from.
Speaker D:There are contaminants in there.
Speaker D:There are harmful algal blooms.
Speaker D:There's PFAs.
Speaker D:There's a whole bunch of other stuff that comes in and they look at it as, oh, well, it can be cooked out.
Speaker D:Well, most of that stuff can't be cooked out.
Speaker D:So right now that there is nobody at the FDA that is allowed to destroy harmful imports.
Speaker D:So if those things come in, basically what they do is turn around, send them back.
Speaker D:They don't have the power to destroy them, so they go back to the country of origin.
Speaker D:And they'll either relabel them as like office parts or something like that, or machine equipment, or send them to another country and send them in, because then only 2% of the containers that come and get checked.
Speaker D:So that's another thing we started working on is like realize like, hey, you can't cook this stuff out.
Speaker D:So if something's coming intended to be cooked, they don't check it because they think is it's, oh, it's going to be cooked out.
Speaker D:Well, it's not, and it's going to be bad.
Speaker D:So that's getting helping FDA have that approval and that ability to destroy it right then instead of shipping it back.
Speaker D:And then God knows what they do to it when it comes back.
Speaker D:So those are some of the things we've gotten had to get involved with.
Speaker A:Chef, do you prefer oysters from the Gulf of America or elsewhere?
Speaker C:Well, the interesting thing is that in the Gulf, it's the same species of oyster from Canada all the way down the east coast, around Florida and through the Gulf of America and down around into Texas.
Speaker C:It's all the same species.
Speaker C:It's the body of water that it's pulled from that makes a difference.
Speaker C:It's the salinity, it's the minerality, it's the maroir, if you will, of that oyster, which gives it its flavor.
Speaker C:So I have some favorites in Canada.
Speaker C:I have some favorites on the West Coast.
Speaker C:I have some favorites in Florida and along the Gulf Coast.
Speaker C:So they're all different.
Speaker A:So which one is better, Gulf of America or Gulf of Mexico?
Speaker C:I'm going to have to go with the Gulf of Mexico on that one.
Speaker C:Just saying.
Speaker D:TikTok, you know where he resides?
Speaker C:That's right at the Tides Market.
Speaker C:Come get me.
Speaker A:How did you two connect?
Speaker A:So, look, we're digging deep into a lot of interesting angles of, you know, aquaculture and oysters.
Speaker A:But at the end of the day, we've had some colorful, fun jokes and conversation here today during production.
Speaker A:How did you guys meet?
Speaker A:You guys are made for each other, by the way.
Speaker C:Yeah, I.
Speaker C:We were kind of talking about that earlier.
Speaker C:We don't exactly know how we met.
Speaker C:It just sort of happened one day.
Speaker D:Yeah, I think we concocted our idea about the same time that they concocted their tides idea.
Speaker D:So we had to get a lot of regulatory stuff and get a final lease and find the space in the water.
Speaker D:So we weren't officially in business at that point.
Speaker D:We were planning and getting ready for it.
Speaker D:And I think I was.
Speaker D:I was.
Speaker D:I don't know how I came across it, but I saw it and either John may have sent something to us because I didn't do TikTok, I didn't do any social media of any sort until we did had to do this and obviously it's very important.
Speaker D:So he's right now either I saw him and I was like, oh, I'm go by.
Speaker D:I think I probably saw their TikTok or their Instagram account.
Speaker D:I was like, I'm going to go by there and just cold called and walked in there.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And I think I may have reached out to you on Instagram at some point too.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:But one day it was just I was at the seafood counter and he was on the other side and we just started talking and the next thing I know he, he said dumb the noiser farmer.
Speaker C:And I was like, well, all right then let's, yeah, come over here, let's talk a little while longer.
Speaker D:And I think they, and when we first went in there, high quality stuff is very important to me.
Speaker D:I really appreciate so all the, everything they carried at the time, they had pots and pans and a whole bunch of other stuff was really, really high end.
Speaker D:It was all really good quality.
Speaker D:And so, and my wife knows like if we're going to be associated or sell a place, we want to be a partner who, we want to be in business with them.
Speaker D:And so I think we started talking and just about our process and how if it's not ready, it's not ready.
Speaker D:If it's not right, it's not right.
Speaker D:We don't want to do it if it first year, they don't come out looking great and all these sorts of things.
Speaker D:So I think we are talking about our plan for equality and making sure that it's right and it's good and high end because it's just, you know, I don't want to be associated with something that's really kind of low in.
Speaker D:And you know, at that point we're going to put all the work into it.
Speaker D:So then you could tell by the quality products they had in there from the meat and the case and everything else that this was, they were serious about it and doing it at a high end.
Speaker A:So chef, how do you build a seasonal dish around an oyster?
Speaker C:If I'm being honest with my wife's permission, Reed, you know my wife.
Speaker C:I've heard that.
Speaker C:No, I mean it's, it's, it's like anything else.
Speaker C:I mean an oyster to me is, it's, there's There's a lot that you can do with it.
Speaker C:And I think that that's the thing that people.
Speaker C:That people always kind of go back to the dozen raw, you know, but there's so much more to an oyster, and there's so many different.
Speaker C:Again, it's the maroir.
Speaker C:So it's.
Speaker C:Every oyster is a little bit different.
Speaker C:Every oyster's got a story.
Speaker C:So in and of itself, an oyster's pretty inspirational.
Speaker C:And so it doesn't matter if you're shucking a calusa, a beausoleil, a kumamoto, a blonde.
Speaker C:They all have their own characteristics.
Speaker C:They all have their own way.
Speaker C:And so for me, it's just a matter of finding things that are in season that I think might taste good with them.
Speaker C:It's really not hard.
Speaker C:And my wife really is the boss.
Speaker C:Just getting that didn't.
Speaker A:Eric, what does it mean to have earned a Michelin recommendation?
Speaker C:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker C:That I am still blown away to be in the company of those other chefs and restaurateurs.
Speaker C:I am completely humbled.
Speaker C:I am.
Speaker C:It's just surreal.
Speaker C:It's been tremendous for the business.
Speaker C:It's been so validating for the work that we put into it, that.
Speaker C:Yeah, it's tough to put that one into words.
Speaker C:And being at that event where it was all announced and the red carpet and the.
Speaker C:You know, it was just.
Speaker C:It was mind blowing.
Speaker C:Being in the room with these people that I looked up to for so long and been to these restaurants and so admired their cuisine, and I'm in the same room with these guys and gals.
Speaker C:It was truly something otherworldly.
Speaker A:You know, a lot of chefs have different opinions on.
Speaker A:On Michelin in general.
Speaker A:Since you got the recommendation, has your opinion changed of Michelin from before?
Speaker A:Is it the same?
Speaker A:Do you.
Speaker A:You know, is it deeper?
Speaker C:I wanted Michelin to come to Pinellas county, where we are.
Speaker C:They've been in Tampa for a little while.
Speaker C:And so Mary Kate and I had had the conversation like, we need to do something with.
Speaker C:Visit St. Pete, Clearwater, or with a tourism board.
Speaker C:We need to figure out how to get Michelin to Pinellas County.
Speaker C:Not for us.
Speaker C:That was never the goal.
Speaker C:But the goal was, was to bring to light these people that are doing a great job.
Speaker C:We weren't chasing Michelin.
Speaker C:We weren't.
Speaker C:You know, I applied for a James Beard award, you.
Speaker C:You know, fill out an application and that kind of thing.
Speaker C:And I did that last year, you know, more of just to kind of test the waters.
Speaker C:But my opinion has not changed on Michelin you know, there are anonymous inspectors that go into these places, right.
Speaker C:Like it's, it's the real deal.
Speaker C:Like they don't mess around and they find people that are doing the right things because it's the right thing to do and consistently executing those visions.
Speaker C:And so, yeah, it's, it hasn't changed the way that I've looked at anything.
Speaker C:It's validated the hard work that we put in and makes us want to work that much harder.
Speaker C:We've got a recommendation this year and so.
Speaker C:Well, we weren't chasing Michelin.
Speaker C:I mean, I'm definitely pushing the envelope now and trying to, to do more and create more value for our guests and just continue to try to push the envelope and move us forward.
Speaker A:Do you have the staff to do that?
Speaker C:Yeah, that's the, I mean that's really.
Speaker A:The, that's the biggest thing is the, it's all the ancillary players right in the, in the restaurant, the whole restaurant.
Speaker C:And they can't be there open to close every day, nor do I want to be.
Speaker C:I've got three kids I want to raise and I'm going to spend time with my wife and do other things.
Speaker C:But yeah, we've got some really great people.
Speaker C:One of the best things we did this year was hire a general manager and she has come in and absolutely maintained our standards and elevated our service.
Speaker C:You know, it is everything.
Speaker C:It is how clean the bathroom is and deserve trash on the floor and can you see, you know, messy service stations and things like that.
Speaker C:So, yeah, I think on the front of the house side we've definitely elevated things in the back of the house we've got a couple of animals back there that have embraced our standards and pushed us even further from an hourly position.
Speaker C:So, yeah, long answer is, yeah, our staff is there, they're bought in.
Speaker C:When we got the recommendation, we had cookies made with the Michelin emblem on them and we, Mary Kate wrote a note to every single person on the staff and said, thank you so much for your hard work.
Speaker C:We wouldn't be here without you.
Speaker C:And I think that's really.
Speaker C:It's that culture that we're, we're building and developing that is going to help us maintain and get us to the next level.
Speaker C:We'll never be a star kind of place.
Speaker C:We just want to stay on the guide and we want to stay true to who we are and that helps.
Speaker D:Them attract talent and retain talent in a situation like that.
Speaker D:So they're known, appreciated.
Speaker D:There are people who've been there since Day one that the first time I walked in there that are still there, you know, and restaurants.
Speaker C:That's Robert can't go anywhere.
Speaker C:He's my brother in law.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker D:And Miranda, I think Miranda's still out.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker D:So Miranda was there for helping.
Speaker D:So it's a place where people like and want to be there.
Speaker D:And if you're there to cook in the kitchen, you're like, hey, this is a place that I want to be.
Speaker D:I'm going to get recognized or what I'm doing here is going to matter to people so well.
Speaker C:And the cooks get to use really great ingredients.
Speaker C:You know, it's domestic grouper and snapper.
Speaker C:It's high end sushi, tuna and salmon.
Speaker C:I mean, they enjoy working.
Speaker C:I've had a couple cooks that have left other places because they weren't proud of the product they were serving.
Speaker A:Part of what attracts me to beards or Michelin establishments, it's the workflow, it's the cleanliness, and it's the cleanliness during the work and how everybody has to be on board with that.
Speaker A:Because now you're talking about, like a machine.
Speaker A:It's a machine.
Speaker A:It's not just, you know, slinging plates.
Speaker A:It's different.
Speaker A:That is what is attractive to me.
Speaker A:Obviously, you love to see the finished plate and microflowers and it's built up and it's pretty and there's some sort of chemistry involved or whatever.
Speaker A:Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker A:But how do you get that?
Speaker A:That's what tickles me.
Speaker A:I'm really interested in that.
Speaker A:John and I got to go to Camille in Orlando, and we got to work with Chef Tung, who is a master.
Speaker A:This guy, he's a machine, a legit machine.
Speaker A:The clocks that are on the wall everywhere, the timing, all of that to me is spectacular because I appreciate processes.
Speaker A:You see what we do here, right?
Speaker A:So there's processes to everything.
Speaker A:And if you can run through your processes and have something beautiful at the end, you're winning oysters.
Speaker A:There's a process.
Speaker A:You're doing something special.
Speaker A:You're coming out with a beautiful product.
Speaker A:What you're doing at the restaurant.
Speaker A:Processes, beautiful product.
Speaker A:Missing recommendation.
Speaker A:I mean, you're using, you know, Calusa oysters here, right?
Speaker A:So at the end of the day, these are the things that excite me.
Speaker A:And that's what we'd like to talk about here on the show.
Speaker A:Are you ready for hurricane season?
Speaker C:Is anybody ever really ready for hurricane season?
Speaker C:I mean, you know, I talked to my insurance agent.
Speaker C:They think we're good.
Speaker C:You know, last Year was brutal, you know, and you don't know what you don't know.
Speaker C:And I was probably a little underinsured going in there.
Speaker C:Again, I don't want to talk about the insurance industry and how expensive it's gotten here recently, but especially in the state of Florida.
Speaker C:But, yeah, I think that we're ready.
Speaker C:You know, we've got a good plan, we've got a good contingency.
Speaker C:We know that we can fit everything in the walk in and it'll hold them for about 48 hours.
Speaker C:You know, outside of that, you know, you say your prayers, you cross your fingers and hope for the best.
Speaker A:How do you get prepared with an oyster farm for what you know is going to be a busy hurricane season?
Speaker D:Well, first you pray a little bit.
Speaker D:So that's the big.
Speaker D:That's the big thing.
Speaker D:But for us, what we do, I'll say the last year, the storms last year helped us prepare and learn things about the farm that we had no idea about.
Speaker D:So they always say your farm, your location, will pick your gear and how you farm and what your protocols are.
Speaker D:So for us, what we realized is we have to get our densities down as low as possible, as close to harvest density amounts as quickly as we possibly can.
Speaker D:Because if there is a storm, then our bags won't be overcrowded, we won't have too many oysters in there growing.
Speaker D:And so if we can't go out for an extension, extended period of time, if it's not safe to work, then we aren't coming out to a mess that, you know, we didn't plan for.
Speaker D:So that's our biggest thing is now it's as quickly we can get it down to that harvest size, that harvest density, we're going to do that as quickly as possible and then kind of a psa.
Speaker D:So today we're going to.
Speaker D:It's a Thursday, so next Wednesday we're going to get a whole bunch of new seed in.
Speaker C:Don't say it.
Speaker D:So don't say it.
Speaker D:Every time.
Speaker D:The last three years we've had had six storms and one water spout in the last 26 months.
Speaker D:So six names, hurricanes and stuff.
Speaker D:So we're putting seed out next Wednesday.
Speaker D:So I'm sure next Wednesday plus 10 there will be a hurricane that's not even on the map tree come out of nowhere.
Speaker D:But at least y' all ready.
Speaker D:So get your batteries, get your waters.
Speaker A:Get prepared, you know.
Speaker A:You know, here's the thing about it.
Speaker A:You've got.
Speaker A:You called it out on this show, you know, what that means.
Speaker A:We're safe.
Speaker D:Perfect.
Speaker A:We're safe.
Speaker A:Gentlemen, it was really awesome, spectacular to have you in studio.
Speaker A:Both of you, the three of you.
Speaker C:Chef, how do we find you at the Tides market?
Speaker C:Facebook, Instagram, TikTok?
Speaker D:We are @calusaoisterco on Instagram, and the website is calusaoisterco.com Listen, I want to.
Speaker A:Thank Reed, Reed and Chef John for being here today.
Speaker A:Hernandez, as always, man, like, with the photography, like, strong.
Speaker A:Yeah, man.
Speaker A:You should do this for a living or something, you know?
Speaker C:All right.
Speaker A:Appreciate y'.
Speaker C:All.
Speaker A:We are out.
Speaker D:Ra.
