Oysters which month not to eat

Red tides where bacteria levels are very high in the ocean most commonly occur in the warm summer months. An oyster growing in a red tide may not be safe to eat. However, red tides are not something you have to worry about anymore. The oyster industry is so highly regulated and oyster farmers are extremely careful to care for their oysters in a safe way year-round.

Cannarozzi and Kowalewski, Thompson Chair of Invertebrate Paleontology , analyzed oysters and snails from a foot-wide, 4,year-old shell ring on St.

Catherines Island and compared them with live oysters and snails. They found that island inhabitants were primarily harvesting oysters during late fall, winter and spring, which also suggested the presence of people on the island tapered off during the summer.

The seasonality of the shell ring may be one of the earliest records of sustainable harvesting, Cannarozzi said. Oysters in the Southeast spawn from May to October, and avoiding oyster collection in the summer may help replenish their numbers. Cannarozzi said using impressed odostomes to gauge what time of year oysters were harvested offers an independent way to assess ancient patterns of oyster gathering.

This approach can complement other archaeological methods, including stable isotope analysis and examining shell growth rings. Cannarozzi and Kowalewski emphasized the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in addressing longstanding research questions in new ways.

September- April is the range; these months encompass the colder times of the year; therefore, oysters will be safe to eat raw during the winter season. There is some deep-seated wisdom in that statement, especially when thinking about times before refrigeration.

Throughout the years, wild oyster populations have sustained hungry humans with no money to buy food. They were darker and cooler than an above ground restaurant, so slightly better conditions to hold shellfish.