OYSTER FEVER: “What, then, draws oyster farmers to the water’s edge at dawn or in the dead of night? What makes them work so hard, often in miserable weather, to keep their oysters fat and fit? What makes the rest of us clamor for that small tidbit of flesh, cradled by the smooth inner nacre of an oyster’s thickly sculpted shell? One answer’s obvious: the ambrosial taste of the world’s most edible shellfish.” Thus states Heaven on the Half Shell: The Story of the Northwest’s Love Affair with the Oyster, just published by the Washington Sea Grant Program, based at the UW, and WestWinds Press. Information from the book will be the subject of an illustrated presentation by the UW’s David G. Gordon at 1 p.m. Monday, Nov. 12 at the Museum of History and Industry. The museum offers special half-price admission that day, Veterans Day. Call 206-324-1126 for more information. Gordon, a science writer with Washington Sea Grant, researched and wrote Heaven on the Half Shell, a compendium of Pacific Northwest oyster-industry history. He and co-authors Nancy Blanton, formerly with Sea Grant, and Terry Nosho, a Sea Grant aquaculture specialist produced, a book replete with historical and contemporary photos, information about our native Olympia oyster and main stays of today’s industry the Pacific and Kumamoto oysters, as well as 18 recipes.

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