SImoN EDwARDS, fIfth BEND oyStERS A lot goes into an oyster. For the quickest of bites, a slurp really, oystermen spend two painstaking years battling wind, weather and the ever-looming threat of disease to raise tiny seedlings into mature, delicious oysters. Simon Edwards has been farming oysters on Nantucket for five years now and can attest to the trials and tribulations of harvesting this delicacy on Nantucket. “At some point you take a leap of faith because there’s a whole year of making absolutely no money while having a huge investment in the water,” Edwards says. Born in Kenya and educated in the U.K., Edwards received an undergraduate degree in environmental science before getting his master’s in ecological studies. Here on the island, he’s putting that education to good, hands-on use by providing a large number of the oysters served at local restaurants such as Cru. “They do the town some good too,” Edwards says, “an adult oyster does thirty-five to fifty-five gallons of water filtration a day.” Not bad for a three-dollar bite.
N magazine On him: Patagonia Shirt, ibex Shank Lite, and Prana Ogden Jacket from the haulOver.
75