TIED to the tides. (Industry Spotlight).

Starting their shellfish farming business in Wellfleet Bay, Cape Cod, Massachusetts in 1986, Patrick and Barbara Woodbury realized early on that their lives would be totally engulfed by the type of work they do--cultivating and harvesting clams and oysters Possessing an innate satisfaction with the line a work they have chosen, the Woodburys are c prime example of what can be accomplished you have a product you believe in, undying devotion to your craft, and a roll-up-your-sleeves (and sometimes pant legsl) determination.

Their constantly changing work schedule revolves around the many phases of the moon and the tides. They also rely on the waters off Wellfleet to provide them with clams and oysters with unsurpassed briny and sweet flavors. Their belief in supplying chefs with great tasting clams and oysters fuels their passion for growing the best possible shellfish.

Name: Patrick and Barbara Woodbury

Occupation: Aquaculturalists a.k.a. Shellfish Farmers

Most Vivid Food Memory: Just last New Year's Eve, we were given a pan of smoked tomatoes by a chef friend of ours. The clams we were enjoying were actually steamed in the tomatoes with a bit of sweet onions--they were pretty memorable. It was also memorable because we shared the clams with good friends.

Mottoes by which we work and live: Our handle for work is that we're growers of shellfish for the gourmet's table. But what we're really about revolves around one thing: growing clams that make us happy and finding others that relate to what we do.

If we weren't involved in shellfish growing: We'd probably be growing something else. We tend to love being in the dirt or in the mud. Although we're trained as marine biologists and have a natural attraction to the sea, one of our hobbies is gardening. We'll be turning over our garden in the spring, look at each other and say, 'Why are we doing this again?' You'd think we'd want to get away from having a shovel or rake in our hands at some point of the year, but apparently not.

How did you get started in this line of work? We were academics for a while and then began getting interested in aquaculture in general. Aside from that, we always have loved Cape Cod. Both of us had vacationed here as kids for many years. We had friends here involved in aquaculture and thought we'd give it a go. We really weren't sure about it at first. We decided to give it a try and ended up falling in love with the lifestyle.

Your business really fills a market niche. Did you initially approach higher-end restaurants and chefs with your shellfish or did they seek you out?

The business really just kind of evolved. We started by buying clam seed from a local hatchery. It takes two years from when you first begin before you have any kind of marketable shellfish. So, during that time period, we were trying to make ends meet and both took on other jobs while we waited for the shellfish to mature. We had decided to do everything ourselves, from the growing to the marketing. We started talking to chefs, telling them what we had to offer, and they were very taken by the whole thing. We initially started speaking with chefs that were based on Cape Cod. When fall comes around, most of the restaurants close for the season, so we eventually pursued a more permanent market and headed to Boston. We simply walked into restaurants, showed the chefs the shellfish, and they were thrilled. It took off from there. As most know, the community within higher-end restaurants is very closely knit--everyone seems to know one another. Chef-owned restaurants are really tuned in to the food that comes thr ough their door. We're very conscious of this and wanted to work with those that focused on food in the same way that we do.

How do environmental conditions contribute to the quality and flavor of shellfish? Wellfleet has traditionally been a shellfish town (you've heard of Wellfleet oysters). The area is incredibly well-suited for shellfish growth and contributes to great flavor development as well. There are various environmental conditions that affect the growth and flavor of the shellfish. One example is spring fed fresh water and there's also a ten-foot tidal exchange, so there's a lot of water flushing in and out of the area. These factors--plus water temperature, salinity, nutrients, and the protection a harbor provides--is great for growing phyto-plankton, which is the microscopic plant food of clams and oysters. The combination of phytoplankton and growing conditions contributes to the unique flavor of the shellfish--which we like to describe as being the perfect balance between briny and sweet.

What does a growing and harvesting season entail? In May or June, we buy clam seed from a hatchery in Cape Cod, and at that point the seeds are only a couple of millimeters in size. They're close in size to sand grains. We plant the seed in grow-out trays, which are cages lined with screens. We place the seed in sand in these cages and cover them with netting, which protects them from predators. They stay in the cages until the fall and when they're thumbnail size, we remove the netting and shake out the cages. We then plant them in runways in the shellfish area. Runways are usually twelve by fifty or one hundred feet. They have to be perfectly clean. We plant 80,000 clams per larger runway. They then stay in these runways for two to three years before they are harvested. We use a bull rake to harvest. It's about a twenty-toothed basket rake, which you use to harvest the shellfish when the water is knee deep to waist deep high. When you shake the rake in the sand, the action of the rake loosens the sand aroun d the clams and they roll into the basket. It takes about a week to learn how to rake properly and just about a lifetime to get over the back problems caused by the process. We guess that's why they call it a bull rake. Once you get the hang of it, though, it can be very relaxing. We do dig to order and will ship out the shellfish the same day that it's harvested. Oyster cultivation is a bit different in that the seed, or spat as it is called, is collected directly from the wild. Microscopic larval oysters float in the water column in late June and will then attach themselves to a hard substrate such as a rock or another shell. It's here where they'll convert into a small oyster. We provide these larvae with protected substrates, and then rear them to adulthood. By mid-fall, the spat are the size of a quarter and are then removed from the substrates and placed in flats, which are then covered with additional netting. From this point, they require another two years before they are marketable.

Is shellfish farming considered sustainable? If so, how? Starting with buying the seed from a hatchery, we really have no impact on the wild fishery. And as a consequence, we can have much more control over how much we harvest as well as when we harvest. What's amazing to us is how much productivity you get out of such a small growing area. We plant 100,000 clams that initially can be carried in a plastic baggie and within a few years, you're looking at a couple of tons of clams--and that's just from feeding on the natural algae that's in the water. Since the shellfish are feeding on the algae which is in the water--they're removing nitrogen from the water. One of the key concerns facing marine systems is nitrogen loading. The loss of oxygen in the water is one contributing factor to fish kills. But the clams are actually removing nitrogen, fixing it into their bodies and then they're harvested. In a sense, they're cleaning the water.

What's the best part about what you do? This job is never the same from day to day. We go from the water to the chef. So, on any given day, we could be on our knees groveling in the mud and within twenty-four hours be in some of the best kitchens in Boston--tasting something wonderful that Todd English or Gordon Hamersley has made with our shellfish. That's about as diverse and satisfying a job as you can get.

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