A Pearl Of An Oyster | Food

Date Published:: 22/07/2008

As we're tucking into a dozen oysters, Virginia Sumsion, from the Loch Fyne Oyster Company, points out that this year the firm celebrates its pearl anniversary - 30 years. OK, so edible oysters don't produce the sort of pearls people value, but it's a nice thought all the same; oysters and pearls

I love oysters with a sprinkle of lemon, or some white or red wine vinegar dressing - delicious. I'm not a huge fan of adding Tabasco, mainly because I think it kills the taste, but I do believe in giving it a chew and a roll round the mouth on the way down - yum.

The potted history

Anyway, as I slurp down the marvellous molluscs Virginia gives me the potted history. The whole oyster enterprise was begun by Virginia's wine dealer, uncle Johnny Noble, as a way to try and save the family estate. The land sits on the shores of the eponymous sea loch - the largest, incidentally, in the country - and it's the combination of the salt and fresh water in the loch that gives the oysters and mussels their sweetness.

Uncle Johnny teamed up with his marine biologist friend, Andrew Lane, and, like so many of the businesses I’ve met on this journey, they started out with a small hut by the side of the road and a 'let's do it' attitude.

"Andrew said to Johnny, ' think you can grow oysters here' and so they seeded some, and in the first year they all died," says Virginia. Next year they tried again, and this time they took. Oysters take a long time to grow, and with that year’s cash flow not looking huge, they turned their hand to smoking and began a smoke house as well. "This soon became the mainstay of the business but the oysters remain our soul," Virginia adds. In the 1990s they opened restaurants in Nottingham and Peterborough. "Because Andy had family there and he thought 'well at least they'll turn up'," explains Virginia.

Shortcut to shucking

After lunch Mohammed, the oyster bar guy, talks me through shucking an oyster. Now the traditional way is with an oyster knife, but Mohammed explains that the former chief exec developed and made a bench-based device in which brute force is applied through leverage and has much the same effect. What's more, it's far safer. I can image if you're shucking the quantity Mohammed has to do, doing it with a knife, despite all precautions, results in the odd cut. This device does away with all that.

Later we move through to the oyster room, where Virginia gives me a tip regarding oysters. "If you shake an oyster and there's lots of water coming out that means it's not so fresh." The two of us then go out on the loch with Ian Mackie, who's worked for Loch Fyne all his working life. He talks me through the ropes, on which the mussels grow. "The mussels naturally attach themselves to the rope," he says.

I'm then taken on a tour of the salmon production process with Kevin Farrell. Kevin's in charge of quality control as well as product development. He's clearly a man who takes his charges seriously. I'm in awe of the level of skill, dexterity and precision the work force demonstrates. There's a lot of hand cutting, filleting, carving, mixing and pin boning. What's more all the smoking, the curing, and 'gravadlaxing' happens in this one unit.

You can watch me schucking, smoking and looking for mussels here.

Reaching the fans of the future

Last week a team, made up of fishermen and factory staff, attended T in the Park, where their smoked salmon burger proved to be a huge success. Virginia talks about how attending events like this gets them reaching a new audience - for some, it's the first time they've tried oysters.

I wanted to visit Loch Fyne Oysters because I'm a fan of their restaurants as well as their 'company owned by its employees' structure. They're an example of a small firm that's grown through a genuine love of what they do.

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