PIP BOYTON

“TOO MANY PEOPLE THINK THEY CAN ONLY EAT OYSTERS STRAIGHT OUT OF THE SHELL.”

PIP BOYTON

MERIMBULA, NSW

The life of an oyster farmer is a busy one, but there’s also fun to be had marketing the briny bivalves.

As soon as the sun cracks the horizon, Pip Boyton is out of bed and checking the tide. “It’s something you do quite obsessively in this business,” she laughs. Boyton is an oyster farmer on the NSW Sapphire Coast. A former chef, she met her husband while skiing and married into the multigenerational oyster-farming business, Merimbula Gourmet Oysters.

“I never ever imagined I’d be an oyster farmer, but it was a bit of an instant love affair as I’d always loved the ocean,” Boyton says.

The farm sits on Merimbula Lake, an ocean estuary. Boyton says that without a river system feeding into it, their oysters – a mix of Sydney rocks and angasi – are naturally “very fresh tasting and briny”.

The oysters begin as spawn – “a million can fit in the palm of your hand” – which they grow out in their nursery. They’re then put out in floating oyster cylinders for up to three years before being harvested, handgraded and sent to market in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.

“It’s extremely labour intensive. An oyster is typically handled 32 times by the farmer before we sell it,” Boyton says.

When she’s not working on the farm, organising crews, sorting orders or shucking oysters for locals and tourists who come to their farm gate, Boyton is promoting them at markets and food events.

“I get to showcase my cheffing skills at our stalls. I’ve introduced oyster pies and oyster pizzas and also interesting toppings on the raw oysters such as sea urchin and caviar, or pickled cucumber and crème fraîche,” she says.

“Too many people think they can only eat oysters straight out of the shell, or they’re afraid of cooking with them. But they lend themselves to so many different recipes.”

Boyton says the larger and more strongly flavoured angasi, in particular, do well in cooking.

“I’ve been having dinner parties and introducing girlfriends to tempura-battered oysters with a tequila, chilli and lime reduction,” she says. “They’re going over very well. Of course, tequila makes everything better!”