Suffolk to host oyster festival to boost local growers

Oysters growers from Montauk to the Great South Bay, eager to put a dent in the influx of competing shellfish from out of state and Canada, are hoping to get a boost from Suffolk County this summer with the launch of the Long Island Oyster Jamboree.

The event, scheduled for Aug. 16 at Smith Point County Park, will feature fresh oysters shucked on site from 10 Suffolk oyster growers. Suffolk oyster growers, many operating under shellfish leases on county waterways on the Peconic Bay and from waters including Orient, Montauk, Moriches Bay and the Great South Bay, produce and sell some 10 million oysters annually, but face fierce price competition from Connecticut, Virginia and Canada, among other places, they said.

"If you love oysters this is the place to be on Aug. 16," Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine said at an event Monday at Smith Point to announce the festival. "All of our oysters are going to come from Suffolk County," added Romaine, who also broached the notion of discounted parking for the event. Parking at Smith Point is $9 per vehicle for Suffolk residents with a Green Key pass and $18 for nonresidents.

It will be held from 1 to 6 p.m. at the concession at Smith Point known as Tiki Joe’s and feature other foods and drinks in addition to oysters, said Martin Grimes, Top Flight Hospitality chief operating officer. The company operates Tiki Joe’s concessions at other Suffolk parks, including Cupsogue in Westhampton, Cedar Beach in Mount Sinai and Meschutt County Park.

Long Island's longstanding oyster festival, held in October in Oyster Bay, for a couple of years used out-of-state oysters after Long Island supplier Frank M. Flower and Sons stopped providing free oysters in 2022. But that festival changed course last year, and this will be the second year in a row that local farmers will provide oysters, said Eric Koepele, partner in North Fork Big Oyster and president of the Long Island Oyster Growers Association, a business group.

 The 10 oyster farmers at the August jamboree will sell their shucked oysters for $2.50 each, Koepele said, estimating the growers could sell as many as 18,000 if 8,000 people show up.

Suffolk oyster farmers now produce around 10 million oysters a year, but Koepele said the ambition is to raise that figure to 100 million by 2035.

Koepele said oysters at the festival will include those grown not only from different waters around Long Island but also different growing methods, which he said can influence the way oysters taste.

"We’ll have representations basically of all the different growing types and all the different regions that grow oysters around the island," he said. "It’s a great way to get to know the farmers and the way the oysters are [grown] from around here."

Legis. James Mazzarella (R-Moriches) noted oysters’ long history on Long Island, including as a food source for Native American tribes, early settlers and a booming oyster trade in the last century. The Jamboree, he said, is "going to be dynamite. It’s going to allow us to show off the best oysters in the country."

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.