Thirty-five years ago, I was a restless marine biologist stuck working in restaurants to pay my rent. A fresh East Coast transplant in the Bay Area, I found myself spending a lot of time thinking about how diners could buy only raw East Coast oysters. Even though I was broke, I set out to achieve something previously unimaginable on the West Coast: sustainable raw oyster farming.

On the West Coast, oysters were naturally grown in clumps; by the time they were strong enough to break off, they were too big for raw consumption and generally used in stews or barbecues. I wanted to experiment with what oyster farmers were doing in Europe: the “single seed” method. This involves scattering the oyster larvae on powdered shell chips so they grow farther apart from one another.