Photograph courtesy of Bill Callahan

Oyster Man Bill Callahan is out to educate the public about his favorite shellfish.

Aw shucks, the Oyster Man shows locals Louisiana way

By Suzanne Cristallo

"The spirit of an oyster bar," Bill Callahan says almost reverently, "is customer participation. They're half the story." Callahan fosters that spirit every Sunday at the Los Gatos farmers market under the auspices of Intertidal Aqua Farms, the Santa Cruz company he owns with his wife, Ann.

Regulars flock to his oyster stand, set up from the back of his well-worn van where craggy gray shells poke through chests full of crushed ice. Customers shuck with the confidence of a Louisiana Cajun, mainly because "Bill the Oyster Man" has shown them how.

"It's more than just shucking oysters, it's an education," says 45-year-old Callahan. "There is so much bad stuff on the market called 'fresh' that I decided farmers' markets would be a great way to educate people." He says that's why he's "sort of famous"--he is on top of his products' temperature control, assuring that his oysters, mussels and clams are kept cool during hot weather--the key to freshness. "Fresh is one issue," he emphasizes, "but if the product is abused in transit, quality is affected."

Callahan makes his oysters available year-round through carefully controlled refrigerated shipping, and debunks the old myth that oysters should never be eaten in months that contain an "r," as he takes advantage of areas where spawning times vary. He draws on farms in northern Oregon, south Puget Sound, the East Coast and locally in Tomales Bay, where a variety of the mollusks spawn early, generally in August. This timing gives him an excuse to take a vacation from his seven-day-a-week routine, which includes his day job as a Watsonville high school science teacher and after-hours as a caterer.

"It's time out for oyster sex and for the Oyster Man," he chuckles, noting with some humor that customers rarely appreciate the local oysters in August that become "milky" from sperm production.

Education is something Callahan appreciates. He earned his bachelor's degree in oceanography from Humboldt State University, and because of a required school project, he got interested in growing shellfish. Later, he learned the skill working for American Shellfish in Moss Landing and eventually managed a division for the company in Tomales Bay. In 1983, he started his own growing company there, supplying farmers markets in Aptos, Santa Cruz and Los Gatos with his own shellfish until just last year, when he sold the farm to a friend.

Wherever he is, he seems to have fun, and so do those around him. Customers at his oyster bar shoot the breeze while cracking open stubborn shells at the hinge and enjoying the harvest of fresh meat raw on the half shell. They can choose from several spicy sauces to dab over the meat, including "Floyd's Sauce," a fiery concoction occasionally whipped up in a neighborly gesture by Floyd Yearout, a regular customer and an employee at nearby Sur La Table. Yearout combines key lime juice and habañero chili peppers--the "hottest known to man"--in a recipe he learned in the Bahamas. The sauce is used there as both a condiment and as a cold and hangover remedy.

For his catering events, Callahan draws on "an army of unpaid volunteers" who help out at parties. Whenever his students need something, the word seems to get out through his oyster customers, and "it just shows up."

"That's what's great--bumping shoulders and eating oysters," he says about his oyster bar and the people it attracts. "It's a real sense of community."

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Intertidal Aqua Farms, Santa Cruz. Open Sunday at the Los Gatos farmers market, 8 a.m.-noon. (831) 476-4187.

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