Port Madison Community Shellfish Farm
Click the play button below to listen to a podcast Betsy Peabody did on the PMCSF with BCB (Bainbridge Community Broadcasting).
PSRF is pleased to announce Johansson-Clark Real Estate as a 2014 sponsor of the Port Madison Community Shellfish Farm. Johansson-Clark has a philosophy of “island living,” which involves working with the community to hold on to healthy and productive marine systems. This complements PSRF’s vision of a clean and healthy Sound that is full of life and capable of sustaining us. Re-connecting people on Bainbridge Island with harvest opportunities provides an incentive for efforts to preserve and restore clean water. Please visit www.johanssonclark.com
The Port Madison Community Shellfish Farm (PMCSF), located on the Bloedel Reserve tidelands on Bainbridge Island, is PSRF’s newest farm. The PMCSF seeks to connect community members directly with the benefits of a healthy watershed by growing, harvesting and eating community grown clams and oysters. Growing shellfish has many environmental benefits, including improved water quality, species diversity and eelgrass growth. In fact, a single oyster can filter 20 gallons of water a day. Shellfish can be part of the solution to cleaning up Puget Sound. We believe this positive connection between you, your environment and your dinner plate is the key to active and enjoyable environmental stewardship.
Harvesting oysters from the Port Madison Community Shellfish Farm on a beautifully sunny day (photo Marc Shor)
Watch an excerpt of Gardening with Cisco Morris, featuring the PMCSF
The Port Madison Community Shellfish Farm is looking forward to the upcoming harvest season with anticipation; mouths are watering for more of the sweet and delicate, tasty bounty of oysters. The harvest schedule is set and CSA memberships for 2015 are now available!
Since the inaugural 2010 season, CSA membership has increased every year as more Bainbridge residents are building a connection to their marine resources and renewing their commitment to clean water and healthy shorelines. During the 2014 season we harvested over 1000 dozen oysters for 64 loyal CSA members and local events. We'd like to reach our goal of 75 members for 2015! Almost 100 volunteers certainly had their work cut out for them in 2014 - contributing more than 250 total work hours to the farm sorting, bagging and hauling oysters. Thank you to all who have supported the farm by purchasing memberships, volunteering during farm seeding and harvests, and slurping the delicious oysters that are the result of our efforts to protect and maintain great water quality and healthy beaches surrounding Port Madison and Bainbridge Island. All farm proceeds go back into local water quality and habitat improvement projects!
Sign up now before our 2015 PMCSF CSA memberships sell out, and enjoy five harvests between April and August of our delicious Port Madison Petites! Pass the word along to your family, friends and neighbors and be a part of this growing community of oyster lovers. Print, complete and mail in the pdf membership form below, or sign up online using our paypal link.
Membership Details
|
Membership Level |
Dozen |
# of Pick Ups |
Annual Share |
Oysters/Year |
|
1 |
2 |
5 |
$100 |
120 |
|
2 |
4 |
5 |
$200 |
240 |
|
3 |
6 |
5 |
$300 |
360 |
| Event |
Harvest & Pick Up Date |
Harvest/Work Pary Time |
Oyster Pick Up Time |
Oyster Pick Up Location (PSRF Office) |
| Work Party | April 10, 2014 | 2:30pm - 5:00 pm | n/a | n/a |
| Harvest |
April 24, 2015 |
3:00pm - 5:00pm |
After 6:00pm |
382 Wyatt Way NE, Bainbridge |
| Work Party |
May 8, 2015 |
1:00pm - 4:00pm |
n/a |
n/a |
| Harvest |
May 22, 2014 |
1:00pm - 4:00pm |
After 5:00pm |
382 Wyatt Way NE, Bainbridge |
| Work Party |
June 5, 2015 |
11:30am - 3:00pm |
n/a |
n/a |
| Harvest |
June 19, 2015 |
12:00 - 3:00pm |
After 5:00pm |
382 Wyatt Way NE, Bainbridge |
| Harvest |
July 17, 2015 |
11:00am - 2:00pm |
After 4:00pm |
382 Wyatt Way NE, Bainbridge |
| Work Party |
July 31, 2015 |
9:30am - 1:00pm |
n/a |
n/a |
| Harvest | August 14, 2015 | 10:00am - 1:00pm | After 3:00pm | 382 Wyatt Way NE, Bainbridge |
| Back-up Harvest | August 28, 2015 | 9:00am - 12:00pm | After 1:00pm | 382 Wyatt Way NE, Bainbridge |
| Back-up Harvest | September 25, 2015 | 8:00am - 10:00am | After 1:00pm | 382 Wyatt Way NE, Bainbridge |
How to Join
You can either click here to download a form to fill out and mail in, or use the PayPal link below (You don't need a PayPal account; just a credit card.)
For more information about PMCSF and related projects or to get involved, please contact josh@restorationfund.org
Celebrating the harvest
Our 2014 Oyster-Give-Away Program is a related project aimed to address pollution that affects local harvest. Step up to get your septic systems inspected and maintained and we will salute you with FREE OYSTERS for helping to improve water quality conditions in the Sound. More information about the program HERE.
The oysters will be distributed come spring, but don’t hesitate to schedule the inspection now. Time has a way of getting away from us. The Port Madison Community Shellfish Farm is alive and well thanks to continued awareness and actions people are taking to maintain and improve local waters. This program is intended to provide tasty incentives for addressing water quality issues. Contact josh@restorationfund.org for more information. Please join us!
Thanks to Kitsap Public Health District, the Bloedel Reserve, and PMCSF CSA members for making the Oyster-Give-Away Program possible.
Where to find Port Madison Petites
- Bainbridge Island Farmer’s Market
- Hitchcock
- Harbour Public House
- Bainbridge Island Town and County
- Become a CSA member and receive regular deliveries!
Highlights & Completed Projects
Thanks to the help and support of our community, project partners and farm members, accomplishments to date include:
- Received the first farm permit under the Army Corp’s new national aquaculture regulations.
- Increased the number of Community Supported Aquaculture (CSA) farm members from 6 in 2010 to 57 in 2013.
- Harvested almost 2700 dozen oysters between 2010 and 2013. This supplied our CSA members, the Bainbridge Island Farmer’s Market, special events, local restaurants and the Town and Country and Central Market grocery stores.
- Involved 306 volunteers who spent nearly 900 hours seeding, harvesting, sorting, and hauling oysters.
- Restocked the PMCSF annually with 20-25,000 new ½ inch oyster seed during our yearly“Planting the Seed; Sowing and Celebrating Local Shellfish” outreach events. We intend for this celebration to continue as a festive annual volunteer workshop.
- Prevented nearly 1500 gallons of sewage from potentially entering Port Madison as a result of a free mobile pump-out service PSRF provided in Port Madison Bay in 2010 and 2011.
- Launched a new program to provide free oysters to homeowners who have their septic tanks inspected or pumped.
- Installed many new shellfish gardens around Bainbridge Island, Suquamish and Indianola, bringing the total number of personal shellfish gardens supported by PSRF to more than 150.
- Hosted shellfish seed sales in 2010-2013 distributing over 250,000 oyster, mussel, and clam seed to individuals for their own shellfish gardens.
Project Partners
- Bloedel Reserve
- Sound Food
- Safeway Foundation
- Bainbridge Community Council
- Bonnell Cove Foundation
- Kitsap County Health District
- Plauche & Stock
- Puget Sound Energy Foundation
- Sustainable Bainbridge
- Bainbridge Watershed Council
- City of Bainbridge Island
- Port Madison Yacht Club
- Pacific Coast Congress of Harbor Masters and Port Managers
- Cherry Creek Environmental
- Royal Bank of Canada Blue Water Project
- Suquamish Tribe
- Johansson Clark Real Estate
- Bainbridge Organic Distillers
- Harbour Public House