Drakes Bay Oyster Company
Drakes Bay Oyster Company
4.6 miles
3 hours
Start: Sir Francis Drake Boulevard
End: Sir Francis Drake Boulevard Includes: Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, Drakes Bay Oyster Company
Hike 11
March 1, 2013
Page-of-Swords
Curiosity
The page-of-swords tarot card shows a young man full of curiosity. He is exploring the landscape looking for new ideas to fuel his thoughts. He reminds us of the youthful quality of open-mindedness. Open-mindedness allows us to see something for what it is, because we haven't already decided what it is.
With this card in mind, I headed-out with three friends toward Drakes Bay Oyster Company. We parked the car where Melinda and I had left-off last time and walked 2.3 miles to the oyster farm.
Melinda and Carol were there and a new walker, but an old friend of mine, Jolene. Jolene and I know each other from Alcatraz. No, we were not inmates together. Jolene is an expert on Alcatraz history; she grew-up there and has a number of books out on the subject. I was working for the Parks Conservancy offering programs on the history of the park.
The day was beautiful and the walk seemed long. It was. It turned out to be almost twice as long as I thought. Despite a bit of teasing, my friends were good sports about the calculation error.
A good thing was, we were ready for oysters by the time we got to the farm. Carol bought a dozen oysters and shucked them. We ate them with hot sauce around a picnic table at the edge of Drakes Estero.
Everyone working at the farm was happy. They owners are embroiled in a battle with the park service to keep the oyster farm open and were recently granted an injunction that allows them to stay open until their appeal is reviewed.
I, personally, am heart broken by the idea of them closing. The farm is five-miles from my house. Going to get fresh oysters for backyard barbecues is one of the distinctive pleasures of living in Point Reyes.
There is a strong Locavore movement in Point Reyes. We derive great pleasure from sourcing our food locally. This means the food is produced locally, not just bought locally.
This movement is a response to the globalization of food and the trend toward production of unhealthy, unsustainable food. We grow our own vegetables, support local agriculture and relish the bounty of the earth.
The conflict over the oyster farm seems to arise from a difference in needs. The park service has a directive to preserve wilderness. There are many environmentalist who live all over the country who support the park service and want to see the oyster farm gone.
Someone sitting in Rhode Island who hears about this wilderness being threatened by commerce is acting upon the need to protect nature.
Many of us living here are responding to a need to protect nature and a need to eat. We could still eat without the oyster farm, but our food would have to be shipped-in from somewhere else.
Our bodies would not get the same nutrients as from food produced in the soil and waters of the land where we live. I remember a woman from Tassajara who came to Point Reyes to do a talk about gardening; she said after seven years of eating locally produced food, you become the soil. That sounds like being home to me.
I want to be tied to my community through the soil and through the fruits of our collective labors. It helps to heal our bodies, our spirits, our economies and our lands. It allows us to live at a natural pace engaged in the processes and cycles of our local ecosystem. It is good for us.
Much of the controversy has focused on determining if the oyster farm is bad for other creatures. Evidence supports it is not. The Lunnys, owners of the farm, use care in farming practices to ensure the lightest imprint on the earth and the least disruption of life cycles for our fellow creatures.
If the oyster farm is not bad for other creatures and it is good for us, then keeping the farm operating fulfills needs on both sides. With a necessary trend toward local production of food nation-wide, it seems short-sighted to do way with a very successful operation.
Working with the park service, Drakes Bay Oyster Company can become a showplace for how humans can fulfill their needs in balance with nature.
Like my friends and I, the page-of-swords is exploring the landscape searching for new ideas. All of our experience is place based. At every moment we are somewhere. The ideas that come to us are part of that landscape.
The universe is constantly in cosmic calculation to keep the whole wonderful system working. Good ideas are gifts from the universe. They emerge from the cosmos and are naturally informed by the place in the universe from which they arise.
The oyster farm on Drakes Estero is an idea brought into reality over a hundred-years-ago. Through careful thought, the Lunnys keep that good idea in existence.
If you are in Rhode Island, or elsewhere in the US, I invite you to come and explore the landscape of Point Reyes with an open-mind. I wonder if you won't also find the oyster farm to be a good idea appropriate to the landscape from which it arises.
If you are a local person who wants to protect wilderness, I invite you to visit the Drakes Bay Oyster Company with an open-mind. Humans do not exist outside of wilderness. We rely on the health of our local ecosystem as much as any other creature.
Our challenge, now, lies in learning to fulfill our human needs in balance with the rest of nature. Perhaps Drakes Bay Oyster Company is part of the answer to this challenge.
