Posted by Bruce Bilmes and Sue Boyle
, August 12, 2008 14:58
The 34th Annual Milford Oyster Festival, in Connecticut, begins Friday night with a Wine & Oyster Tasting. Saturday’s Food Court at Fowler Field will offer a wide selection, including foot long hot dogs, lobster rolls, crab cakes, corn on the cob, clam chowder, fried clams, fried oysters, fried shrimp, fresh clams, fried dough, crab rolls, and grinders.
But what you really want are oysters on the half shell, and plenty of them! The East Coast Shellfish Growers Association last year offered the following varieties (this year’s list is still being put together): Down East Oysters from Maine, Scorton Creaks [sic] and Island Creeks from Massachusetts, Cedar Points, Salt Works, York Rivers, Olde Salts, and Chincoteague Salts from Virginia, Moonstones and Matanucks from Rhode Island, Mystics from Connecticut, and Saddlerocks from New York. What a selection!
What else is happening at the festival? You can take a schooner cruise around Long Island Sound, there are rides, a food drive, dancing, a shell decorating contest, live music (headliners are Foghat), fire acts, a Pearl Trail where you can collect freshwater pearls, a plant swap, a classic car hop, canoe and kayak racing, a touch tank, oyster eating and oyster shucking contests, an oyster cook-off, a chance to board a WWII PT boat, an arts & crafts show, storytelling, clowns,… See the Oyster Festival website for all the details.
