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Ancient food
The tradition of eating
oysters is very old. The Scandinavian Stone and Bronze age
people left large amounts of oyster shells in their rubbish
heaps.. The oyster was common then because the seas around
Scandinavia were as warm as the Riviera is today. At the
onset of the Iron age, the climate became colder and
resulted in a decrease in oyster fishing. Oysters were eaten
in ancient Greece and during the Roman Empire. To eat many
oysters was a sign of refinement. It is said that the roman
ceaser Aulus Vittellius ate 1200 oysters on one occasion
without getting up. It is not said how he felt
afterwards......
The vikings ate oysters, even if it was thought to be a cowardly
and weak act for these madmen from the north. The warrior Starkad criticized
king Ingjald of Denmark because he ”fried and cooked his food and
also ate oysters amongst other things that were unworthy of the viking
way”.
Oysters are mild in taste, often served au naturel (raw and
alive) with lemon. Blue mussels
are stronger in taste, which is the reason why they are not eaten au naturel
to such an extent.
European oyster
The european oyster is
found from Norway to the Mediterranean. The denser oyster
banks are usually in sheltered bays, 3-8 m deep, on the SW
sides of islands and sandy bottoms with a slight slope.
Both halves of the shell are drawn together by
a powerful adductor. Most bivalves have two adductors, but
the oyster has only one. On the inside of the shell it is
possible to see a scar from where the adductor was
attached.
The oyster eats plankton that it filters out of the surrounding
water. The oyster in turn can be food for others e.g. the shore
crab and common
starfish. In oyster farms further south there are other enemies, the
shelled parasite oyster pest that attaches itself to oyster shell and
competes for the plankton, and the brown algae oyster thief that can be
filled with so much oxygen during the photosynthesis process that it floats
away with the attached oyster. Another is the single celled parasite Bonamia
ostreae that kills the oyster. Oysters can be as old as 10-20 years.
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