Why Now Is the Best Time of Year to Eat Oysters

Row 34 Oysters from Island Creek Oysters; Photo: Morgan Ione Yaeger

Is there any truth to the old adage that you should only eat oysters in months that end with the letter “R”?

We checked in with Skip Bennett, the founder and owner of Island Creek Oysters, based out of Duxbury, Mass., to see if there was any truth to the axiom.

The saying came about in the era before refrigeration when it was best not to transport oysters during warm summer months, Bennett says. But there are still reasons that oysters are best during cooler months.

“Oysters get ready to spawn in May and June and start to spawn in July, and the meat gets creamy and overbearing. Once they spawn, not much is left in the shell and it’s not until September that they start to fill out again,” Bennett says.

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Oysters also spend summer months putting energy into growing their shells, but in the fall, oysters stop that and start storing up fat and glycogen, a form of glucose.

“That means they are sweeter in the winter with an opaque, dense meat,” Bennett says.

Island Creek Oysters founder Skip Bennett; Photo: Michael Turek

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The gist of the adage might have also originated in France, where the same summer months don’t end in “R.” When Belon oysters spawn in France, you can open then up to find black clumps of larvae.

“They would be really repulsive to eat in the summer,” he says.

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However, advances in oyster farming mean that oysters can now be consumed all year long. Most of the oysters Bennett farms don’t spawn because they are grown in Massachusetts waters that don’t get warm enough for the oysters to reproduce. In areas like the Chesapeake Bay, they will farm sterile oysters during the summer so people can eat them all year long. The catch? They just might not be as tasty as ones you can buy in the winter.