We live and breathe great oysters.
We began oyster farming in 1983 with the goal of raising the best quality, sustainable shellfish in a beautiful location. We started our farm with a five-acre shellfish lease in Tomales Bay, CA raising the Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas), which we call our Hog Island® Sweetwater. Today, we farm on 250 acres of intertidal lands in Tomales and Humboldt Bays, where we raise all five edible oyster varieties found in the Northern Hemisphere, plus Manila clams.
Few foods carry the flavor of “place” quite like an oyster.
Hog Island oysters taste amazing because of the water in which they grow and the farming techniques that we use. We start our shellfish seed from scratch in our hatchery and nursery in Humboldt Bay, where we also grow a limited amount of Pacific and Kumamoto oysters. In Tomales Bay, our Marshall Farm is our company’s home, where we grow, harvest, shuck, and share five different oysters species.
Good things grow slowly.
We started out with the aim of cultivating the highest quality oysters possible, and that is still the driving principle behind Hog Island. Good things grow slowly and that is what we have tried to do, developing sustainable aquaculture techniques to produce superior shellfish that taste wonderful while building a community of like-minded people. We take great care in everything that we do, from cultivating oysters through to the ways in which we work with our environment and finally how we present our product to you. We call it our “Bay to Bar” philosophy – every step is important and we want to ensure that we always meet the high standards that we set ourselves.
Live to shuck. Shuck to live.
“Strong backs and weak minds” was our early motto in July of 1983 when we planted our first oyster seed in Tomales Bay, CA. We started with a five-acre shellfish lease, a handful of spat, and a headful of dreams. Marine biologists by day, oyster farmers by night, and everything else in between just to stay afloat. With partners John Finger and Terry Sawyer at the helm, Hog Island Oyster Co. has grown to become one of the premier producers of certified sustainable shellfish. With 160 acres in Tomales Bay and 90 acres in Humboldt Bay, we harvest and sell over 5 million oysters and Manila clams each year. Our thriving ‘family’ of 200 plus employees cultivate, shuck, and serve an exceptional oyster experience at Hog Island locations in Humboldt Bay, Marshall, Napa, San Francisco, Larkspur and Tony’s Seafood.