Since the beginning of November, 2007, Indian Point Marine Farms Ltd. has been vending every Saturday at the Halifax Farmers Market.  This is a wonderful market full of farmers and craftspeople selling an immense variety of products to appreciative crowds of Saturday morning shoppers.  It has been a great opportunity for us to sell our mussels (3 pound bags for $5.00) and to introduce our sea scallops that we have been growing for the last 16 months. The sea scallops, which we sell live, are retailing at $5.50/ pound and the scallops are currently running at 12 to 14 scallops per pound.  Although many customers are unfamiliar with live scallops, those that try them are eagerly returning for more.

Because we were getting many requests for oysters, we have started carrying La St. Simone oysters grown in Shippegan New Brunswick by Andre Mallet, a friend and colleague of many years.  These are a wonderfully full cocktail oyster with a unique flavour and are proving to be very popular.

We are collaborating with Andre’s company, Mallet Research, in a project to help protect our mussel spat over the first winter from sea duck predation.  During the winter of 2006/2007, we suffered devastating losses of our mussel seed to intense predation by white winged scoters. We lost virtually all of our mussel seed over the winter and had to frantically source and rebuy seed the following spring.  The ducks seemed to have lost their inhibitions about being close to civilization and settled in on our nursery leases whose proximity to the village of Indian Point used to offer some measure of protection. Also, at one time we could rely on winter ice cover over the nursery site to provide a barrier but that seems to be a thing of the past.

Our experiments this winter involve the testing of several different socking materials which we use to bind the mussel seed to our grow-out ropes. These materials have variable break down times and we are looking for the material that affords the maximum protection but will still allow for its bio-degradation after the duck threat is passed.  This experiment is ongoing and the materials are being monitored throughout the winter.

This winter seems particularly long, with storm after storm since mid-November.  We are hoping for an early spring so that we can get back to our work of growing mussels and scallops.