August isn’t an “R” month, but oyster-lovers aren’t seasonal in their fondness for the bivalve. While the commercial oyster beds are closed during the summer, oyster farms are busy meeting the demand by consumers and restaurants.

Tangier Sound Oyster Company is one of them. It’s a modest affair in Ernie Nichol’s backyard in Marion Station, near Crisfield. A handful of floats near his dock, a stack of wooden frames, and a sorting table. His ‘field’ is a 2 ½ acre underwater plot.

Creating the Ponderosa of bivalves wasn’t the plan when Ernie and his wife brought their waterfront retreat in 1999. Intrigued by ‘backyard’ oyster-growing projects by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and feasibility studies of near-shore aquaculture by the DNR and Department of Environment, he did some research. One thing led to another and three years ago, his retirement became a new career.

Starting with 2-liter bags of spat (AKA baby oysters) – each one of which holds 7,000 infant oysters – he fills mesh-lined frames with the little critters, which look a lot like uncooked Quaker Oats. He sinks the frames to the bottom of the water off his dock and lets the tidal ebb and flow through the salt marshes nourish the nautical livestock. Every few months, he pulls up the frames and culls the crop, moving them to other frames as they grow, and starting a new ‘crop.’ It takes 18 months to 2 years for his oysters to be ready for harvesting. The rotation and constant restarting delivers a steady supply of mature, marketable oysters.

Marketed as “Uncle Ernie’s Tangier Sound Oysters,” he sells between one and two thousand a week to restaurants. There’s the Waterman’s in Crisfield, Woodbury Kitchen, Ryleigh’s, and Gertrude’s in Baltimore, The Wild Orchid in Annapolis, and the Henlopen City Oyster Bar in Rehoboth Beach. He says chefs like his oysters because of their nice pear shape with a deep dish and their saltiness. Not as salty as Chincoteagues, but with a good brine-y quality with organic elements from the salt marsh.

Much is made of the sorry state of the Chesapeake’s oyster population and health. Ernie is optimistic. His thousands of oysters constantly filtering the Bay water in such a confined space has created a mini-ecosystem that shows what it was like years ago, before overharvesting, pollution, and disease decimated the species. Along the shore, the water is clearer. You can see the desired grasses and marine life thriving. He points out some oysters growing on the rocks. Those are wild spat breeding with some of his hatchery-bred infants which spilled out from the frames. He’s proud and happy that he’s able to contribute to the restoration of the Chesapeake – while having fun with his second career.