Fort Morgan, Ala. – (OBA) – When patrons show up for the inaugural Fort Morgan Oyster Fest most will likely have traveled further to get there than some of the oysters they will be enjoying.

Thanks to partners Dr. John Supan, Dr. Chuck Wilson and Eric Bradley of Navy Cove Oyster the bivalve mollusks will come fresh from the waters in iconic Navy Cove about six miles west of The Beach Club location of the fest.

The festival is Feb. 25 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. at the Beach Club on Fort Morgan Road. Admission at the gate is $35 – ages 10 and under get in free – and includes 10 tickets to sample oysters or other food and drink. There’ll also be cooking demos, live music, arts and crafts, oyster shucking competition and fun and games for kids.

“We were sitting at our house right over there sipping beers and I asked John, ‘can you grow oysters out there?’” Wilson said, pointing to Navy Cove. “John is the oyster in Navy Cove Oysters, he’s our expert on oysters. He said let’s go take a look.”

Turns out it was the perfect for oyster farming so the long-time friends set up a small operation to see what would happen. Supan is retired from the Louisiana Sea Grant where he was director of the Oyster Research Lab. Part of that job was managing the first oyster farm in Grand Isle, Louisiana, for 28 years. He knows how to grow oysters.

“We harvested a few oysters,” Wilson said. “And, we ate ‘em. Next year we harvested a few more. And, we ate ‘em.”

That modest beginning has grown to where there are now one million oysters growing in Navy Cove waters making oysters with a unique flavor all their own.

“We’ve got a good mix of water here with the fresh water mixing with the salt water and the tides coming and going,” Wilson said. “So, it’s salty. But it’s also buttery with a cucumber finish.”

Two days before the festival the three partners had a group of social media writers and one local hack (blush, blush) on the farm and gave an extensive presentation about the farm, how it operates, rotates and propagates. At the start of the tour, Bradley waded out into the 62-degree water with a raft and came back with a sack of market ready oysters and a sack of younger oysters for show and tell.

Soon the group hovered around the shoreline table and slurped up oysters fresh from Navy Cove.

The business of Navy Cove Oysters was first established in 2011 as a small farm. As it grew, in 2016 they brought on Bradley who was the general manager of the Sassy Bass restaurant also on Fort Morgan Road. At first, he split time between the restaurant and the farm but now he is the general manager of the farm only. It wasn’t a stretch for Bradley who grew up working his dad’s crawfish farm in southern Louisiana.

Oysters are not grown on the bottom but suspended in cages in the water column and placed in mesh bags so they don’t fall out to the bottom. During the farming process, the oysters are gradually moved to larger bags and placed back on the farm until they grow to an inch wide and are market ready.

The group gives regular tours at the open-air site and Wilson said it’s fun to wade out with a group of kids – water in the cove is barely waist deep – and turn the cages over.

“When we do that,” Wilson said, “all these little crab and fish and baby shrimp go jumping around. The kids love that.”

Bon Secour Fisheries is the main distributor of Navy Cove Oysters and a fresh shipment is delivered each Monday and Thursday. You can also find Navy Cove Oysters across the southeast at trendy oyster boutiques many of which carry a variety of bivalves from around the country.

Locally, the biggest seller of Navy Cove Oysters is the Sassy Bass restaurant where Bradley used to work. Bon Secour Fisheries will also ship oysters within a 200-mile radius.

Click here for more information on touring the Navy Cove Oysters farm.