You can have baked oysters, fried oysters, oyster stew, oyster gumbo, oyster fritters, oyster dressing, oyster pie or Oysters Rockefeller. Or you can just enjoy a good ol' South Carolina oyster roast featuring some of the saltiest, most scrumptious oysters around.
Whatever your taste, it's mid-November and the consumption of oysters, in one form or another, is really cranking up.
It's what happens to the leftover oyster shell that is all-important to Andy Jennings, Oyster Shell Recycling Program Coordinator for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.
Approximately 50 percent of the shell the program places in estuaries along the coast is recycled shell with the rest purchased from out-of-state. Jennings has a goal in mind for the program - which strives to plant about 50,000 bushels a year in South Carolina estuaries.
``My goal is to be able to say we have recycled 100 percent of the oyster shell we plant without having to buy any from out of state,'' said Jennings. ``I think that goal is attainable.''
In the past, oyster shell has been used to line driveways or walkways, or simply wound up in the landfill with household trash. But the public perception of the importance of returning the shell to its rightful place in the environment - back on oyster beds in the state's bays, inlets and sounds - is improving.
``I'd say this year we've seen a marked increase in interest, especially from restaurants. We've been getting a lot of calls,'' Jennings said. ``It's having more of a snowball effect, the more it grows the faster it grows. I would say thank you to the conservation-minded citizens we have in the state of South Carolina.''
Aside from educating the public on the importance of recycling shell, establishing convenient oyster shell recycling drop-off locations is a key in reaching Jennings' goal. New shell drop-off locations are popping up quickly in Horry County as over the past two years the Horry County Delegation has approved funding for four trailers and two drop-off locations.
Three new trailers have recently been set up in Horry and Georgetown counties to receive oyster shell, including the following locations:
Fishermen's Headquarters, 3414 Hwy. 701 South, Conway (843-397-3474).
Platt's Seafood, 1108 Sea Mountain Highway, Cherry Grove (843-249-2008).
Gilligan's of Pawleys, 13707 Ocean Highway, Litchfield Beach, (843-979-2244).
Other oyster shell drop-off locations in the area include Cedar Hill Landing (Murrells Inlet); Garden City-Murrells Inlet Fire Department (Murrells Inlet); Huntington Beach State Park/Murrells Inlet (south of Murrells Inlet) and Waccamaw (Georgetown).
Jennings has two more trailers on order earmarked for Horry County and has the funds in hand to build two more permanent drop-off sites such as the Huntington Beach State Park/Murrells Inlet location.
``It's been a little more difficult to find somebody wanting to donate some real estate but we're hoping to [find two locations] before the New Year if we can,'' said Jennings. ``We need to find a landowner, municipality or a business to help us out.''
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