DELICIOUS GREY BEAUTIES ARE MAKING THE WORLD MORE BEAUTIFUL NOW
Grey food can be beautiful! Yes, we know, it’s not typically considered the most appetizing color. But today, we are sharing news about the beauty of oysters and oyster mushrooms, 2 incredible grey edibles that are surprisingly beautiful in exceptional ways.
There are hundreds of varieties of oysters in the US alone, each with its own flavor profile. But for those of you who can’t or won’t eat oysters, or who simply want a beautiful grey veggie option, check out beautiful grey oyster mushrooms featured in the 2nd segment of this BN Daily Fix.
OYSTERS
Oysters, considered a delicacy by many, considered a big “eeeewww” by many others, are more beautiful and more important than most people know.
Oysters help keep our waters clean, which affects human food supplies as well as plants and wildlife. One adult oyster can filter around 50 gallons of water daily. A healthy one-acre reef filters about 24 million gallons of water daily.
Oyster reefs act as natural buffers against rising tides and storms by forming breakwaters to protect wetlands and shorelines from erosion. They also help to form and protect critical habitat for marine plants and wildlife.
A shocking 85% of oyster reefs have been lost globally in the last 200 years due to impacts of pollution, disease, over harvesting, drought, and habitat loss. Oyster reefs are now considered to be the single most threatened marine habitat on the planet.
Oyster reefs once spanned over 220,000 acres of the Hudson River estuary in New York Harbor. They were rendered functionally extinct in the New York Harbor.
The Nature Conservancy, which currently operates 100 marine projects worldwide, has launched the Billion Oyster Project (BOP), with a mission to restore 1 billion live oysters to New York Harbor, thereby restoring critical marine ecosystems.
Billion Oyster Project has engaged 54 New York City schools, including over 3,000 students annually in its work. And it creates unique opportunities for students from the New York Harbor School.
To date, BOP has grown over 19.5 million oysters, collected and recycled 300,000 lbs of shell and restored 1.05 acres in the harbor.
The Conservancy, together with its organizations, networks of scientists, and schools, will continue to work to improve the health of New York Harbor by studying and restoring oyster reefs, as well as monitoring water quality.
The results of this project could benefit other coastal cities around the world. Learn how you can get involved and Donate here.
And check out Rowan Jacobsen’s beautiful new book, “The Essential Oyster.”
OYSTER MUSHROOMS
The oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus), gets its name from its beautiful oyster-grey color alone -- it doesn’t taste like its marine namesake.
Frequently used in Japanese, Korean, and Chinese cuisines, oyster mushrooms have a delicate earthy flavor with notes of anise. They are best eaten young, as the older specimens are tough and bitter.
Oyster mushrooms grow abundantly in the wild in many temperate and subtropical forests throughout the world. They act as primary decomposers of wood, especially deciduous trees, and beech trees in particular.
The oyster mushroom is one of the few known carnivorous mushrooms. Its mycelia can kill and digest nematodes, which is believed to be a way in which the mushroom obtains nitrogen.
But best of all, they are beautiful grey deliciousness. You can even grow your own.
Read more about Beautiful Grey in 10 Beautiful Books Featuring The Beauty of Grey Now and New Hope for Big Beautiful Grey Whales.
And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact Daily Fix posts.
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IMAGE CREDITS:
- Image: by Moritz320. Untitled.
- Image: by Fluffymuppet. “Oyster.”
- Image: by Nikodem Nijaki. “Oysters and Lemons in a Basket.”
- Image: by Rod Amaru. “Oysters.”
- Image: by Tara Schmidt. “Oysters.”
- Image: by Jonathan Wilker, of Purdue University. An oyster reef in the Baruch Marine Field Laboratory on the South Carolina coast.
- Image: Courtesy of Billion Oyster Project.
- Image: Courtesy of Billion Oyster Project. “Jamaica Bay Reef.”
- Image: Courtesy of The Nature Conservatory Project. “Connect the Dots.”
- Image: by Didier Descouens. “Pinctada margaritifera - Two views of same specimen.”
- Image: by Tara Schmidt. “Oysters.”
- Image: Courtesy of Wiley-Blackwell. Sydney Rock Oyster. “Aquaculture: Farming Aquatic Animals and Plants,” John S. Lucas & Paul C. Southgate.
- Image: by Fluffymuppet. “Oyster.”
- Image: by Susanne. “Oyster Mushroom.”
- Image: by Benketaro. “Oyster mushrooms.”
- Image: by Benketaro. “Oyster mushrooms.”
- Image: by Jeffrey W. “Growing Oysters in the yard.”
- Image: “Still Life with Oysters, a Rummer, a Lemon and a Silver Bowl,” by Willem Claeszoon Heda. Courtesy of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.
- Image: by BN App - Download now!
- Image: by Anthere. “Oyster.”
