Convo: Talmage Petty on Sustainable Oyster Farming
In this episode of Flanigan’s Eco-Logic, Ted speaks with Talmage Petty, Founder and President of Hollywood Oyster Company. Talmage is an oyster farmer. He jokes that at times, he considers himself to be an “Oyster Whisperer.”
Talmage recalls his youth, born in New York City, then raised in Washington, D.C. He and Ted discuss his connections to nature as a child, particularly at his family’s 300-acre family farm on the Chesapeake Bay. The farm is now the home of Hollywood Oyster.
Ted and Talmage are family friends that go back generations. Forced to play as kids, they later connected at University of Vermont. Talmage dove into commercial real estate, and then a few other career steps, before his major pivot to oyster farming.
Hollywood Oyster began with Talmage experimenting with growing oysters at the farm. He was among the first to get a Maryland tax credit for oyster farming. For ten years he growing and harvesting oysters, up to 15,000 oysters a year. A chef noted how good the oysters are, sweet with a mineral finish.
Talmage discusses the sustainable aspect of oyster farming, digging into the topic of aquaculture versus wild harvest. He shares that his operation at Hollywood Oyster farm sustainably contributes to the restoration of the Chesapeake Bay, with its millions of oysters filtering waters, and by its creation of habitat in and around its thousands of growing cages.
