On June 9th, 2016, the DC Oyster Fest is taking place at the Union Market, only a few stops away from our Dupont Circle Bed and Breakfast. Obviously, there will be a bountiful supply of oysters, featuring Rappahannock River Oyster Company’s own bivalves, sustainably farmed throughout the Chesapeake Bay area. For those eager to skip the lines and get down to eating as many as they can as fast as they can, we’ll have an oyster eating contest, as well as a shucking contest featuring some of the nation’s best and fastest oyster shuckers!
They will also be featuring some of the best food, beer and wine producers in the D.C. area, including D.C. Brau, 3 Stars Brewing Company, Red Apron, Gordy’s Pickles, Early Mountain Vineyard, DCity Smokehouse, James River Distillery, Catoctin Creek Distillery, Timber Pizza, Flying Dog Brewery & more!
In between sampling all of the killer food & drink options, listen to live bluegrass music, take the kids to the oyster arts & craft tent and make some oyster trinkets! But most importantly, come and eat the oysters!
The largest pearl-bearing oyster is the marine Pinctada maxima, which is roughly the size of a dinner plate. Not all individual oysters produce pearls naturally. In fact, in a harvest of two and a half tons of oysters, only three to four oysters produce what commercial buyers consider to be absolute perfect pearls.
Pearl farmers can culture a pearl by placing a nucleus, usually a piece of polished mussel shell, inside the oyster. In three to seven years, the oyster can produce a perfect pearl. These pearls are not as valuable as natural pearls, but look exactly the same. In fact, since the beginning of the 20th century, when several researchers discovered how to produce artificial pearls, the cultured pearl market has far outgrown the natural pearl market.
–Meg Durcan, Resident Innkeeper at American Guest House, a Washington, D.C. Bed and Breakfast
