Or They Could Just Leave Them in the Bay for a Year or Two

I hope she has a friend to share all that with

Frederick News Post, Maryland's oyster industry hopes for a rebound this season

Folks working in Maryland’s oyster industry are hoping for a rebound this season after seeing demand and prices plummet this time last year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Baltimore Sun reports that COVID-19 depressed demand. That’s in part because shucking oysters wasn’t popular among diners looking for quick to-go meals.

It appears that things are looking good for the industry so far. The latest figures show a strong population of market-sized oysters in the Chesapeake Bay.

The tough life of a food blogger

Prices also appear to be rebounding, according to Chris Judy, shellfish director for Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources.

Oysters harvested from the bay last season had typically cost distributors about $30 a bushel. That was down from $40 the year before. The average is up this year to about $35 a bushel.

Now that about 85% of Maryland’s adult population is vaccinated against COVID-19, people in the state seem keen to return to oyster bars and seafood counters.

I confess to a little hypocrisy here. While in Murphys CA last week, I indulged in a few oysters at a new local oyster bar there (Sierra Mountain Oysters?). To be fair, most of the oysters on their menu were aquaculture oysters, and most were from the West Coast. 

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: McKenna Grace awaiting your digital pleasure at The Other McCain.

There's (Still) Gold in Them Thar Hills

A mini gold rush has descended on Northern California

Northern California was pelted with record rainfall this winter, and miners predicted that once all the water washed away, gold would be left in its wake. It appears that their predictions are panning out.

“Folks are finding more gold — ‘flood gold’ — than usual this year,” said Diana Clayton, president of the Shasta Miners & Prospectors Association, which owns seven claims throughout Northern California and boasts about 350 members.

“Many of our members have been mining for decades,” Clayton said. “They really know the area. And they know there’s been changes.”

Bryant Shock, co-owner of Gold Prospecting Adventures in Jamestown, Calif., estimates that there’s been a quarter increase in professional miners heading up north – a sure sign of a legitimate gold rush, he says.

So too, Shock has seen bigger chunks of the mineral unearthed this season than in recent years, and not just near streams and rivers. Heavy rainfall triggers slides, he explained, which create cutouts in the hills and deposit small bits of gold in gulches and ravines.

“I’ve heard of people walking along, kicking the dirt and finding a piece of gold,” Clayton added. She said a Shasta Miner recently uncovered a nugget half the size of her pinkie finger – that’s a biggie.

Those mountains (the Sierras) are pretty big, and I doubt that miners found all the veins of gold in them, so, yeah, it seems likely that heavy rains, floods and rockslides could turn up some new shiney stuff.

I guess I should have tried panning some gold while I was hanging around Murphys a few weeks ago. There's a pretty decent video of drone footage from the Oroville Dam spillway at the link that's definitely worth watching.

Home!

We got home from California early this morning, after 13 hours of driving, shuttling, flying, walking, flying again, shuttling some more and finally driving again. It's good to be home, even as it was good to see Dad and the rest of my family.



Georgia bailed Skye out of the spa, while I ran up to Washington D.C. to play in the band.

Two Days in Murphy's Above and Below Ground

Georgia's sister Mary and her husband John, who we went to Italy with, drove down from thier house in Mad River yesterday morning, and arrived around lunch. We ran into town for lunch, and found the Murphys Pokey.

We found lunch at one of Murphys cheaper establishments, Firewood, which proved perfectly adequate.

From there, we headed to Kautz Ironstone Vineyard and Winery, to look at the famous 44 lb crystalline gold nugget on display there.

A magnificent specimen, well worth the short drive. However we passed up the tasting room and headed back to Murphys to Hatcher's tasting room, where John and I enjoyed a protracted tasting under the tutelage of Sewell Hatcher.

This afternoon, with the temperature reaching 100 F in the shade, we had another lunch at Firewood, and over John's slight misgivings, headed up Sheep Ranch Road to Mercer Caverns, to enjoy a tour of the cavern in the cool and dark.

Our intrepid tour leader warning us of the 440 steps 16 stories underground, beside the entrance to the cave system.

The caverns were discovered by a gold prospector back during the gold rush era, and even then was quickly developed into a tourist site, with Mercer charging a pinch of gold for a 5 hour candlelit tour by ropes and ladders. His career was ended by a 300 ft fall, which he survived, but never recovered from.

The first and biggest chamber. Opened up by an enormous rock fall, the cavern has been molded by flowing water, and flowstone deposits for millions of years.

Compared to other caverns I have visited, Mercer was a more intimate experience, with many tight passages requiring stooping, or limbo-ing down steep steps. There were only about 10 people in the group, so it was also fairly intimate from that aspect as well.

The stone formations weren't, for the most part as big or as well developed as say, Luray Caverns, or the Oregon Caves, but there were a rather nice variety, and as I said, they were very close at hand (but no touch!).

Did I mention it was a nice cool 55 F in the caves?

Murphys Butterflies

Not a lot going on today, but I did get out to check out the butterflies visiting Dad's Butterfly Bush.  Here is a nice Painted Lady. I had been hoping for a West Coast Lady, but even this is new for the year, as I have not seen anything but American Ladies at home. In that bush the pattern is almost camouflage. Maybe tomorrow.

This is my greatest puzzle. It's either a Funereal or a Mournful Duskywing, from the wide white fringe on the end of the wing, but the descriptions don't do much to distinguish them. I'll send photos to BOMA for ID, but if it's like last year they won't be able to tell either. Maybe I've got both.

The most common is a Fiery Skipper. There are usually several males fighting over the perfect perch to watch for the ladies. Alas, there are no ladies.

An Orange Sulphur, which I might have called a Clouded Sulphur, except that they are not supposed to occur here. I also had a frustrating enounter with either a California Sister or A Lorquin's Admiral, who stopped briefly, but not long enough to photograph, or even tell the difference.

Happy Brexit I Day!

Some neighborhood fireworks to celebrate our independence from Britain:

The Weed du Jour

Eschscholzia californica (California poppy, Californian poppy, golden poppy, California sunlight, cup of gold) is a species of flowering plant in the Papaveraceae family, native to the United States and Mexico. It is an ornamental plant and it is used medicinally and in cooking, and it became the official state flower of California in 1903

It is a perennial or annual plant growing to 5–60 in (13–152 cm) tall with alternately branching glaucous blue-green foliage. The leaves are alternately divided into round, lobed segments. The flowers are solitary on long stems, silky-textured, with four petals, each petal 2 to 6 cm (0.79 to 2.36 in) long and broad; flower color ranges through yellow, orange and red  (with some pinks), with flowering from February to September in the northern hemisphere (spring, summer, autumn). The petals close at night (or in cold, windy weather) and open again the following morning, although they may remain closed in cloudy weather. The fruit is a slender, dehiscent capsule 3 to 9 cm (1.2 to 3.5 in) long, which splits in two to release numerous small black or dark brown seeds. It survives mild winters in its native range, dying completely in colder climates.

Its native habitat includes California and extends to Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Sonora and northwest Baja California.[4] The Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve is located in northern Los Angeles County. At the peak of the blooming season, orange flowers seem to cover all 1,745 acres (706 ha) of the reserve. Other prominent locations of California poppy meadows are in Bear Valley (Colusa County) and Point Buchon (San Luis Obispo County).

It's quite common here in Murphys, growing up in empty lots and along road edges, where most of the grass has already gone to seed and turned brown.

Monday in Murphys

We're currently visiting Murphys, California, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, where ny father, brother Ted, and his family live. I walked down town for a cup of iced coffee late yesterday afternoon with my other brother.

John and Daniel Murphy were part of the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy Party, the first immigrant party to bring wagons across the Sierra Nevada to Sutter's Fort in 1844. They earned a living as merchants, but like many others, began prospecting when the California Gold Rush began. They first started in Vallecito, which was known as "Murphys Old Diggings," before moving to another location in 1848 which became "Murphys New Diggings," "Murphy's Camp," and eventually just "Murphys."

The placer mining in this location was wildly successful. Miners were limited to claims of 8 square feet (0.75 m2) and yet many were still able to become rich. The Murphy brothers themselves, however, made far more money as merchants than as miners. In fact, John was so successful that he left town at the end of 1849 and never returned, having amassed a personal fortune of nearly $2 million. Roughly $20 million in gold was discovered in Murphys and the surrounding area. Two of the richest diggings were named Owlsburg and Owlburrow Flat.

Now, with the gold largely played out, Murphys is a small tourist Mecca, on route to Big Tree State Park, Bear Valley Ski Resort, and not too far from Yosemite National Park, by California driving standards. Trees provide shade in the 90 degree summer days, and there are plenty of places to eat and drink along the main drag.

Wine has become a big business in the area; I am informed by Mark that 17 wineries have sprung up where there were only 2 a few years ago.