Taylor Shellfish Farms–Oysters are GF!!

This past weekend Seattle hosted the International Food Bloggers Conference (IFBC)  (Seattle will be the host city again next year)—it was a fun-filled weekend  with food bloggers from around the world.  We visited Ste. Michelle Winery on Thursday, dined all over Seattle on Saturday night, tasted food and wine samples, (loved the session on Bordeaux wines, more about that in another post!) learned about better photography from Andrew Scrivani, and gathered tons of information to make our blogs better.

On Friday my 18-year old was moving into his dorm so I missed that entire day at the conference.  After we moved him in, we stopped in to visit one of the IFBC sponsors on Chuckanut Drive,  Taylor Shellfish Farms is home to some of the best oysters ever!

The Chuckanut Drive

This gorgeous drive begins in the south end of Bellingham in the Fairhaven District where lots of great little restaurants are located along with some antique malls and other fun stores.  Check out Fairhaven Pizza for GF Pizza!  

The Chuckanut Drive is complete with hairpin turns, views of the water, several  good restaurants, Larrabee State Park, and Taylor Shellfish Farms.

a gorgeous drive just south of Bellingham Washington

Taylor Shellfish Farms

We didn’t get a chance to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary on the actual date so we decided to stop at Taylor for something we really love: their Kumamoto and Shigoku oysters.  When you buy oysters at the farm they put them in a large insulated bag for transport or you can go out to the picnic tables and shuck them right there.  At the moment you might want to bring along some beer or a bottle of wine but they have applied for licensing to sell those items in the store in the near future. 

Shuck your oysters at the farm and enjoy!

Once you have gorged on oysters, continue on down the Chuckanut to the Skagit Valley. About a mile after the Japanese Gardens Coffeehouse take a right on W. Bow Hill Road to drive through the cute little town of Edison and then follow the Farm to Market Road for a few miles where it turns into Best Road which takes you through the Skagit Valley where tulips are in bloom during April/May (the rest of the year you will see the picturesque farms set against a mountain backdrop).

Anacortes is nearby which is where the San Juan Island Ferries depart.  My favorite antique store for small items is also there Alley Cat—not furniture so much as everything else.  (a great spot for picking up food photography props). La Conner is a bit further into the Skagit Valley with restaurants and antique stores and my favorite lighting store Mary Davis Vintage Lighting (they gather vintage light fixtures from all over the country and bring them to life with new electrical insides and voila you have a new vintage fixture that meets todays standards).

 Oh yes this is a post about oysters…..

We saved about half of the oysters to enjoy at home and matched them with a 2011 Joseph Drouin Chablis which was perfect……

2011 Joseph Drouin Chablis with Kumamoto and Shigoku oysters from Taylor Shellfish