Oysters? Who knew?

Anyone ever stop and think about something so small, so minute to our daily living its really inconsequential to even bother with? Like, say a rock? A rock you happen to think is pretty and you pick it up and you think to yourself, how did this rock get so smooth? How do it get here in this flower patch? I wonder who else has held this rock before me?

I do not have to ask my hubs this. He does this ALL THE TIME with his arrowhead obsession. He is always thinking of who the last person to touch that arrowhead was? What indian tribe they belonged to? If they belonged to native indians or further out indians? Was it used to kill for food or was it used to kill a person? He says the history of arrowheads is one he has always been fasinated with. Because how they are shaped, the ends of the arrowhead, the rock itself, can all indicate where and by what tribe these things come from. 

But still, rocks and arrowheads are inate objects that I rarely give thought to. Its not that the history does not interest me, its just it doesnt have a life cycle so to speak. A heartbeat. Nothing giving it a true since of belonging other than where it may or maynot have come from. 

BUT, the oyster. that is a whole different ballgame. As my hubs and pops were sitting here indulging in these little slimmy things, I found myself wanting to know about them. Why? I have no earthly idea except they are living and they are fasinating when you stop to think about their life cycles. 

Absolutely fasinating reads on oysters. You can cook them so many different ways and they absorb the flavors you cook them with. If you do a chicken and oyster gumbo, they absorb the chicken flavor. Not surprising because many animals taste a lot like chicken. But if you add cheese, or tomato, or onion, it absorbs these as well. Giving it more florish to the oyster itself. I didn't know that! I thought they were like snot balls and tasted like snot balls, because you all know we have nasal drainage and that people, is snot balls. But anyways...

Did you know?

• They are a shellfish.
• An oysters life cycle starts as a fertilized egg that free swims around in planktonic water, in the trochophore stage using its cilia to enable movement. 
• It feeds off of microscopic organisms. 
• They transform from mobile to fixed during the metamorphasis stage. 
• It uses Spat to adhere to a strong surface and begin its adult life cycle. Spat is like glue to secure its spot among the others. This is refered to as the spat stage.
• Oysters have a heart, thus has a heartbeat. Located just under the large adductor muscle they use to open and close their shell.
• Oysters have blood that is colorless.
• Contrary to popular thinking, oysters are not crustaceans; they are apart of the mollusk family. While both fall under shellfish; oysters are like scallops and muscles, soft bodied with a hard shell. Where crustaceans are like shrimp and lobster, having an exoskeleton with legs/arms. 
• You can not tell rather male or female by looking at them.
• Osyters are sequential hermaphrodites, meaning they change sex during their life cycle. Typically they start as males and can later become females. They can also alter between the two sexes depending on their surroundings such as water temperature, age, food, even the sex of surrounding oysters. This allows them to have equal sperm and egg availabilty for production, thus insuring their prosperity.  
• As a rule of thumb, I had always heard never eat oysters in months of the year that does not contain an "R". However, I have learned via research that female oysters in non "R" months (May-August) are much more tastier, juicier, plumper because of their stored glycogen.
• My only question now will be, how can one tell if female? You can't. So stick with what you know. 

All of these facts and much more about these little fellas, I find very interesting. Not sure in their life cycle how far they can travel roughly, but on land, I want to start a fun project. Something I hope others will lean into and do as well by adding in images and doing their own painting and posting within the group I am creating. 

I am going to start by placing 25 painted oyster shells around my area here in Virginia. I want to see and document their individual travels. So I will start a FB page (to include pictures of each one) for them and I will paint and send them out into the wild. And while we wait to see the updates and pictures that I truly hope will come in, I will keep everyone updated here and a link on the FB page as well when I get this started. Hope to get my grandkiddos involved as well. I think it will be interesting for them to learn, watch, and see just how far things can get around in this world if done correctly. 

Lets see how far this special species really can travel.