Program

Hungry for History®

Subject

Food

Location

2 Grandview Dr, Blue Point, NY 11715, USA

Lat/Long

40.739894, -73.031884

Grant Recipient

Bayport Blue-Point Heritage Association

In the hamlet of Blue Point in Suffolk County, New York, oysters harvested off Long Island’s Great South Bay have been a fixture on seafood menus since the early 19th century. Known as Blue Point Oysters, these popular mollusks are put on ice after harvest and then opened with a paring knife and eaten raw or incorporated into soups or other seafood recipes.

Blue Point Oysters were harvested wild in the Great South Bay. The planting of these oysters in the bay is believed to have begun around 1815. They quickly grew to be popular with residents of New York City, with oysters being shipped from Blue Point to the city by boat and later by train. According to an 1896 Souvenir of Patchogue, published by James A. Canfield, editor and proprietor of the Patchogue Advance, by the late 19th century, seventy-five thousand bushels of Blue Point Oysters were being harvested in a season, with forty thousand shipped direct to Europe.

The August 6, 1915 edition of the Suffolk County News described how the cultivation and shipping of Blue Point Oysters had grown into the area’s chief industry, employing hundreds of people for the greater part of the year, noting that the Blue Point Oyster “has an honored place at the head of the menu card of every first-class hotel and cafe in the country, and even in Europe.”

As of 2023, the Blue Point Oyster continues to be enjoyed worldwide.