ICO

Island Creek Oysters’ founder and owner Skip Bennett has spent his entire life in Duxbury (he grew up catching fish and bullfrogs in Island Creek). A passionate clam and mussel harvester, Skip graduated from Merrimack College with a finance degree but quickly realized that he would never feel at home behind a desk. Instead, he went back to the water and tried growing quahog clams in Duxbury Bay. When that didn’t work, he decided to give oysters a try.

Despite some very loud and serious reservations from friends and fellow fishermen, Skip started his search for seed and an education in oyster farming. About the same time, he met Christian Horne, an oyster farmer whose family owned Chance Along Farm in Freeport, Maine. Christian needed a place to grow oysters; Skip needed seed. It quickly became a happy partnership and after many trials and tribulations, they started growing some damn fine oysters. Soon after, friends like Don Merry and Skip’s father, Bill Bennett, joined the party.

Skip now oversees the largest producing farm and crew at Island Creek and is the owner of the distribution arm, Island Creek Oysters, Inc. Despite his many attempts to stay out of an office, he does a great job shifting back and forth between the world of the boots and the land of the suits (don’t worry: he’s still on the water every day). He has two daughters who share his passion for the water and spend most of their summer days on the bay with their dad.

Christian grew up growing oysters with his family in Freeport, Maine (oyster lovers may be familiar with his family’s farm, Chance Along Farm). His first meeting with Skip was serendipitous: Skip needed seed and Christian needed a place to grow oysters. Duxbury seemed as good (ie: gorgeous) a place as any, so he packed up his life and moved down to the bay. The risk paid off and he’s been happily watching his oysters grow here ever since.

With a sense of humor drier than the bay’s drainer tides, Christian is a meticulous keeper of the farming process, staying abreast of both the weather and seasonal changes of the bay. You’ll likely find Christian out on the water (where he keeps his cell phone dry by stashing it in a sneaker) or scratching his head while carefully watching over his seed.

Christian spends down time with his family (a huge clan who he lovingly calls “The Brady Bunch”) and goes back to Maine as often as his oysters allow.

Longtime Duxbury resident “Billy” Bennett can trace his lineage back to the Pilgrims. He actually grew up on Saquish Beach and his father was the Duxbury Postmaster for years. In his earlier life, he opened and ran Bennett Tire before selling the business in the early 80s to become a full-time commercial lobsterman and run Bennett Lobster and Seafood. Eventually, when the opportunity came up, he started oystering alongside his son Skip. Billy gave up commercial lobstering a few years back but he and Skip still have a friendly rivalry over their favorite pasttime. On the farm, Billy is, without question, the steward of the bay. He can tell you to the day when the bass will start running (watch for the laughing gulls) and keeps a close eye on the weather at all times.

He and his wife Nancy can usually be found at Arthur and Pat’s in Marshfield on Sunday mornings (Billy’s only day off). Together, they have three kids and six grandchildren and live on the water directly beside an osprey perch.

Born and raised in Bristol, Rhode Island, Gregg Morris has had a lifelong interest in aquaculture (URI ‘91). He spent 15 years working for a nonprofit as a fisheries biologist at the Manomet Center for Conservation and Sciences in Plymouth but harvested clams commercially to help pay the bills. He and Skip met through the clamming business, and in 2002 Gregg took on growing oysters and joined the team at Island Creek. He still digs steamers and can almost always be found with a giant cup of coffee and unbounding amounts of energy.

He and his wife Julie and son Colton live in Duxbury.

“Pogie” grew up in Duxbury digging mussels alongside Skip from an early age. He went on to become a commercial lobsterman but started growing oysters a few years back (he continues to lobster full time in the summer). A jack of all trades on the water, Pogie can be seen out on the flats almost every day of the year (harvesting everything from oysters to lobsters to razor clams).

He lives in Duxbury with his wife Christine.

John “the Good Doctor” Brawley grew up in Westport, Connecticut and spent his many, many school years as an undergrad at the University of Vermont, getting a masters at Boston University, and eventually a PhD in Marine Systems Ecology at the University of Maryland. He moved to Duxbury in 2003 as a scientist with Battelle.

In 2007, he left that world to go into aquaculture full time, but he still puts those science degrees to good use through his environmental consulting business, Saquish Scientific, which he co-owns with Alex Mansfield. Brawley also runs Saquish Anglers, a light tackle guide service on the bay.

He lives with his wife Brooke and two kids Max and Jane. His free time, what little he has, is spent on the water exploring all that Duxbury Bay has to offer.

Born and raised in Duxbury, Joe was forever bonded to the water when we decided to marry a girl from Clark’s Island. He is the Conservation Administrator for the Town of Duxbury, and also oversees the upkeep of Duxbury Beach. When he’s not out on the water you’ll probably find him tending to his garden.

Joe still lives in town with his two kids and his wife, Heather.

Also known as Cuss, Hans, or Hanzne of The Jungle, Duxbury native Mark Bouthillier got his start as Skip’s farm manager. A former New Orleans bartender, beekeeper, an avid hunter, fisherman, and trapper, Cuss can often be found prowling Duxbury backwaters with his trusty retriever, Tug. He is known the town over for his local knowledge, his ability to do just about anything with his hands, and his quick wit and magnanimous personality.

Now Mark is utility-man on Skip’s crew and runs his own farm out in the Bay. He lives here in Duxbury with his wife Jen, and their kids Van and Emmeline.

It’s hard to pin down exactly when “Bug” started at Island Creek, but the idea was hatched somewhere in South America when Skip and he were traveling down there a few years back. Shore is lovingly referred to as chief “suit” and is tasked with running the wholesale company, focusing mainly on marketing and strategy including the Island Creek Oysters Foundation and the Island Creek Oyster Festival. Shore’s passion for the water makes office life tough, but getting out on the farm is a great way to avoid paper work (though being away from his fax machine does stress him out).

A Duxbury native, Shore now commutes from his house in the South End neighborhood of Boston.

A third generation Duxbury native, Gardner Loring came to Island Creek at 20 years old. Having worked at the Duxbury Yacht Club for a few summers, he was ready to get his hands dirty so he approached Skip about working on the farm. Skip agreed — namely because Gardner knew how to drive a boat. Gard, as he’s called around here, spent one summer on the crew, graduated from Hobart college, then spent another summer on the crew before taking a three-month hiatus to travel around the world with Shore (Skip joined for the South American leg of the tour).

After one more stint on the farm, he tried his hand at the financial world working at Merrill Lynch. It didn’t stick. So we welcomed him back in April 2010 in hopes that this time, he’s here for good. Or at least until he and Skip can resolve their highly contentious lobster rivalry.

Duxbury native Chris Sherman joined Skip’s farm crew and the Island Creek team after years of bouncing from one boat gig to another. The Williams College grad majored in English and Maritime Studies and spent six weeks in Dartmouth’s Tuck Business program before embarking on a sojourn that would find him at a yacht builder in New Zealand and as a schooner bum in the Northern reaches of Maine with a few stops in between. It wasn’t hard to convince the water nut to settle down and take a job on the farm – after all, he grew up working on Duxbury Bay (he used to commute by boat to his job at Brewer’s Boatyard in Plymouth). Chris and his wife Erin recently bought a dilapidated, old, Cape-style house on Duxbury Bay in the “Mosquito Village” neighborhood that many ICOers call home. Also know as “Habitat for Shermanity” it will probably be his undoing. Now, with his head down running the company’s many, many marketing projects and fixing up his house, he’s just busy enough not to notice that he’s starting to plant some roots.

Twitter @islandcreek

Dana Hale grew up about 50 paces from Skip’s parent’s house (and Island Creek Oysters World Headquarters) and spent many Christmas Eves enjoying chowder with the Bennetts. Her grandfather was a lobsterman, her father is an avid sword fisherman, and she grew up eating tons of fish – basically, she’s got saltwater in her veins. She eventually went off to attend Wesleyan University and later bounced around from to New York to San Francisco, where she lived most recently teaching yoga, and over to India whenever time would allow. It was in San Francisco where she spontaneously (while eating a burrito) came up with the idea to sell Skip’s oysters on the West Coast, which she did for about a year before returning to Duxbury. We’re now happy to have her back at home base where she manages our national direct-to-chef program, selling Island Creek Oysters to restaurants around the country.

The Oysteress, as she’s known in New York circles, spends her time traveling to restaurants around New York, Chicago, and San Francisco where she’s training staff about oysters, introducing new products, shooting the shit, and eating like a queen. We like to think she’s found her dream job. When she isn’t working, she continues to practice yoga, is a voracious reader, and travels as much as her job will allow.

Cory grew up just north of Duxbury in Hanover, MA. He was connected to Island Creek through CJ’s New Hampshire contingent of merry pranksters. Naturally, he seemed like the perfect fit for the company. With those days behind him now, Cory’s charged with ensuring that only perfect Island Creek Oysters leave our shop everyday. As HACCP manager and licensed massage therapist at Island Creek, Cory keeps us all safe, relaxed, and happy to be on the Island Creek team.
His enthusiasm for everyday is infectious to everyone he is around.

In his free time “The Don” is an avid rock-climber–if you’ve seen Cliffhanger, just picture that. He’s also an avid music fan often heading out on a Friday afternoon to the hinterlands of New England and New York to see an Umphrey’s McGee or Phish show.

C.J. Husk, lovingly referred to as “the oyster dude”, began his career at Island Creek by courting Skip’s employees who were busy cleaning seed at the Duxbury Bay Maritime School where C.J. was coaching rowing. Skip told C.J. to grab a grader and get to work. The rest is history. Today, C.J. is ICO’s face behind the raw bar at events all over the country and is attached at the hip to ICO’s legendary raw bar boat, a job he earned after spending several years as the company’s delivery truck driver.

Famously, C.J. used to eat his way through Boston’s best kitchens along his delivery route but these days, he limits meals to just three a day. When he’s not shmoozing chefs or shucking oysters he can be found farming goats, pigs, and anything else you can think of both here at his house in Duxbury and at his family’s farm in New Hampshire.

Classic CJ

Twitter @oyster_dude

Will Heward grew up playing in the sand on Duxbury’s Landing Road Beach, just minutes from the spot where Island Creek Oysters are grown. Will is the rare grower at Island Creek who can claim having more than a dozen peer-reviewed scientific publications as well as a patent under his belt – before he came to the farm, he was an X-ray Scientist in the Microstructural and Surface Sciences Lab at GE Global Research in Niskayuna, NY (say that three times fast). He occasionally pulls out some science for his work on the oyster farm but mostly, he’s just happy getting his hands dirty on the tides.

Aside from oyster work, Will is a die-hard hockey player who’s been known to shoot up to Boston at 10:30 p.m. to hit the ice for a game (even on nights before an early morning low tide) as well as a hobby lobsterman. When he’s not on the farm, he’s usually prowling around Boston’s restaurants on the hunt for a good meal.

Jess got her start in the Boston food community at the same place that our oysters did–the East Coast Grill and Raw Bar in Cambridge. After graduating from The Massachusetts College of Art & Design, Jess landed an opportunity with the Boston based art publication New American Paintings. Loving her job in the arts, but never wanting to leave the fast paced restaurant life behind, she split her days between the two, spending what little free time she had hitting all the best bars and restaurants the city has to offer. After selling Island Creek Oysters table side for nearly ten years, she is ready to sell them directly to chefs all over the country.

When she is not driving back and forth from her Cambridge home to Duxbury, Jess would like you to think she is out running along the Charles River, but she is probably enjoying some cocktails with friends, talking about how she should really be out running along the Charles River.

All you need to know about Pops is that the farm truck, much like a puppy, follows him home each night and sleeps in his front yard waiting for him to come out to go to work in the morning.

Another college buddy of Skip’s nephew, Bryan started working at Island Creek Oysters under the supervision of Billy Bennett. After a few hot summers and cold winters on the farm, word of his computer skills started to spread. A boxing poster showcasing the upcoming bout between Corydon Wyman and Chris Sherman most likely sealed his fate to make the transition from the farm to the office. He is now responsible for maintaining the website, helping to organize raw bar events, and designing various signs and merchandise. Stop in at ICOB on Sunday mornings for brunch, and you’ll find him behind the raw bar shucking with Eduardo.

When he’s not at his desk, or on the farm, you’ll most likely find him working on his car or browsing the web from his couch. Make sure you stay on his good side and keep your Facebook photos private or you might end up on the next boxing poster.

If there is a wizard behind the curtain at Island Creek, her name is Lisa Scharoun. The wholesale company’s book keeper, office manager, and likely the first voice to greet you on the phone, is also our tireless and hard-nosed Commander in Chief. It’s hard to tell you all of the things Lisa is responsible for – all we know is that she runs a tight ship and keeps us in line and out of trouble.

Lisa’s unlikely path to Island Creek ran through suburbia Chicago, where she grew up, and Huntington Beach and Corona in Southern California. She eventually landed in Duxbury in the 90s and was introduced to Skip through a friend. In 2007, she was working as a freelance book keeper so when Skip and Shore started the process incorporating the company, Lisa was the first person they called.

Lisa spends her down time hanging out with her kids, Bianca and Angus, watching indie and foreign films during the winter months, and kayaking or hiking around the Bay during the summer.

If you haven’t noticed yet, we have a way of “keeping it in the family” here at ICO. So, its natural that Titus and Cory have been fast friends since their days earning merit badges in Cub Scouts (Titus earned quite a few, eventually becoming an Eagle Scout). Scouting aside, he’s also an orc hunter of wide renown in WOW circles (if you know what WOW is, look for Madax on Eredar).

After starting here part time at night setting up our New York City truck, Titus has bloomed into one of our most effective drivers and a favorite among the crew in the shop. Always willing to drive back across town to fill a late order or pick up, he’s all about meeting chefs and sniping new kitchen techniques from Bean Town’s best. Cabs, buses, bad drivers and distracted pedestrians in the Greater Boston area should, however, be leery of his wrath.

Possibly our most warrior-y road warrior, Matt does the long slog back and forth from New York City a few times a week. Sometimes stopping in one day at up to thirty restaurants between Brooklyn and Manhattan, instead of parking the truck and heading right home at the end of the day he gets on the interstate and drives the four and a half hours back to Duxbury. And the best part is, he takes it all in stride.

A friend of Skip’s nephew, Joe, Matt joined us a few years ago after attending Bridgewater State. He’s originally from Connecticut. He spends his days off from the NYC loop by, well, running one of our Boston trucks.

Tim has also spent most of his life on the water in the New England area, but the water he was on was of the frozen variety. For the past twenty years Tim has coached at the Junior, Division I and Division III levels. His past gig behind the bench was as the Head Hockey Coach at Elmira College in Elmira NY where his teams were always ranked in the top ten nationally. The Ceglarski clan moved to Duxbury in 1977 and Tim quickly found a job pumping gas at Bennetts Gas Station for Skips dad, pegging Lobsters on the Nancy L and working the register at Bennetts General Store. Tim still claims his favorite job while in Duxbury was putting the puck over Skip’s shoulder, the easiest job of all.

Tim joined the Island Creek staff in January and has been a jack of all trades. He has fabricated silos and upwellers, built sheds and decks with Mark, worked the farm with Gard and the boys, and is now getting his feet wet in the wholesale division with Corydon and the rest of the crew. Telling a lot of stories, most of them true, Tim is good for a joke here and there and will do whatever he is asked. Currently holding the ICO middleweight belt, he is considering potential contenders for his next bout. Drop him an e-mail and get on the short list because it’s going to be a good fight.

So, if you’ve been into Island Creek Oyster Bar you remember, if nothing else, one prominent architectural feature–our “midden wall”. This is a wall comprised of cages that are filled with oyster shells. If you haven’t been there then at this point you’re probably picturing a wall the size of the one in, say, your bedroom. The midden wall is, however, about 50′ long and 12′ high. Let’s just say it took a LOT of oyster shells to fill it.

The problem with bringing oyster shells indoors is that they stink, so they need to be washed thoroughly. And then washed again. And again. It is an onerous task when you’re dealing with a bucket full for a Christmas wreath. It is a Sisyphusian curse when you’re dealing with a few hundred thousand shells for a massive installation.

Certainly no one here wanted to do it so we had to contract outside help. That outside help was recent Duxbury High graduate Tommy Reale and when he made it through that summer without weeping, hurting anyone, or just plain quitting he sealed his spot on the A-squad. Now Tom, among other mere Herculean tasks, drives down the length of Cape Cod in the wee hours of the morning picking up oysters from our non-Duxbury farmers along the way. And he does it all with a smile.

When we’re not torturing him Tommy hits the books in pursuit of a bachelor’s degree.