Malostonska kamenica

Appearance & taste

The oyster is asymmetrical, irregularly elongated and has irregular edges. The firm, sometimes brittle shell consists of two unequal valves: the left, lower one is curved, the right, upper one is flat and fits into the lower one. Outside they are yellowish, grey-brown or yellow-green with violet or reddish shades and bear concentric ridges, grooves, ribs and leaf-like scales; inside they are mother-of-pearl white, sometimes with coloured spots. Each oyster must be at least 7 cm long and weigh at least 60 g.

The flesh of the visceral mass, which can be eaten raw, is glossy, firm, plump and whitish-yellow, and the edges of the mantle are very dark, usually black. It is soft and juicy to the bite and melts in the mouth. The taste is a balanced sweet and salty: to the sweet, full taste of the visceral mass are added sea minerals and a lasting iodine aroma. The clear liquid in the shell smells fresh of seaweed from the tidal zone. The oyster is at its fattest in winter and spring. The share of flesh in the total weight must be over 10.5 % from February to July and in September, and over 6.5 % for the rest of the year.

Production

First, young oysters are collected: collectors are prepared and set out, and suitable animals are picked out and sorted. They then grow to marketable length on floating farming installations, in boxes and nets or cemented; the two methods are usually combined. All steps up to harvesting take place in the Bay of Mali Ston.

Because the bay is very rich in plankton, fouling organisms also grow strongly and slow the oysters down. The farmers therefore clean the oysters of them by hand three to five times per production cycle, selecting only the best animals for further farming as they do so. When sold, the shells must be whole, undamaged and free of fouling.

Origin & history

The Bay of Mali Ston is a 28 km long section of the Neretva Channel, up to 6.1 km wide and on average only 15 m deep, with a muddy bottom. Fresh water from submarine springs, the Neretva and rainwater from the mainland moderates temperature and salinity and brings nutrients. The shore is covered with scrub and holm oak forest, through which nutrients and minerals gradually reach the sea. Winds and strong currents aerate the water and distribute the plankton; 195 species of microphytoplankton have been identified. According to the specification, the bay has the highest larval concentration in the Adriatic and is the only area there where larvae can be collected twice a year. It has been protected since 1983 and is today a special marine reserve.

According to the specification, oyster farming goes back to Roman times; this is supported by Pliny and, for the Republic of Dubrovnik, by a decree of the Prince of Ston from 1641. The first records of the collection and semi-farming of oysters date from 1573. In 1889 the first commercial shellfish farm on the Dalmatian coast was set up in the Bay of Sutvid near Drače. The name, derived from the bay, came into use in the 1970s.