It was her love of nature and spunk that turned Sarah Matheson Harris into an oyster farmer.
“I grew up in Gloucester, on Mobjack Bay, and my father in particular always had an incredibly love and appreciation of the water,” Sarah said in a recent interview with the Gazette. “When I was 25, both my parents became very sick from different illnesses; they ended up passing away one month apart from each other. At that age, losing both parents in what felt like in the blink of an eye was completely unfathomable, and it changed the course of my life.”
Sarah has a master’s degree in brand strategy and, after graduating, worked for an advertising company that served Google and NBC News. But while earning a living in the corporate world, she realized she was on a path of drifting further and further away from her family and the legacy they left behind.
“My husband and I had already been pushed so far outside our comfort zones that making a jump at that time didn’t seem impossible. We decided to start an oyster farm.”
I asked Sarah, how did she and her husband go about starting an oyster farm?
“There is no right way to get started other than just getting oysters in the water,” Sarah said with a smile. “In Virginia, you are allowed by right to grow oysters on your lease in cages less than a foot off the bottom. But we always wanted to try floating or suspended growing methods. However, this requires a lengthy permitting process. So, in 2020, we ordered a small first round of seed along with bottom cages and put them out in front of our home. A year later, we decided to change course and go after the suspended longline growing permit. We found a waterfront property to house our operations.”
The Matheson Oyster Co., of which Sarah is the owner and chief marketing officer, while her husband Eric is the business manager and her brother-in-law Cory is head of operations, has already achieved a sterling reputation.
I asked Sarah, what makes their oysters special?
“The confluence of water quality, location and taste make the Mobjack Bay absolutely incredible for growing oysters,” Sarah said. “There is no land mass between our farm and the mouth of the Mobjack Bay where it meets the Chesapeake Bay. There is a salt shelf right at the mouth that delivers a perfectly balanced mid-salinity range that’s nearly impossible to find anywhere else in Virginia. There are four rivers that converge into the Mobjack which imparts a sweetness that balances the saltiness coming from the Chesapeake.”
Sarah explained that she, her husband and her brother-in-law started the business as a family because of what each brings to the table. “I think that’s what really led to our immediate success. I come from marketing and advertising. Eric has a business background, and Cory manages the actual growing of the oysters. Since we are a family, we’re able to have our team meetings poolside with margaritas.”
Although high quality oyster farming has become Sarah’s passion, her determination to have the business contribute to protecting the natural resources is just as strong.
“We are surrounded by beautiful marshes and shorelines that are under constant threat of erosion,” she said. “And from a more macro viewpoint, what do we need to do to fight rising carbon levels in the water, water acidification, shoreline erosion and warming water temperatures? I would love us to find a place in the community where our business can fit into having a direct impact on tackling these issues.”
Operating an oyster company often requires some ingenuity to troubleshoot whatever Mother Nature throws at you, Sarah said.
During a particularly strong winter storm, they realized they needed to add a strong rope to their moored boat as it was threatening to come off its anchor.
“The best plan we could come up with,” Sarah said, “was to tie a rope around my brother-in-law’s waist and let him kayak out to the boat while we held the spool with a long metal rod to make sure he could get back to shore. It looked completely ridiculous, but it worked.”
Frank Shatz is a Williamsburg resident. He is the author of “Reports from a Distant Place,” the compilation of his selected columns. The book is available at the Bruton Parish Shop and Amazon.com.
