Golden hour on the large outdoor Deck at Post 1917 Reading was made even sweeter on June 4 with an elevated evening of oysters and wine to kick off their Post 1917 “Gives a Shuck” fundraiser. With live acoustic guitar playing in the background guests were also entertained by the live oyster shucking skills of Libby Davis, Founder and CEO of Lady Shuckers, a mobile raw-bar event catering company that sources fresh Maine oysters directly from their network of women-owned sea farms.
Guests were treated to premium Drylands Sauvignon Blanc, along with an innovative custom wooden wine topper to hold their briny oysters. The wine is from the Marlborough region of New Zealand and boasts an oyster shell minerality with a vibrant sub-tropical finish of citrus fruits. To round out the evening chef Jason-curated hors d’oeuvres were passed including steak tartare, truffle zucchini fries, and Wagyu dumplings.
Guests also had the opportunity to learn more about the Massachusetts Oyster Project and its mission to support oyster reef restoration and coastal resilience efforts across the state. To further support this local environmental initiative, throughout June and July Post 1917 is donating $1 from every bottle of Drylands Sauvignon Blanc sold to the Massachusetts Oyster Project.
“We are on a mission to restore the oyster population here in Massachusetts. The one thing I like to tell people is we used to have an abundance of oysters, but we no longer have an abundance of natural oysters, and that is what we’re doing. We do restoration, and oysters are perfect for restoration. The programs that most people know about are shell recycling programs, so oysters are reef builders, and that means they grow another oyster. Every oyster that we shuck from our awesome farmers, we can actually reclaim that shell and put it back in the water. Our popular program across Massachusetts is working with restaurants to capture that shell, we dry it out and then we put it back in the water to help restore oysters. We also grow oysters. We have 10 oyster nurseries across the state. They’re everywhere, from Newburyport all the way down to Nantucket,” explained Liv Woods, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Oyster Project.