Farm Fresh ~ The Texas Oyster Company
Farm Fresh: getting to the meat of Southern oyster farms
The Texas Oyster Company
Four years ago, Oyster South’s executive director Beth Walton was doing what she does, spreading the good word about the many and varied benefits of oyster aquaculture in Southern Atlantic and Gulf waters while speaking at an event in Corpus Christi, Texas. Brad Lomax, owner of Water Street Oyster Bar, a restaurant feeding the Corpus Christi area since 1983, wasn’t there. But his son was. “He told me, ‘Dad, you need to find out more about this oyster aquaculture,’” Lomax says. So, he did.
For years, his restaurant had been recycling its empty oyster shells through Texas A&M’s Harte Research Institute in Corpus Christi, and Lomax had formed a friendship with Dr. Joe Fox at the institute. He turned to Fox with his oyster farming questions. Fox shared a wealth of information, piquing Lomax’s interest even more. “I got excited about the potential for the industry here, and then he told me that we couldn’t do it in Texas,” Lomax says. To Lomax, that didn’t make much sense, so he and Fox turned to another friend, Texas State Representative Todd Hunter. “I asked him to lay out the path on how to make this legal,” Lomax says.
It was early 2018, and by the 2019 session of the Texas Legislature, Hunter had a bill ready. Lomax got busy reaching out and drumming up support for the legislation, getting the backing of the Texas Restaurant Association, an organization that throws considerable weight around in the Lonestar state. The bill moved easily through the legislature, passing the Senate on a unanimous vote and getting only a single dissenting vote in the House. Texas Parks and Wildlife was tasked with setting up the rules and regulations and spent a year hammering them out; Lomax was involved in this process too.
During the same time, he was asking questions and getting answers — he stresses that Oyster South (particularly Walton) proved a big help — while also visiting other farms and gathering info to start his oyster farming company, which was officially founded in January 2021. In summer 2021, The Texas Oyster Company had its permit in hand, and in October, put 1 million seed in floating cages on its eight-acre lease in Copano Bay. It was the first oyster farm to be permitted in the state. “We’ve got all the bruises to prove that we are the pioneers here,” Lomax says.
Keith Bass, The Texas Oyster Company Assistant Manager, and Brad Lomax, President of The Texas Oyster Company enjoying a day of water work. Photo courtesy of The Texas Oyster Company
That includes a few bumps from navigating bureaucracy. “There are five state agencies in Texas regulating oysters, and they are all great, nice people doing their jobs, but sometimes they operate in silos, and this is all so brand new, so it can present challenges,” Lomax says.
The wind is whipping up some issues too. “Texas bays are shallow and windy as hell; right now, it’s blowing 25-30 miles per hour out of southeast and will get windier in the afternoon, and that’s presented some equipment problems,” he says.
Lomax believes every obstacle they’ve overcome thus far will be worth it. And he knows there is a market for what he’s growing, including his own restaurant. “Just our one restaurant in a medium-sized Texas city, we sell 500,000 raw oysters a year, and that gave us real confidence in our farming business plan. But it’s not just the farm that will benefit from that volume,” he says, “the restaurant will too. We’ll now have a more stable supply for our diners.”
The Texas Oyster Company expects its first harvest will likely be in June, a bit faster than the original 9-12 months of grow-out time Lomax estimated to get 2.75-3-inch oysters, a size he explains is the bigger oyster his customers want. He believes he’ll bring in up to 750,000 oysters to sell, meaning it will have plenty to share. “Our restaurant is the primary market,” Lomax says, “but there are two San Antonio restaurants that have reached out. A wholesaler has inquired about supplying some Austin restaurants, and we were just contacted by one of the big grocery chains here too. I think we’ll easily sell every oyster we produce.”
An oyster from The Texas Oyster Company’s first batch. Photo courtesy of The Texas Oyster Company
The existing demand is nice, but as word of this new addition to Texas’ food scene spreads, excitement is building fast; Lomax is stoking it with educated servers and shuckers. “Finally having a Texas farmed oyster is getting people talking, and we’re training our folks at the restaurant to tell our story,” Lomax says. “And they’re pretty; thanks to those high winds, they move a lot and get really polished.”
After decades in the food business, his job is taking on a luster akin to those shiny oyster shells. “I am loving being outside, working with all these great, cool people,” Lomax says. “We have farm manager who is a Ph.D. candidate. I am also digging being the first in Texas to do this. And just watching these oysters go from a tiny thing on the end of my finger to a half dollar. I’m 67 years old, and this is all making me feel like a kid again.”