The Brits are ambiguous at best about swallowing live bivalves. For a nation reared on fish and chips, eating oysters can be a challenge. “Fishmongers are disappearing and many people, including supermarkets, are apprehensive about oysters,” says Richard Haward, 61, an oyster farmer. At his stall at London’s foodie mecca, Borough Market, a typical conversation goes: “Do you like oysters?” “No.” “Have you tried oysters?” “No.” “So I give them a taster,” says Haward. Responses range from “yuk” to “yum”.

Haward farms on West Mersea Island, in Essex. He has taken over the baton of a 200-year-old family tradition of oyster farming there. Standing at the end of a jetty, an upright oar in one hand, with his sun-burnished face, bushy white beard and yellow PVC dungarees, he is the spitting image of a children’s storybook fisherman.

His 360-yard stretch of water holds more than 500,000 oysters, a small fortune when converted to restaurant prices of up to £3 each. He dredges the middle of the creek with what looks like a giant lacrosse stick attached to a mechanical pulley and sifts through his haul: squirts, rock oysters (a common softer variety in a razor-sharp craggy shell), native oysters, crabs, slipper limpets and seaweed. The concentration of food in the water and its cleanliness are key factors for a plump, sweet-salt oyster that measures the legal 2in (5cm) in diameter. Like a wine taster, Haward is able to determine the provenance: “Oysters from Cornwall have a tinny taste from the local mines, while Colchesters are salty, as the rivers are among the saltiest in the country.”

Outside his weather-beaten Company Shed fishmonger’s and eatery is a chalked blackboard: salmon terrine, cooked lobster, dressed crabs, crevettes. It’s barely time for elevenses and silver surfers are tucking into the cold seafood platter (£8.50 a head).

The Company Shed, 129 Coast Road, West Mersea, Essex, opens 9am-5pm Tuesday to Saturday, 10am-5pm Sunday (01206 382700; www.richardhawardsoysters.co.uk).

Know your bivalues

People avoid eating oysters in months without an “r” because this gives the oysters a season in which to reproduce.

Those available from May to August are likely to be rock oysters, which are grown and eaten all year.

Oysters can be kept in the fridge for a week. Never leave them in water.

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