Farmers MAI-kit
Interactive, live-streamed cooking classes featuring Maine chefs, farmers, and aquaculture products!Episode 1:
The Eastern Oyster (Crassostrea virginica)
Do you love oysters but aren’t sure how to prepare them at home? Join us for a live-streamed webinar at the Maine Aquaculture Innovation Kitchen featuring oyster farmer Smokey McKeen and chef Kayli McKeen as they prepare three dishes made with oysters from their own farm! Starting with a basic shucking demo, Kayli will lead us through preparing a mignonette, an oyster flan, and an oyster ceviche. Cook along with us or just watch and learn!
DATE: Thursday, September 19th
TIME: 5:00-6:00pm
LOCATION: Online
Image credit: Maine Aquaculture Association
Meet the oyster farmer!
Smokey McKeen is a co-founder and owner of the Pemaquid Oyster Company (est. 1986) and has managed the company’s nursery and sales ever since. He recently served two terms representing the aquaculture sector on the DMR’s Shellfish Advisory Council and has been featured in numerous books, articles and videos on Maine oyster farming. With his wife, Kayli, he operated the HUB Farm Market and Oysteria Restaurant and Raw Bar in Bristol. McKeen also co-produces the annual Pemaquid Oyster Festival and appears regularly at music venues throughout the state with “the Oystermen,” singing and playing traditional maritime music on the guitar, banjo and melodeon.
Meet the chef!
Kayli McKeen began her interest in food preparation and local food production first managing a catering business in Cape Cod and later establishing and running an organic farm in Harwich, Pleasant Lake Farm, where she became known as the “Garlic Lady.” There she also started and managed the Hyannis farmers market and the Provincetown Farmers Market, which featured local seafood and a series of guest chefs who toured the market with customers suggesting recipes featuring available local ingredients. For over ten years, Kayli ran WaldoStone Farm, a food production business which manufactured and distributed a line of bloody mary mixers, seafood cocktail sauce and an innovative line of oyster mignonette sauces to seafood markets, restaurants and specialty food stores throughout Maine and New England. More recently, Kayli created the HUB farm market and Oysteria, in Bristol, Maine. The market featured local farmed Pemaquid Oysters, as well as Damariscotta River clams, farm-raised Maine mussels and all manner of Maine seafood. The market was also known for its in-house smoked fish pates and seafood pot pies. The Oysteria featured al fresco dining, legendary sea-cuterie platters and a raw bar.