Love em or hate em..

Oystering has practically been an industry in the USA since the country’s inception.  As with many other foods in the mid 1800s/early 1900s canning became king--especially for oysters all up and down the East Coast.  At one point the city of Baltimore, MD had over 100 packing houses in its limits.  These companies used the design of these cans as a way to differentiate themselves from all their competitors.  Nowadays when everyone thinks of oysters they usually think of a plate of freshly shucked, raw, and on the half shell and not canned.  This is because of a combination of over-harvesting, pollution, and disease among other things that really affected the oyster population in various areas along the coast and really took the canning operations down with it -- but also a sign of the times-- canned seafood is really no longer in as high demand since now we're able to get the fresh stuff further places, a lot quicker then back in the day.  Anyway, there’s your history for the day and regardless of your views on this stuff and even if you hate oysters here’s a little homage to an industry of yesteryear-- now onto the cool stuff: