Fresh Bar Harbor Mussels, 2lb Bag. Harvested in Bar Harbor, Maine.
Whitewater mussels are from Rhode Island and Maine, and are kind of a combination between wild mussels and farmed mussels. Whereas farmed mussels are typically suspended off the bottom, Whitewater mussels are actually spread out on the bottom and are allowed to grow as wild mussels do. There are several advantages to doing this. Bottom cultured mussels have harder shells, usually have a higher meat to shell ratio, and have a more robust, wild flavor. However, like natural wild mussels, they have tough beards, and can be gritty, so to solve these problems different harvesting and processing methods had to be developed. When Whitewater mussels are harvested they are taken ashore and placed in tanks where they are purged with temperature controlled seawater to rid them of grit and bacteria. They are then mechanically tumbled, de-clumped and inspected the first time. Then, they are “shaved”, that is, run through a machine that cuts the byssal threads off at the shell. Finally, they are graded by size (medium and large), inspected by hand, bagged, tagged, iced and shipped.
