Meet the Farmers
The World Is Your Oyster Co.
Back River, ME
The featured oysters in your product were farmed with love by the team at The World Is Your Oyster Co. in the cold, nutrient-rich waters of the Back River near Wiscasset, ME!
These oysters were then hand-shucked by the team at Nor’Easter Oyster Co., and packaged for your enjoyment.
About
Farmers: Aaron Waldman, Luke Saindon & Kyle Crew
Farm: The World Is Your Oyster Co.
Harvest Location: Back River, ME
Flavor Profile: Briny with a light, crisp second wave of minimality.
How They’re Grown
TWIYO Co. oysters begin as tiny, 2mm oysters, known as spat that first meet the waters of the Back River, near the Sheepscot River, in early spring. The seed are placed in the farm’s custom-designed rotating hexcyl baskets, which slowly rotate their way through the water column automatically—thanks to the ingenuity of the farm’s solar-automated system. Once they reach 1 inch, the tiny oysters are moved to the farm’s larger solar-automated rotating hexcyl baskets. These baskets rotate constantly during daylight hours, with each basket reaching the water’s surface twice a day. This automatic rotating helps prevent biofouling on cages, automatically tumbles each oyster’s shell, and reduces the farm’s manual labor requirements. The oysters slowly and consistently rotating in these cages, nourished by the sea, over the next 2 years.
Throughout the summer and fall months, TWIYO Co. team assesses the oysters’ growth rates, and moves them to new rotating baskets to reduce oyster stocking density.
TWIYO Co.’s oyster farm site is located in the nutrient-rich waters of Back River, a tidal channel of the Sheepscot River. The farm’s innovative solar-automated rafts are in a sufficient depth of water that is accessible to TWIYO Co.’s team year-round. Thus, the team is able to check on, and harvest from, the oyster lease year-round.
After 2-3 years of carefully growing, sorting, and processing their oysters, TWIYO Co. team will begin to harvest their oysters for market when they reach 2.75”-3” inches.
TWIYO Co. is owned by an unlikely pair—aerospace mechanical engineer, Luke Saindon, and Brooklyn-based musician-turned-oyster aficionado, Aaron Waldman. Luke and Aaron met at the University of Maine, and became fast friends.
Luke went on to earn his Bachelor’s of Science in Mechanical Engineering, and secured a prestigious position as the lead mechanical engineer at bluShift Aerospace, where he specializes in thermodynamic design, modeling, and testing of propulsion systems sent into space. (AKA Luke is a rocket scientist).
Aaron moved to Brooklyn, where his charismatic personality landed him at several high-end restaurants, and in several local rock bands. Realizing a gap in the NYC market for high-end seafood catering, CSAs, and traveling raw bars showcasing the pristine Maine seafood he grew up with, Aaron formed TWIYO in 2020.
TWIYO Co. exploded in popularity, and gained a number of high-end and celebrity oyster CSA members. Aaron and his NYC team began making weekly trips back up to Maine to source local oysters to bring back to NYC for events.
TWIYO Co.’s Story
During a visit to Maine, Aaron connected with Luke about the prospect of building their own farm in Maine, to grow oysters for New England and Mid-Atlantic audiences. Committed to sustainability, and fascinated by the aquaculture industry, Luke quickly agreed with one caveat—that he have the opportunity to build out something that had never been done before in the aquaculture realm.
In 2023, Luke designed and began the build-out of one of the first entirely solar-automated oyster farms in the world. Unlike other oyster farms, which relies on significant manual labor to flip, handle, and process floating cages that are situated several acres horizontally on the water’s surface, Luke designed a vertical system that made use of the entire water column. Even more impressive, the system is rigged to be powered entirely by the sun. Instead of taking up several acres of space, TWIYO Co. is able to grow over 1 million oysters vertically in only several hundred feet of space. This not only helps with manual labor costs, but also is a step forward in the realm of social licensing for other users of the water ways. Luke is in the process of building out a second prototype of his solar-automated oyster farm raft for patent consideration, and with the intent of entering his innovation into the market space for other farms to purchase!
Nor'Easter Oyster Co is a woman-owned aquaculture business, and Southern Maine’s first shellfish processing facility. Our mission is to create new revenue opportunities for local Maine sea farmers by purchasing excess oysters, that would otherwise go unused, and transforming them into premium seafood products.