I had the pleasure of touring a mussel processor in New Zealand’s south island city of Nelson. The greenshell is unique to New Zealand’s clear, cool seas. The mussels are grown by a technique known as suspension-culture. Young mussels or spat, are attached to dropper ropes which are suspended from the surface by buoyed longlines. The ropes drop to an average depth of 16-33 ft. This technique ensures that the mussels remain grit-free, grown rapidly and can be harvested at the peak of condition when they are about 4 inches long.
According to Mel Shirley, Aquaculture New Zealand’s Marketing Manager: “Here in NZ, we export our Greenshell mussels to over 70 countries in various forms. The largest product format we export is frozen half shell mussels and the US is our biggest market for this product – taking about 10,000 MT per year. There are many farms around the country but about 65% of our mussels come from the Marlborough region and 25% from the Coromandel/Bay of Plenty. Your notes regarding number of mussels opened each day remains correct – the average piece per hour obviously varies by employee but generally around 1,300/hour which equates to 10,400/day over an 8-hour shift.”
Catherine Bell prepared the Mussels in a Cream and herb Sauce and the video is on the site here In another video, she also shows how to debeard mussels which you’d want to do before cooking.
For more recipes of this versatile and widely available mussel, check out https://www.aquaculture.org.nz/recipes for some creative and delicious dishes.
Thanks for reading, now on to Australia!