This post may be a little outdated as Tom and I went to Carlsbad Aquafarm during Easter weekend, and Easter was a little more than two months ago. However, I still thought it was a unique experience to share, so here I am writing about it now.

It all started with doom scrolling on Instagram

I found out about Carlsbad Aquafarm from doom scrolling on Instagram one day. Someone went to it and talked about oyster farming, and I was like: “Wow, Carlsbad really isn’t far at all!” I told Tom about it since it sounded like a fun adventure, and he really likes eating raw oysters, so he agreed on going right away.

We booked a mini vacation to Carlsbad on Easter weekend since he had Good Friday off work, and I had taken Good Friday as my floating holiday off at work as well. I was so thankful that we booked the oyster farm tour on Good Friday since the weather was great, and the rest of the weekend turned out to be super rainy and just plain awful to do anything fun outdoors.

Onto the tour

We booked our tour at 2 PM, and the tour itself is a little more than half an hour long. We first went around the farm and were educated about their homegrown oysters. It was fun to learn about the techniques and equipment that were used to support the growth and harvesting of their oysters. We also found out that Carlsbad is the only oyster aquafarm in Southern California, too, which made me happy that there is one that is not too far from home.

At the end of the tour, we were taught on how to shuck a raw oyster, and we were given six raw oysters to taste. The raw oysters were not from the farm itself, but from Washington state instead. I was honestly pretty nervous about shucking the oysters, even when they provided us the tools and gloves to do so. However, it was actually very satisfying when I managed to shuck one since the oyster shell literally pops open. I was so excited to try, and I have to say that they were the sweetest and freshest raw oysters I have ever eaten. I did not even feel queasy at the end either.

I would rate the tour 10/10. It was such a fun experience to try at least once. You get to learn on how oyster farming works and then shuck them yourself. Then you get to eat it, too. It was like a full experience that made everything feel so much more worth it. Would I go again? I think only with people that have not been to it, otherwise not really since I had already been through it once.