In recent years, people had to break with a Thanksgiving tradition, serving cornbread dressing in place of oyster dressing.
That's because the price of oysters got too high, but things are slowly turning around.
The sacks of raw oysters are coming into the icehouse at Kenner Seafood.
They'll go from ice to the fire for charbroiling. Others will end up in front of Michael who's been shucking for 30 years.
“These oysters are a little smaller, but they are tastier. They're a little salty coming out of like the Hopedale area,” said Michael, who works at Kenner Seafood.
They go from Michael’s hands to the customer's plate. So, are prices affordable this Thanksgiving?
“The prices this year are actually cheaper than last year. We got the gallon jar, and are about 10 percent down. So are the sacks,” said Kenner Seafood owner, Trudy Alexander.
In the three days before Turkey Day, they'll sell 100 gallons of oysters, as well as shipping sacks out to people and restaurants along the Gulf Coast.
We talked to another restaurant owner who said that right around the pandemic time, the price of oysters got so high that people just stopped buying them and got out of the habit of baking them in their dressing for Thanksgiving. He's hoping now with the prices coming down a little bit, people will get back in that Thanksgiving habit.
When asked if he got out of the habit of buying oysters when the pandemic hit and the prices were high, one customer answered, “Yeah, I didn't fool with them then. So, but they're very reasonable now and I'm enjoying them.”
Another customer said, “Oh yeah, back up when it gets a little too high, you know, but right now price is good. Oysters are plenty.”
Still, for others, they want to see the prices come down even more.
“No. It's kind of too expensive at the moment right now,” said a couple who will skip the oysters at Thanksgiving.
And for some, the price tag hit the right spot.
“Actually, I think they're down a little bit this year. So, we were happy about that,” said a customer buying a tub of raw oysters to take home.
And that’s just in time for the holidays.
“What's Thanksgiving without oysters,” said that customer.
Oysters are domestic, harvested from the Gulf and northeastern waters.
So, you are not going to find someone selling foreign oysters at a cheaper price, like other seafood.
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