Where did you get that shucker? S.C. Oyster Festival goers answer

Chuck Hartley threw away his oyster shucker Saturday as he was cleaning up for a move.

Just before leaving for Sunday’s South Carolina Oyster Festival, he retrieved it.

“I had to dig them out of the trash can,” Hartley said.

Hartley was one of many festival attendees who brought their own shuckers to pry open the oysters.

Linell Goodall of Forest Acres was eating oysters with Hartley and their family members. Goodall was using her husband’s oyster knife that he received as a groomsman’s gift about 30 years ago.

Linell said the best way to shuck an oyster is through the back hinge, but Hartley had a simpler idea: “Let somebody else shuck them.”

Cheryl Wilson of Gilbert put a lot of planning into shucking her own oysters and ordered her Victorinox shucker from Amazon in anticipation of Sunday’s festival.

“I did a lot of research,” Wilson said.

Meanwhile, Andrea Trujillo of Bluffton attended the S.C. Oyster Festival with her family and rented a shucker to use.

Her dad, Jim McMorran, used the shucker she got him as a Father’s Day present.

“It’s a tiny little shucker,” Trujillo said. The shucker also came with a board that could be used to hold the oyster in place.

Eric Salesky, Trujillo’s brother-in-law from Pittsburgh, tried his first oyster and was pleasantly surprised.

“It’s really not bad,” he said, describing the flavor as similar to shrimp.

Trujillo chimed in: “It tastes like the ocean.”

Johnny Gibson of the Irmo area said oysters have their own flavor.

“It doesn’t taste like chicken,” said Gibson, who used a shucker from his kitchen drawer.

Gibson was eating the oysters without sauce or saltine crackers.

He had a method for using the shucker to get to the delicious inside.

“Put the blade in the seams and twist and open.”

This story was originally published November 20, 2016 at 5:43 PM with the headline "Where did you get that shucker? S.C. Oyster Festival goers answer."