GUARANTEED freshness is our promise.

We pride ourselves on being the premier growers and providers of the freshest shellfish in the market. Fresh quality shellfish for our customers is our utmost priority. Our business was built upon this value and we maintain this standard of excellence today. 

What does Freshness vs. Shelf Life mean?

Consider this fictional anecdote to help explain the concept of Freshness vs. Shelf Life here at Penn Cove.  

You recently made a purchase on a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. This bottle is no ordinary $12.00 bottle of Cabernet you put on your weekly grocery list.  This bottle of Cabernet is full bodied, with velvety undertones and hints of dark cherry, and a strong peppery aftertaste. Every sip will make you feel like you are sitting on a terrace overlooking miles of vineyards in Napa Valley. You spend $300.00 on the bottle of wine. After your purchase you can’t wait to try the wine for yourself but more importantly share it with your closest friends. One Friday evening while preparing a beef tenderloin you decide to open that $300.00 of Cabernet and give it a taste.

The second the wine passes your lips and graces your taste buds, you smile and know you made a worthy investment in the bottle. You limit yourself to one glass because you want to be able to share the wine with your friends at your spouse’s birthday party the following Friday. Throughout the week you have exchanged texts, phone calls and emails with the guests about the menu you are preparing and the wine you will be pouring, highlighting that you will be sharing a bottle of Cabernet that will truly change their wine pallets forever. When the night comes and the guests arrive you can’t wait to pour your friends a glass of the incredible Cabernet. Anxiously waiting for their excitement after they have been poured a glass you are crushed by the look on your friends face after their first sip. The wine lost all of its body, its velvety undertones, hints of dark cheery, and peppery aftertaste. All the components you were elated to share with your friends. The bottle was still able to drink, but has lost all of its value.

What’s the point of this story? One – if you buy a bottle of $300.00 Cabernet Sauvignon you should know a thing or two about wine. When you open that bottle the flavors will be at their best served fresh. Same rule applies to shellfish. Sure, you can serve it a few days after it has been harvested from the ocean but to truly experience the wonderful flavors and experience when eating shellfish, fresh is truly best. 

When shellfish is pulled directly out of the water, it is full of stored energy in the forms of sugars and fats. Shellfish fresh from the water is full of powerful and delicious flavor. However, once the shellfish is placed in a cooler and out of an environment where it can feed off of nutrients in the water, it begins to metabolize its sugars and fats and slowly loses more and more flavor. In order to get the best tasting shellfish, you need to eat the freshest shellfish. 

Our product is stored in the ocean and in our above ground wet storage facility to maintain the integrity of the flavor. Our product is not harvested until someone orders it, guaranteeing it will always be fresh. 

Above is a photo of our above ground wet storage facility. We store all oysters from California and Canada in this facility. 

Above, Oysters pass through their final stage of quality control. We maintain a standard of excellence providing fresh and consistently sized Oysters. 

Above is a photo of our clams suspended for our Clam & Oyster Wet Storage Raft. Clams are able to continue to feed on the nutrients in the water while purging any sand or grit. Once pulled from the water they are grated and sorted for size.