Vermont Public is independent, community-supported media, serving Vermont with trusted, relevant and essential information. We share stories that bring people together, from every corner of our region. New to Vermont Public? Start here.

© 2025 Vermont Public | 365 Troy Ave. Colchester, VT 05446

Public Files:
WVTI · WOXM · WVBA · WVNK · WVTQ
WVPR · WRVT · WOXR · WNCH · WVPA
WVPS · WVXR · WETK · WVTB · WVER
WVER-FM · WVLR-FM · WBTN-FM

For assistance accessing our public files, please contact hello@vermontpublic.org or call 802-655-9451.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Follow these 2 Connecticut oyster farmers on their last harvest of the year

It’s a snowy winter morning and Connecticut oyster farmers Kim and Gretchen Granbery are setting out for their last harvest of the year.

The couple owns and operates Leetes Island Oysters. They start their oysters from seed in the wild in Branford’s Hoadley Creek. The oysters are then moved to the Thimble Islands to age for three years.

Heading for shore after a snow-filled oyster harvest of Leetes Island Oysters, Gretchen Granbery shares a laugh with her husband Kim. Gretchen and her husband Kim raise the oysters from wild seeds in estuaries before bringing them out to salt water beds where the oysters mature and are eventually harvested.
Mark Mirko
/
Connecticut Public
"Remember when you would come home in the middle of the winter and you'd have icicles coming out of your nose?" jokes Gretchen with Kim about his days of harvesting oysters year-round. "Yep," he said while piloting their boat back to shore, "That's why I don't do it in the winter anymore."

Since travel by boat is difficult when this inland estuary freezes, this is the pair’s last trip of the winter. The break providing them a chance to “exhale” before resuming operations in the spring.

But today’s trip is filled with hard work.

As their boat bobs, fresh oysters are hauled out of the water and dumped aboard a small table.

Oyster farmer Gretchen Granbery counts and sorts oysters pulled from their beds off Connecticut’s Thimble Islands. Gretchen and her husband Kim raise the oysters from wild seeds in estuaries before bringing them out to salt water beds where the oysters mature and are eventually harvested. (Mark Mirko/Connecticut Public)
Mark Mirko
/
Connecticut Public
Counting to 500, 50 oysters at a time, Kim Granberry cleans and sorts aboard the boat captained by her husband Kim after he pulled oyster-filled cages from their beds within Connecticut's Thimble Islands.

“This is where we wash their face and brush their teeth,” Gretchen jokes as she sprays, scrapes and sorts the oysters.

Kim says he “did a stint” with a local oyster company in the 1990s, but credits the founding of Leetes Island Oysters to a 2017 effort directed by David Carey, director of the Connecticut Bureau of Aquaculture.

The department created the Branford Aquaculture Initiative, which seeks to “revitalize a dormant tradition, promote restoration and provide local employment.”

Today, hundreds of acres of land within Connecticut’s Thimble Islands are growing shellfish. In 2023, the state's oyster beds generated more than $14 million in annual sales, according to the state Department of Agriculture.

“Kisses...Job well done,” says Gretchen Granbery after she and her husband Kim loaded a dockside refrigerator in Branford, Ct., with their harvest of 500 oysters. Gretchen and her husband Kim raise the oysters from wild seeds in an estuary before bringing them out to salt water beds where the oysters mature and are eventually harvested.
Dave Wurtzel
/
Connecticut Public
“Kisses...Job well done,” says Gretchen Granbery after she and her husband Kim loaded a dockside refrigerator in Branford, Ct., with their harvest of 500 oysters. Gretchen and her husband Kim raise the oysters from wild seeds in an estuary before bringing them out to salt water beds where the oysters mature and are eventually harvested.

Mark Mirko is Deputy Director of Visuals at Connecticut Public and his photography has been a fixture of Connecticut’s photojournalism landscape for the past two decades. Mark led the photography department at Prognosis, an English language newspaper in Prague, Czech Republic, and was a staff-photographer at two internationally-awarded newspaper photography departments, The Palm Beach Post and The Hartford Courant. Mark holds a Masters degree in Visual Communication from Ohio University, where he served as a Knight Fellow, and he has taught at Trinity College and Southern Connecticut State University. A California native, Mark now lives in Connecticut’s quiet-corner with his family, three dogs and a not-so-quiet flock of chickens.
Latest Stories