This blog post was written by Emily Teixeira and Sequoia Cumming.
March 14, 2022
Today was an exciting day for PaceDocs! It was our first day of filming as an entire class on the Cape. We divided our first excursions into three film groups, mostly taking place on the flats in East Dennis.
Lou, Danielle, Sequoia, and Nicole met with John and Stephanie Lowell, who have been business and life partners for many decades. They each own an acre of land on the flats. Together, they run the East Dennis Oyster Farm. They farm their own oysters that they sell wholesale to restaurants or to other local customers.
The Lowells were excited and eager to give the crew a tour of their business. John was very informative about the importance of oysters the Cape. John took us out in his truck to see his portion of the flats, and we were in awe of the number of oyster beds and the beautiful view. His beds were in the shape of the initials “EDOF,” for the East Dennis Oyster Farm.
The Lowells are proud of the presence they’ve made in the East Dennis Oyster Fishing Communities. They let the PaceDocs crew each try one of their oysters, with instructions to “slurp, chew a little, and then swallow.”
Dr. Luskay, Miles, Justin, and Emily met with Morgan Ward, his wife Abigail, and their three sons. The crew filmed the family as they worked, and interviewed Morgan, Abigail, and their oldest son Hawk, about their lives as oyster farmers.
The shoot began at the Wards’ cold storage unit, where Morgan and Abigail loaded racks of oysters into their truck. From there, they drove to the flats of Crowe’s Pasture, wherewith the help of their sons, Morgan and Abigail set the racks on posts in the sand. After the family was done working, the crew began the interviews.
Morgan started running the farm about six years ago when his wife was pregnant with their youngest child. He and his family were living in Colorado, but when his father called and asked if they would be interested in moving back east to run the farm, Morgan and Abigail thought that it would be the perfect opportunity for them.
Since then, Morgan has been running the farm with his wife, children, and occasionally his father. Morgan spoke fondly of a particular day in which four generations of his family were out on the flats together, and said that it means so much that he gets to share this experience with his children. He also let the crew in on his personal favorite oyster recipe- Lazy Man’s Oysters- in which the oysters are cooked on a baking rack, cup side down, flat side up, until they open up, and are then seasoned however they make so chooses.
After a much-needed dinner at the Lost Dog Pub, the team spent the hour before sunset filming B-Roll footage of the flats. While watching the sun lower on the horizon, everyone split up in their own directions to capture their own creative footage to use. We got our feet wet once more as the rocks and water turned from gold to pink to purple. We went our separate ways for the evening, with one group uploading footage and clearing cards, and another writing blogs;).
Day one is DONE and we are in the game!