Many people think that mussels are only available if there is an R in the month. Mussels are also available in other months. Only in April, May and June there are no mussels available.
When do mussels reproduce?
Mussels reproduce in the months of April and May. The females shed millions of eggs in those months. They are fertilized in the water. These eggs grow into larvae and after about a month a shell begins to form. These tiny mussels are also referred to as mussel seed, while that is actually not a good word. The mussel seed or these small mussels sinks to the bottom due to the weight of the shell. There they attach themselves to the bottom, to objects on the bottom or to each other. This is how natural mussel beds are created.
Seed fishing
The mussel beds are generally released for seed fishing twice a year in May / June and September / October. The caught mussel seed is then released by growers on their breeding plots. There the very small mussels develop into full-fledged consumption mussels. Incidentally, the mussels grow up in two regions. Those are:
- The Wadden Sea
- The Oosterschelde
Auction
Mussels are ready for sale when they are two to three years old. Then they are brought up by the mussel fishermen and brought to Yerseke. There is the only mussel auction in the world. In Yerseke the mussels are sold per ton, that is to say a mussel ton. A mussel barrel is one hundred kilos of mussels.
Water mussels
After the sale, the mussels are diluted to wash all the sand and silt from the shell. Only then are they ready to be packed and sold.
Quality
The quality of a mussel is determined by:
- The freshness
- The size of the shell
- The number of pieces per package
- The weight of the meat
- It’s sand-free
How do you know if a mussel is fresh?
Not fresh mussels can make you very sick. So don’t eat them. If you are preparing mussels at home, whisk text to test the freshness. By tapping on it, the shellfish sphincters contract when mussels are fresh. If they don’t, then they are not fresh. Always put mussels in a container with water first, throw away open or broken ones. They are no longer good.
Availability
People often think that mussels are only available when the R is in the month. But that is no longer the case. Mussels are available from mid-July to mid-April. So they reproduce in the remaining months.