Steve Malinowski, who, for 35 years, has owned and operated the Fishers Island Oyster Farm with his wife Sarah, even refers to their oysters as "micro-brewed bivalves."

He doesn’t till the soil, but he’s a farmer, with the hands to prove it. They are strong and weather-beaten, and surprisingly gentle when his right hand cradles an oyster and the left neatly inserts a knife into the sweet spot at the hinge.

Every incoming freshman, as if pledging a fraternity, must swallow one — though it must be noted that these initiation oysters come from Mr. Malinowski’s parents’ place 100 miles away.

Malinowski held up a bag filled with what looked like Grape-Nuts but were actually a hundred thousand baby oysters, about to be planted in the FLUPSY. Harbor School students will monitor the oysters’ growth, and with luck, Malinowski said, adult oysters will be breeding in the Hudson by next summer.

As an underwater farmer, Osinski buys seed oysters that he then plants in cages in his underwater plant. Mentions Steve Malinowski, head of the Fishers Island Oyster Company, where Osinski buys his seed oysters.