MEET OUR FARMERS

CHRIS GARGIULO

On the few days he's not at his Cotuit Oyster Farm, you might meet Chris Gargiulo in court. That's because he's a per diem trial court officer assigned to Barnstable County, with tasks like maintaining court room security, taking people into custody and escorting the judge in and out of chambers.

This is the last vestige of the shellfish farmer's original career in security. The Belmont native came from a family of lawyers, but decided to instead pursue the field of criminal justice at Northeastern University. "I just wasn't interested in going to college for four years straight," Chris explains. "Northeastern has a co-op program. You go to school for three months and work in the field for six. Working in the District Attorney's Office in Middlesex County, for example, really gave me a good overview of the criminal justice system."

One of his co-op assignments was with the First Security Services Corporation, and it went so well that when he graduated he was offered an Account Manager position. Working with them for 12 years, he left the company as an Area Manager with over 300 employees reporting to him.

"But I had always had the goal of running my own business," Chris says. "And after spending weekends and holidays with my Father on the Cape virtually my whole life, I was looking for a way to move here and make a living." He moved to Cotuit and started working for the venerable Cotuit Oyster Company, whose roots go back to the middle 1800's. He had always enjoyed casual clamming and oystering, but wanted to learn more, so he took a course in aquaculture proficiency at MASS Maritime. When owner Dick Nelson, who had run the company for 30 years, was ready to get out, Chris was ready to commit to buying it.

"You have to decide how to live your life," Chris believes. "Some people like to do the grind every day. Some people like to take risks that aren't guaranteed. I'm one of those people."

Today, he's making excellent use of his management experience. He has a 33-acre grant, five employees, and harvests hundreds of thousands of oysters and hard shell clams each year. He has a wholesale license and a small retail operation as well. He delivers to Cape restaurants like the Regatta, Heather and Sienna. Oysters are shipped each week to Legal Sea Foods in Boston, and are trucked to New York and Chicago.

His wife Kristi, a former pre-school teacher, does the bookkeeping and a "little bit of everything else “for the farm. 22-month-old daughter Elena and 8 week old Jake provides, he says, "our daily entertainment." Chris also likes fishing and just being on boats. Indeed, when he had some time between jobs, he sailed from Boston to Lisbon with his father and two other crew.

While Cotuit oysters are familiar on restaurant menus nationally, around town, he says, he's not even the most-recognized member of his family. "I have a black lab named Moe," he explains. "He's the one that most of the people in town know."

To learn more, go to: www.cotuitoystercompany.com