Join The Community For The Annual Oyster Fry On March 7

Oklahomans rarely have the opportunity to experience fresh seafood. But once a year, the town of Frederick hosts its annual oyster fry, serving up the freshest oysters in the entire state alongside community tradition.

This year, the Frederick Fantastic Oyster Fry will take place Saturday, March 7 at the Prather Brown Elementary School cafeteria. The annual oyster fry is a fundraiser for the town's chamber of commerce, and it's a tradition that has been ongoing for over 30 years.

The Frederick Fantastic Oyster Fry has a distinct smell: fried muscles with a side of community and tradition.

When you walk into the Prather Brown Elementary School cafeteria on oyster fry day, you're immediately hit with a particular smell. It's hard to describe, even for the Frederick residents who have been frying oysters for decades. The only way they can even describe it is that it smells like fried oysters.

It's a nostalgic smell for Frederick residents that lingers both physically and in memory long after the end of each year's oyster fry. As a kid, I can remember the school cafeteria smelling like fried oysters through the end of the school year. And when I started helping with the oyster fry in middle school and high school, the smell would linger in my hair and clothes.

Now that I'm older and moved away, when I return home for the annual oyster fry, the smell instantly reminds me of all those years of breading oysters with my cheer team, frying the oysters with my dad, serving the oysters to family, friends, and visitors. And then I'm reminded of the deep tradition that smell and the oyster fry itself holds for every resident of Frederick.

Most Frederick families have been a part of the oyster fry since is inception in the 1950s.

My family is one of the few that have been a part of the oyster fry since its introduction in 1952. A resident the neighboring town of Manitou brought fresh oysters from the gulf and fried them up for the Manitou school board. Soon after, the board hosted an annual oyster fry as a fundraiser for the school.

My parents grew up in Manitou and as part of attending school there, they spent many years working the annual oyster fry. They can also remember their entire school smelling of fried oysters well after the annual fundraiser.

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When the school system in Manitou closed, the Frederick Chamber of Commerce picked up the tradition as its annual fundraiser. My parents continued to volunteer with the oyster fry, and my sister and I volunteered as we got older.

Today, my dad continues to help with the planning of the oyster fry and fries oysters in the school cafeteria's big deep fryer the day-of. My sister and I try to return to Frederick every year specifically for the oyster fry, and now we're getting to introduce her children to the family tradition.

Like the families, the method and the recipe for Frederick's oyster fry have not changed.

Along with the many families who have been a part of the oyster fry since the 1950s on, the method for retrieving the oysters, prepping and frying have not changed. Every year a few residents from Frederick volunteer to drive down to Port Lavaca, Texas, to get the oysters. They load up 140 gallons of fresh oysters and bring them back over ice to Frederick.

When the oysters arrive in Frederick, volunteers are ready to prep them with a buttermilk bath and breading. The oysters are then refrigerated before being freshly fried for hungry visitors. The Frederick oyster fry uses the same recipe for the oysters that was used when the oysters were first fried in Manitou in 1952.

Enjoying a plate of fresh oysters helps carry on a deeply rooted tradition in Frederick.

Frederick residents, former residents and visitors from all over Oklahoma and north Texas, enjoy fried oysters each year, and the Frederick Fantastic Oyster Fry serves plates of oysters by the thousands. And each ticket purchased and plate served helps carry on a town and family tradition in Frederick.

Tickets for this year's Frederick Fantastic Oyster Fry are $25 and each plate includes your choice of fried or fresh oysters, chips, homemade bread, coleslaw and cocktail sauce. Tickets can be purchased online or at the door the day of.

More information about the Frederick Fantastic Oyster Fry, the craft show and other community events the day of, can be found by following the Frederick Chamber of Commerce on Facebook.

ENTER TO WIN: How You Can Win Tickets To The Frederick Fantastic Oyster Fry