Visitors relax on the sands of San Buenaventura State Beach, tossing batches of kumamoto and pacific oysters or manila clams atop charcoal grills. There's a trailer nearby where others line up for the organic, sustainably farmed clams and oysters. Home-brought beer, wine, and soft drinks are held aloft for toasts in the sunshine. It's a unique spot, where people enjoy the simple joy of ultra-fresh seafood, shucked and cooked themselves—but the journey to The Jolly Oyster had its share of hardships.

In 1997, Mark Reynolds and Mark Venus founded the Baja Oyster Company in Baja California, Mexico. "We had visions that it would be easy," Venus confessed during a documentary about the business, directed by Graham Streeter. "We thought that, you got a shellfish, you have your seed, you plant it in the water, and two years later, you take it out and you start making money, and things grow from there." He shakes his head. "It's not quite that simple…It's been a long road." The whole process can take 18–24 months, from producing the larvae, which change into seed and are planted out on the underwater farm's system of boxes and crates, to the final oysters. And it's a finicky process. "You have to be careful all the time," he says. "It takes a lot of care, and the people who work these systems have to understand that one slip-up for one minute of the day can mean that millions of these animals will die in the hatchery."

Though they ship some oysters and clams off wholesale, Reynolds and Venus also sell them straight to the public and even watch them get slurped down with hot sauce on the beach. Some people take advantage of the 20-minute free parking spaces and take their purchases elsewhere, but the grills stand ready for those who pay the state-park fee to relax on San Buenaventura State Beach, where The Jolly Oyster trailer sits. People bring their own oyster knives, charcoal, limes, and hot sauces or purchase them from the stand or hoards of traveling oyster-knife salesmen.