Massachusetts

Massachusetts, in New England, runs from the Berkshire hills in the west to Cape Cod, the hook-shaped peninsula that reaches into the Atlantic. Boston is its capital. The festival in this guide is on the outer Cape, in Wellfleet, a town that gives its name to the oysters raised in its waters: the Wellfleet OysterFest, each October.

Why Massachusetts oysters taste of Wellfleet

Oysters have been shipped out of Wellfleet since the middle of the 17th century, says the Wellfleet Oyster Alliance, the group behind the OysterFest. In 1606 Samuel de Champlain sailed into what is now Wellfleet Harbor and named it “Port aux Huitres”, Port of Oysters.

• Terroir: the alliance puts the oysters’ sweet, briny taste down to the harbour’s large, powerful tides, its high salinity, its glacial soils and its plankton-rich currents.
• Peak years: in the early 20th century some 2,182 acres (about 880 hectares) of tidal land were leased for commercial shellfishing.
• Wellfleet remains one of the few places in the world where oysters grow in great abundance without human cultivation, the alliance says.

Cape Cod National Seashore

The outer Cape around Wellfleet is protected as the Cape Cod National Seashore, run by the National Park Service: forty miles (about 64 km) of sandy beach, marshes, ponds and uplands, with lighthouses and wild cranberry bogs.

Getting to the Cape by train

In summer the CapeFLYER links Boston South Station with Hyannis, with stops at Braintree, Brockton, Lakeville, Wareham Village, Buzzards Bay and Bourne. It runs at weekends from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day, never on weekdays. Reservations are not required and bikes travel free. Wellfleet lies further out on the Cape, so plan the last leg by road.