Hama Hama Oyster Company

About Hama Hama Oyster Company

Reviewed by Oyster Tasting Guide editorial team · June 2, 2026

Origins

Land purchased by Daniel Miller Robbins along Hood Canal in the 1890s, originally for timber

Distinction

Family-owned and operated across five-plus generations; roughly 100 years as an oyster farm

Location

Mouth of the Hama Hama River on Hood Canal, Lilliwaup, Washington

Species

Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas)

Cultivation

Beach (intertidal) culture; tumbled methods for the Blue Pool

Businesses

Shellfish and forestry, plus the on-farm Hama Hama Oyster Saloon

Setting

Cold, clean Hood Canal water fed by the Hama Hama River and the Olympic Peninsula

Hama Hama Oyster Company is one of the most storied family farms in the Pacific Northwest, rooted in land that Daniel Miller Robbins purchased along Hood Canal in the 1890s, with timber rather than oysters in mind. Over a century later, the same family still works the property as a sustainable operation spanning two businesses, shellfish and forestry, and now stretching across five generations, with a young sixth generation already coming up. The company marked roughly 100 years as an oyster farm, building its longevity, as the family puts it, on hard work and clean water.

The farm sits at the mouth of the Hama Hama River on Hood Canal, near the tiny seaside village of Lilliwaup, Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula. Hood Canal is a long, deep glacial fjord, and the spot where the cold, clear Hama Hama River meets the canal creates an unusually rich growing environment. That meeting of fresh river water and salt is the source of the farm's merroir, and the family credits the richness and cleanliness of the water for both the quality of its oysters and the farm's century-long survival.

Hama Hama grows the Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas, and is best known for two distinct expressions of it. Its namesake Hama Hama oysters are beach-grown, hardened by the daily tides on the farm's tideflats, and prized for a clean, often vegetal, cucumber-like finish. The Blue Pool, by contrast, is a tumbled oyster named for a gorgeous deep, glacier-blue pool up the river; the oysters are tumbled so they grow with deep cups and uniform shells, and the name nods to a flavor the family compares to the clean crispness of jumping into that pool.

The farm's methods blend traditional beach culture with modern nursery techniques. Oyster and clam seed is raised in a floating upweller system, or FLUPSY, that gives the young shellfish a safe place to grow before they are planted out, sorted, and re-bagged as they mature on the beach. As a working intertidal farm, Hama Hama relies on the natural productivity of Hood Canal rather than feed or fertilizer, in keeping with its long-standing sustainability ethos.

Hama Hama is also a destination. Its Oyster Saloon, set on the shore of Hood Canal in Lilliwaup, has been celebrated as one of Washington's best oyster experiences, drawing visitors to eat fresh shellfish right at the source. Between its deep family history, its pristine Hood Canal setting, and its distinctive beach-grown and tumbled oysters, Hama Hama has become a benchmark name for Pacific Northwest oysters.