First, Louisiana once had a law on the books that prohibited eating oysters from May 31-August 31. The law dates from the mid-1800's.
Here is a quote from Bill Neal, the famouns southern chef.

when the months of cooler weather--the "R" months--return, so does the oyster.

Before acceptance of refrigerated food transport (for meat only, first, and that was in the 1880s), inland food supplies depended on the weather. Even after the first frost warm spells threatened the integrity of almost any product, especially seafood. Only December, though the fourth "R" month, guaranteed enough sustained cold weather for shipping. Then, from Baltimore, to Charleston, to New Orleans, oysters were shoveled onto the flat backs of horse-drawn wagons and packed down in wet straw and seaweed for an inland journey sometimes lasting two weeks or more. Far from the coast, oyster became a symbol of the arrival of the winter holiday season, appearing in the markets by Christmas Eve and on the tables that night as oyster stew.

In warm weather in New Orleans, the quality of the restaurant will help guarantee the quality of the oyster (of course, we all know in life there are no guarantees!). It's still pretty standard in the South to avoid oysters in the non 'r' months. I think you would not get 'southern' oysters, but imports from east or west coast, during those months.

Different parts of the world have oysters in season in different times of year so they are always in season somewhere and those oysters are shipped in to the US.

As far as oysters being plump and juicy, the only thing I can think of is are Gulf oysters which I do not care for. They are so large all I can think of is all that crap that comes out of the Mississippi that they feed off of. Don't mean to offend anyone and I know they are now bred in beds but I still can't get that out of my mind.

Good thread. We're going to NO in July and dh asked me just the other day about eating oysters in a non-R month. I told him that was old school thinking and they are now mostly raised on farms, so it's nice to know I didn't lead him astray.

I suppose it must be a matter of personal preference, but I love big juicy raw oysters. The best I've had were at Acme. We had some on the same trip right across the street at Desire and they didn't taste nearly as fresh. I imagine my preference comes from always having eaten gulf coast oysters. I actually didn't even realize that oysters from other areas are smaller. I evidently mistakenly assumed that when I saw small oysters, they were lower quality. Hey, I learned something new today!!

babs wrote: "I think you would not get 'southern' oysters, but imports from east or west coast, during those months."

Not true though. Oysters are very carefully tagged and gov't monitored, and Gulf oysters are available all year round. Weather/temps change their color and taste, and of course size changes with age and species...mmmm I'm hungry!

GoTravel, if you're ever in my neck of the woods, stop by my seafood shack and I promise you'll change your mind and fall in love with our fried Gulf coast oysters!

joan, as much as you know about seafood, you can bet your bottom dollar I'll eat at you seafood place next time I'm in your neck of the woods.

I think what turned me off Gulf oysters was around here during off season, that was about all the oysters you could find. This was about 15 years ago and they were those HUGE fat oysters and all I could think was how they got that big. Ours of course are sort of small. Anyway, it occured to me that the Mississippi dumps a lot of water into the Gulf and all I could picture in my mind were happy fat oysters munching away of Mississippi delta silt.

It's the KIND of oyster that gets big, not that an oyster gets steroids and grows! I love all kinds.