[This essay was put together after Emerson's death from a number of commencement and similar addresses he had made. It appears in The Complete Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, edited by Edward Emerson].
Freshly shucked oysters can be immersed in water and placed in shallow, air-tight containers in the freezer. Freezer temperatures should be below zero degrees Fahrenheit. Oysters can be frozen for up to three months.
Mandy Waggoner, I shuck. I'm also a biologist. Fresh oysters are killed at some point in the process of shucking and eating them, either by the knife or the diner's teeth and digestive system. I shuck a few hundred live oysters a day, and I occasionally get a sassy one that will squirt as I open it. The shucking process does grave injury to them, though. You want to eat them immediately after opening the shell and separating the adductor muscle from its attachment points.