Please order from our online shop by Wednesday afternoon for collection at our farm gate in St. Helena Bay on Fridays between 11am and 12 noon. Should you not be able to collect you are welcome to organize a courier. In this case, please contact us on salesadmin@wca.co.za.

Please send your enquiry to salesadmin@wca.co.za who will then advise you further.

We are a working farm and need to keep to specific schedules for local and international orders. Live, fresh abalone have to be sorted and purged before being sold to customers and we need at least 2 days notice to be able to prepare your order for you.

We have an online shop which enables click and collect services within Cape Town and St Helena Bay. You can browse our shop here https://westcoastabalonecompany.com/shop/. Local orders within South Africa: Please check on our Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/westcoastabalone or our online shop for our latest products and pricing.

Yes we do –  https://www.facebook.com/westcoastabalone. Please pay us a visit and like or follow our page.

First of all, cooking abalone is easy. There is nothing complicated about it. How you cook it is literally answered by saying – if you can imagine abalone in your dish – add it in! So abalone can be prepared in many ways – from sushi style- but only if super fresh, to fried, to steamed, to deep fried, to baked, or even boiled e.g. in a seafood potjie. Any which way goes. It either has to be cooked very quickly or very long, otherwise you risk the abalone meat becoming tough. It is similar in its cooking properties to calamari. Cultivated cocktail size abalone has the advantage of really tender meat.

Our favourite way to cook fresh cocktail abalone (after shucking and cleaning) is to give it a quick steam of about 4 minutes in a steamer on the hob (shorter if steaming in the microwave). And then to add it into our favourite recipe towards the end – stir fry, or as a starter with lemon and garlic. The short steam consistently gives a very tender meat texture.

Remember the canned abalone is already cooked and very tender – so this you can just add in towards the end of the cooking step, just to heat and blend with the flavours. A bit of the brine can also be used to flavour your dish e.g. in risotto, or as a binder in abalone fishcakes – this will add a fantastic depth of abalone flavour. Just remember the brine also has salt in it, so keep tasting as you add.

Check out our favourite recipes on our website. Feel free to send us pics and recipes of your abalone dishes to our email address or post on our FB page.

Yes we have an online shop. Collection on Fridays at our farm in St Helena Bay. Visit our online shop here https://westcoastabalonecompany.com/shop/.

Unfortunately not, due to biosecurity restrictions.

It is 100% legal. As a farming operation we have all the necessary permits and rights from Department: Forests, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) to be able to legally cultivate abalone.

We are allowed to sell abalone (fresh and canned) to individuals for private consumptions.

This requires slightly more work from both of us – first of all you need to do this through a registered company. There is currently an exemption for retailers, wholesalers and restaurants to resell cultivated abalone without needing a permit.  Please contact us for more details if you are interested in reselling the abalone or serving it in your restaurant.

Yes – absolutely! Cultivated abalone is actually on the SASSI GREEN list – which means no holding back, eat as much as you like with a clean conscience! SASSI stands for South African Sustainable Seafood Initiative. Cultivated abalone is sustainable and no threat at all to wild stock of abalone.

http://wwfsassi.co.za/fish-detail/168/

Yes. Please keep your invoice on you while transporting the abalone you bought from us.

The drained mass of all our whole piece 425g cans is 213g. The rest is made of a salt brine in which the abalone has been cooked. It can also be used in recipes for extra flavour.

We sell abalone in size or rather weight ranges. For example, if you order the size class of 110g – 150g the individual abalone will weigh anywhere between 110g and 150g. This means that on average you will be getting between 7 and 9 abalone per kg. Our price list on our FB page gives the weight range for each size class and also how many abalone you can expect to receive per kg. You can access our various sized products via our online shop https://westcoastabalonecompany.com/shop/

Absolutely! In Suleria et al’s scientific paper (referenced below) the researchers investigate abalone as a source of bioactive molecules for therapeutic application. They found that abalone specifically, has a variety of important bioactive molecules including polysaccharides, proteins and fatty acids. These molecules are believed to provide anti-oxidant, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-thrombotic and anti-microbial activities! Other research published adds anti-aging, anti-arthritic and anti-hypertensive to this already impressive list of health benefits. What better way to improve your health and boost your immune system than to eat delicious abalone?

H. A. R. Suleria, P. P. Masci, G. C. Gobe & S. A. Osborne (2017) Therapeutic

potential of abalone and status of bioactive molecules: A comprehensive review, Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 57:8, 1742-1748, DOI: 10.1080/10408398.2015.1031726

Please try first to email us on salesadmin@wca.co.za.

Our phone number is +27 22 742 1844.

1. Hold abalone in your hand with the foot facing you and locate the head. Slip a tablespoon/soup spoon between the head and the shell and move it down towards the left while putting pressure onto the end of the spoon which is resting against the base of abalone foot where the meat attaches to the shell. Increase the pressure against the shell until you feel the “give” of the meat being released from the shell.

2. Gently lift the abalone foot out of the shell and pull the guts off the shell carefully.

3. With the scissors or a knife cut along the edge of the top of the foot to cut off the guts. Follow the circular line of the foot where it attached to the shell. Discard the guts and the shell.

4. Snip or cut behind the head downwards to remove the hard cartilage part of the mouth. Clean under running water and remove any bits you may have missed.

5. Optional: put pressure on the meat to relax it and/or mix coarse salt with the meat which will make cleaning easier. Leave for an hour or two.

6. Use a small brush to brush the frill and the bottom of the foot to remove the black epithelial layer.

7. Rinse and cook according to your recipe.

Enjoy!