I just can't get enough of food foraging blogs. There aren't as many as I would like. I've even found myself reading the entire blogs, the less prolific ones, of course. I just love the idea of living off of the land. I'm not a hunter myself and am barely a gatherer. I fantasize about mushrooming and have decided I really want to try cattails. Turns out you can eat them like tiny corn on the cobs. I love the idea!
I thought my fascination with food foraging a relative new thing, over the last couple of years but then I was reading a blog and they mentioned the book, My Side of the Mountain. A story about a kid who ends up living inside of a hollowed up tree and he had to fend for himself. I loved that book when I read it. I also loved The Swiss Family Robinson. Another book about a family living off of the land. These are books I read when I was in elementary school and read many times. It made me realize this is not a new interest but rather, a re-awakening.
A few years ago I decided I wanted to go clamming. I'd never gone. My siblings went when they were younger but I was out of the house by then. Nancy's parents turned me on to a wonderful spot. So wonderful it doesn't even have a name. It's just a spot on the map. While reading up on the area I found out there was a man made oyster bed a mile away. So last time we went, we added oysters into the rotation. The bad part is you have to shuck the oysters on the beach. I prefer my oysters raw so I bring lemons with me. My dad just enjoys the experience so he shucks and then gives them away.
The reason you have to shuck on the beach is new oysters grow on top of old ones. So all of those open shells will soon have more shells on top of them.
Oysters here are super easy to gather, you just walk out into the water and pick up clusters of them.
I go for large clusters, less bending over.
This cluster will have 5 or 6 oysters in them. I got so excited gathering up oysters I forgot to push up my sleeves and soaked them reaching in to get the oysters.
Once I fill my bucket I go sit on a log, shuck and eat. Let me tell you, this is not a clean process. These aren't the oysters you get in the market. You have to work to get these suckers open. I bring my oyster knife, wear gloves and use a towel or wash cloth to hold it while I try and pry them open.
We are allowed 18 of these beauties each trip. After shucking 18 of them, I'm pretty done. I keep telling dad don't go for the large ones, he doesn't listen. The oysters were really briny and salty this day so I didn't eat all of mine.
Once we're done with the oysters we backtrack a mile and go off get our clams and mussels. The clamming is really affected by the tides. One of these days we'll get out there soon enough to get our oysters and hit the tide at the right time. By the time we got there the tide was already coming back in. We won't have a really nice low tide until about May but this spot offers clamming and mussels year round which is pretty cool.
That's dad out there, pretty sad we headed out at the same time from the car. In my defense, he's not as far away as he seems. Do you see where it gets darker at the water line. Those are all mussel shells.
Depending on how low the tide is decides what kind of clams you're going to get and how difficult. If the tide was lower we would have harvested a lot smaller clams as well as more of a variety. This area has many variety of clams, cockles, butter, manila, littleneck, horse (we don't gather them, they're huge although I'd love to get a geoduck!). Clamming consists of shoveling up the dirt and digging thru it to look for clams. If the weather wasn't so cold I would have put my hand in the water and felt around for clams also. Less chance of damaging the shells then.
One thing you have to be careful for while clamming are mudders, they're empty shells full of mud. I always rinse off my clams to make sure it's not a mudder. We're limited 40 clams. I want every one of them to count. Since it was cold and I wasn't getting much in the way of clams, I abandoned clamming and decided to go for the mussels and leave the hard work to my dad (neither one of us got anywhere close to our limit).
To the left of wear I was clamming was this. Those are all mussels. I don't know if you've heard of Penn Cove mussels where you live but they're famous around here. I would say the majority of the mussels served in restaurants here are Penn Cove mussels. Well this is in the same bay, these are the same mussels that are served in restaurants. I learned the hard way, it's better to get your mussels out of the water. They're easier to clean.
So back into the water I went. Like oysters, they are in clusters. Unlike oysters, it's their beard that keeps them together. I try and pick thru the oysters and get the larger ones. The mussels are so plenty I can afford to be choosy. We're allowed 10 lbs a person so I don't bother counting, I get as much as I want. On this trip I got mussels for myself and for Nancy's parents.
Here's what a cluster of mussels looks like.
While easy to gather, they're a pain to clean. The mussels you have in restaurants or buy in the store have been debearded. I use scissors and cut off the beards, it's not as nice as the restaurants but it's FREE!
I let my clams and mussels sit for a day in the salt water from the bay before I cook them. The clams need this more then the mussels. They spit out the sand so if you don't let them do this, you'll end up with a more gritty, sandier clam. My brother and nephew came over to help eat the fruits of my dad and my labor. My stomach was being finicky so I didn't really eat any of them but I was just as excited having the boys eat them. I love the delicious broths used to cook these but I'm lazy. I just steam and serve with lemon juice with salt and pepper. My favorite way to eat sea food.
I'm hoping one day in the future I'll have a blog post about me mushrooming. Ahh, to dream…
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