We Mainers like our independence. Whether or not it’s looking, fishing or gardening, we get nice pleasure from placing meals on the desk ourselves and sharing that particular meal with our family members.
Enter clam digging.
Not like looking and fishing, with a little analysis, minimal gear and a powerful again, there’s a 100-percent likelihood you’ll come house together with your quarry.
And in contrast to gardening, no planting, watering or weeding is required. Skip straight to the harvest.
I like digging. It will get me outdoors year-round, is nice train and I discover cool stuff on the mud flats. This previous spring, the flats have been stuffed with mating horseshoe crabs, one thing I by no means noticed rising up Down East as a result of their northernmost inhabitants is in Franklin. These days, I’m seeing child horseshoe crabs!
A sore again and clams you dug your self simply style higher — it’s science. Steamed clams are one in every of my all-time favourite meals, and I save some huge cash digging them as a substitute of shopping for them. Clams are extraordinarily nutritious, too (not speaking concerning the butter right here). They’re a lean supply of protein with far fewer energy in contrast with beef. Clams have negligible quantities of fats and carbs and have extraordinarily excessive quantities of vitamin B12 and iron. They’re even reasonably excessive in vitamin C.
Now that I’ve satisfied you to attempt clamming, listed below are some suggestions.
You’ll want a rake, boots and bucket. Contact the city workplace the place you wish to dig and inquire a few leisure license (or go to Wolf’s Neck State Park in Freeport the place your entrance payment means that you can dig one peck per day). Most cities give out one- or three-day permits that permit the license holder to dig one peck (2.3 gallons) per day.
Left to proper: Bangor Every day Information Open air contributor Christi Holmes (proper) usually goes clamming together with her pal Meg DiMauro. Two horseshoe crabs are seen mating throughout a spring low tide. Credit score: Courtesy of Christi Courtesy of Mathew Trogner
Ask for the city shellfish warden’s contact data and inquire about particular areas to dig. At all times test the Division of Marine Sources’ Shellfish Sanitation and Administration web site or name their shellfish sanitation hotline (800-232-4733) to test for closures within the space earlier than you dig.
Arrive round low tide and search for small, straw-sized holes within the mud. At excessive tide, clams stretch their neck as much as the floor to eat and breathe. At low tide, the clam has retracted its neck and created a gap. Discover a spot with a very good variety of holes and begin turning over the mud (probably not digging).
Go gradual and be mild as you get the grasp of it. Really feel together with your fingers and search for necks or squirting water. As soon as your gap is a minimum of a foot deep, dig it wider, by excavating the edges. Feel and look for clams as you dig your gap bigger. Once you discover a clam, verify that it’s not damaged, a minimum of 2 inches in dimension and a stay clam (not a mud clam, an empty shell stuffed with mud)! Inevitably, one mud clam at all times finds its manner house with me.
A younger horseshoe crab is among the many creatures you might even see whereas clamming on the Maine coast. Bangor Every day Information Open air contributor Christi Holmes stated clamming means that you can take pleasure in nature and convey house dinner. Credit score: Courtesy of Christi Holmes
Upon getting your peck, otherwise you’re lined in mud and have had sufficient, head house, give them a very good rinse and luxuriate in!
