Clamming is On!

The Department of Fish and Wildlife rules the roost when it comes to saying when you can gather food and what you can gather from our local beaches, and this weekend they told us it was okay to dig for clams. I have mostly avoided this local activity for the past few years because, frankly, I wouldn't know what to do with the clams if I did find some, and I hate to waste food.

But we had out of towners and it was a beautiful day, so we gathered up the necessary clam guns (big PVC pipe things that act like a coring tool), shellfish licenses, and containers and headed out to the beach.

The trick to clam digging, apparently, is to know what you are looking for. And what you are looking for is the clam "show". Which I like to describe as air bubbles. Which is impossible to notice in the sand if you've never seen it before. Our friends Mary and Matt were joining us for this little adventure, and for the first hour that we were out, I'm pretty sure they thought they had been scammed into thinking there was something to catch. However, once we figured it out, we caught a handful of clams, enough for Matt and Mary to make a homemade clam chowder, which would put any Seattle Restaurant to shame.

I think this might be our last clam dig for the season (until fall), but when the WDFW gives us the thumbs up again, it will be Clam On!