Clamming

I went clamming in the bay this weekend with my son-in-law who was out for the weekend and granddaughter Juliette who won't eat raw clams but loves baked clams and, like her father, loves the clam hunt -- even (or especially) when the bay bottom is muddy. These are hard shelled or Quahog clams which we dig with our feet in what used to be called (before political correctness made it sound like an insult) 'Indian clamming' or, worse, 'squaw clamming'. The hard clam became the main shellfish quarry in the South Shore bays when the ocean inlets were opened up and stabilized turning the brackish bays into tidal (i.e. salty) estuaries. Originally Long Island bay bottoms from New York Harbor to Oyster Pond in Montauk were covered with Oysters but all that changed due to pollution and major changes in the environment. The problem with closed brackish ponds and bays is that they are very easily polluted and nobody wants to eat polluted oysters. The hurricane-created inlets and their stabilization with rock jetties produced a cleaner bay but changed the ecology, making them no longer suitable for oyster reproduction. Nowadays, our only fresh-to-brackish bay that is mostly closed to the ocean is Mecox (there are also some coastal ponds -- Wainscott Pond, Oyster Pond -- which fit the bill). Oysters thrive in Mecox but you don't want to eat them until they are then transplanted to the clean waters of Peconic Bay. Clams and oysters are filter feeders and, in unpolluted water, they quickly clean themselves out, become edible and acquire a salty taste that people like. In the salty tidal bays like Shinnecock, Quahogs have replaced Oysters as the top-of-the-bottom shellfish and, although they have been overfished, they can still be found, sometimes in considerable numbers.

Not that Quahogs are a recent arrival. Native Americans ate them and used the shells to make the famous wampum belts which were also used as a medium of exchange (this was apparently the major economic base for the Long Island tribes). Indian clamming is nothing more clamming with your feet instead of the traditional clam rake or tongs that the baymen use and it's possible to become quite proficient at it with practice. I learned how to do it from my father and now I'm happy to pass it on to the next two generations!

There's actually a lot of lore surrounding the hard clam. The various appellations which you will recognize -- Little Necks, Top Necks, Cherrystones and Chowders -- are all just baymen's names for the different sizes of the same clam. Mercenaria mercenaria used to be known by the rather racy name (which you will still find in older books) of Venus mercenaria. I'll leave you to figure out the meaning and decide the why and wherefore of this naughty taxonomists' joke hidden in Latin scientific terminology (taxonomists are quite fond of these off-color names; how about Pitch Pine or Pinus rigida)!

Here's a bit of personal lore (not off-color). A number of years ago, I attended a seafood banquet being held in the lobby of a theater in Quimper, Brittany, France, following a performance of a work of mine. The seafood in Brittany is the best and most varied in the world and this was a veritable feast of crustacea, shellfish and other assorted items. However I couldn't help noticing that there were some clams sitting on the festival tables unopened. What about those, I asked, and was told that they were a new clam and that no one knew how to open them. A moment's inspection revealed that this unknown clam was Mercenaria mercenaria, newly introduced from the other side of the Atlantic. Get me a knife, I shouted, I know how to open these clams. And open them I did. Nothing like showing the folks from Brittany, the seafood capital of the world, how to open a clam!!!

This past weekend was clear, warm and dry, perfect for saltwater ecosystem immersion as well as clam digging. Although you can't bring along your binoculars, birding while up to your neck in bay water (I always go at high tide) is a particular pleasure. Since only your head is showing, birds hunting insects above the water (swallows, martins) or fishing in the water (terns, osprey, kingfisher) will come in quite close. A special moment was provided by a good-sized accipiter -- a Cooper's Hawk no doubt -- clutching some sort of prey (not a clam, I'm sure) and being pursued by Red-wings as it crossed over the water and disappeared into the wooded upland beyond.

Eric Salzman