I went clamming for the first time in my life down in Coos Bay, Oregon. The drive is a little far, but its a FREE place to stay and I am all about the frugal living if you haven’t gathered that by now. Once I started getting the hang of it, I enjoyed it… but apparently you’re not supposed to crack the shells, or at least try not to. Let’s say about 1/3 were cracked by me, at least the big ones were. The razor clams were a little bit more tricky to get to and get out since they can move and bury their selves deeper into the sand. Those tricky little bastards! So we didn’t get our limit on those ones, but I think we did well overall since we all got about 8 or 9 each.
The worst part about it, is their neck or breathing tube, whatever you want to call it (reminds me of a nasty looking elephant penis)… and cleaning them. Oh god the cleaning is so nasty. I just stood there for a good 20 minutes allowing the men to do 4 buckets full of clams, but they weren’t going to let me gawk for very much longer. I did not want to squeeze their poop sacs or cut them open and remove the tendons from the shell. I will tell you this, its a lot easier to get the meat out of these clams than it is crab. Not sure if i like the taste as much but we have about 3, 1lb bags I can use for clam chowder.
I love me some clam chowder, so I guess it was all worth it in the end.
Next time, I’ll catch em and the men can clean em.
My husband all elbow deep
