Oyster Blog — Clams

A couple of weeks ago we harvested a boatload of geoduck. They took over the retail live tank and proceeded to squirt salt water all over the store, completely trashing the place. Dorothy, Ona, and Beth came by when the geoduck were in town, and were quite impressed by the giant bivalves. The three ladies spent a considerable amount of time trying to photograph a geoduck mid-squirt, and then posed for a photograph:

People always come into the retail store asking for geoduck, and we always disappoint. But not this weekend: today Dave and Jim spent a few hours out on the nether reaches of the tideflats, digging geoduck. We have 25 or so the ducks available to sell. The price is $10 a pound, and the clams weigh between 3 and 4 pounds each. If you want us to ship the geoduck please call 888-877-5844 to place an order.

Last fall one of our friends found a vein of petrified clams while building a road near Mineral, Washington. The three foot thick, forty foot long clam vein was found at 2800 feet in elevation. We were intrigued by the petrified clams, and began investigating. We started with Seattle-based geologist John LaManna, who said the clams had been found in the "Rocks of the Puget" group, which is a rock formation deposited during the Eocene epoch, about 40 million years ago. Next we sent photos of the clams to scientists at the University of Washington's Burke Museum. Turns out the...

Native littleneck clam on the left, Manila steamer on the right. Manilas were introduced to Puget Sound along with the Pacific Oyster in the 1950s and, like the oyster, have since naturalized. They're now the main clam species grown and harvested commercially in the Puget Sound, as their shells are hardier and they last longer post-harvest than the native littleneck. How to tell them apart? In general, the native clams are lighter colored than Manilas, but the biggest difference is in the profile of the shell. As you can see from the photo above, the native clams are more circular...

Appearance: 1. "Like the leathery snout of an aardvark" 2. an "eye-catching," "monster . . . thing, of incredible longevity, with a certain . . . charisma." 3. a "homely" "behemoth of the beach" Texture of neck when live: 4. "much like the skin of your elbow when your arm is straightened" Taste: 5. Like the lobster of the clam family. 6. Rich without being at all fishy. Fresh, crisp. Surprisingly delicious. There's a lot of geoduck information out on the triple-W. Some of our favorites, which we quoted above (#1 and 2): this Seattle Times story, and a CDNN...