Oyster Blog
Apr 25, 2008: Colorful Clam Shells
Apr 24, 2008: Sand Dollar
Everybody knows this guy! But who knew sand dollars have such hairy bottoms? This is what they look like BEFORE you see them for sale in jewelry-supply stores. Interesting fact: last spring researchers at the University of Washington discovered that a sand dollar larvae will clone itself, and split in two, when it smells a dover sole... the theory being that the sole will only be able to eat one of them. Maybe this will give Michael Keaton some ideas for a career comeback.
Apr 22, 2008: Quality Control. Somebody's gotta do it.
The camera caught up with Adam and Louie wandering through the single oyster pens one blindingly-sunny day in late March. It was the first daylight low tide of the season. Hello there! Finding an oyster to sample wasn't terribly difficult. Adam opens the oyster and eats it while Louie looks on in approval.
Apr 16, 2008: Hama Hama in the Belly
Larry from New Jersey had some clams, oysters, and smoked salmon sent to him as a birthday gift. We'd like to eat at Larry's house some day; he sounds like someone who knows food. Here's how he prepared the seafood: The Manila clams were simplicity itself. I just rinsed them in a colander, and added them to some simmering tomato-basil spaghetti sauce. I have a very good Italian deli nearby, which provided the sauce, though supermarket sauce would have done. After I added the clams to the sauce, I covered the saucepan, and they opened within six minutes or so....
Apr 16, 2008: Gooeyduck
The geoduck clam is the biggest clam in the world. Pictured here is a teensy two year old, but they can live to be 150 years old, or older. They frequently weigh more than 5 pounds. And yes, they're ridiculous. Geoduck live deep in the sand, and while they can retract their neck to avoid predators, they can't retreat completely into their shells, like horseclams can. One geoduck with broken shell, two horseclams. Eye of horseclam Disco Duck