You wake up early on a Saturday morning to the news that it is 30 degrees outside. It is so foggy that you can barely see the decks and it is raining. So, do you :
A. roll over and go back to sleep?
B. grab some pop tarts and catch cartoons on the
tube
C. dress in layers and go out to dig clams.
If you are a shellfish farmer the answer is C all the way. The tides were right for digging so out we went. It takes a while to learn how to dress in the right layers for digging in our weather but I think I have it now. I start with a tank bra, a set of wind proof long johns, and my SmartWool socks. Over this goes a thick knit shirt, Army surplus wool long underwear, followed by a sweatshirt. On the outside goes the rubber water proof coat, pants, liner gloves, rubber gloves, and insulated Mickey Mouse boots inflated for max warmth. They weigh about ten pounds each leg so you better hope you don't fall overboard because it would be cement overshoes time. I top this with a knit cap, face mask, and goggles. We pack some water and snack bars and waddle out to the boat to cruise to the beach.
We see some otter waving at us along the way. The sun comes up burning off the fog and stopping the rain. The eagles are screaming as they glide the air currents preparing to mate. It looks like a great morning to dig. As we have an order for clams to ship A.S.A.P. it had better be!
We pull up by a rock. As I throw myself over the boat side, Larry anchors up. Now the dream of every clam digger is to get five or six clams per rake. A more typical dig is five or six rakes to find one. This time we were making twelve passes of the rake to unearth one clam. We were teamed up, Larry wielding the rake, me picking the clams up and putting them in the bucket.
I was picking up everything too. Alaskan beaches have layers of different species of clams. We are licensed to sell the Littlenecks from 1 1/4 inch sized on up. They are found two to four inches down. Close to these are the pretty Cockle shell clams.
They have long elbow syphons in them and make a great chowder. Under this layer you find the bigger Butter Clams. These are great sliced in half, dipped in flour, and steamed in hot butter, but then, what food isn't good steamed in butter? Deep under these are the otters' favorite, the Horse Clams. To get to them, they plow up our favored clams, eating some and leaving the rest exposed to die. As otter eat 25% of their weigh every day, that is a lot of digging area.
Those otter we passed must have been giving us the nanana razz berry not just waving good morning. Otter had gotten to the beach before us and cleaned it out. We just hoped that Jerry and Brick, the clam digging dog were having better luck on their beach.
Larry rolls me back in the boat and we go scouting for that dream beach where the clams are laying thick on top of the sand waiting to jump in our buckets. A beach that the otter have not found. A beach in warm sun shine...
Such are the dreams of a Shellfish farmer.
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