you got to go dig those holes

I didn’t post yesterday because instead I was actually had an adventure for the first time in forever. I went clamming on the Cape. I donned my swimming suit and drove down to visit a friend who had a permit (yes just like fishing and hunting you need one). This is definitely one of those things on my bucket list that I have been wanting to do. Some people want to jump out of airplanes, some want to go clamming, and others want to try both. I am in the both category but one is a start.

 

Once you find the holes you have to jump on them to make them spit.

We started by pumping out the dingy we were going to use to get there but as in adventure fashion not all went as planned. We headed out and the motor junked out halfway to our destination. We then turned around and started rowing back to the marina. It was quite the work out that only got worse when the oarlock on one of the oars snapped off. Now here we were sitting in the middle of the channel drifting but I am determined to get to the clams and to do that we need to get back to the marina and move to plan b. So I started canoeing the row boat. Both of us having bad backs though praying on our minds and neither of us wanted to spend today curled on the couch crying in pain. A phone call later and her father was going to send someone from the marina. A bit of frustration from both of us and me really wanting to get to the clams and refusal to be rescued like some damsel in distress, I somehow got the motor restarted and drove as quick as I could to the dock. It died out just before we got there but was close enough to the docks now that we could at least push the last 50 feet to the dock and tie up.

Next you got to dig

So adventure block number 1, 2, and 3 over. Time for plan b. We went back to her house and after a cider we got the kayak and with a little help from her dad we were directly across from where we were going to go clamming. Thirty seconds later we were pulling up on the island beach and the real work was about to begin. I was so relaxed digging in the ground for those clams. The first step was to find little holes in the sand and stomp near them and if they squirted you dug, and dug. Seriously there is a lot of digging involved. We started with gloves to help keep our hands from turning black from the sand. We eventually gave up the gloves and cared less about getting dirty. Growing your food is fun but I was so excited about finding yummy food. You would get all excited as you felt around in the sand and water as your fingers grazed the hard shell of the clam only to discover all you had found was a rock. Then you would stick your hands down deeper, pushing and pulling the sand until your fingers and hands graze something hard again. This time you pull out a clam, big round and looking beautiful. Unfortunately, some of them had soft shells and we damaged the shells in the process. Other ones we pulled out were too small but an hour later we found a half of a basket of clams, three quahogs and one razor and were paddling across the channel to the beach and dinner.

"You got to go dig those holes, diggin' aaa holes, diggin' uuhh holes diggin'"

 

An hour later a half of a basket of clams

After cleaning them in pepper, (breadcrumbs work better but it was what we had), we steamed them in beer and water with sweat potatoes, kielbasa, onions. I usually steam them by themselves but this might be my new way to cook them. We worked hard, the food was yummy and so worth the effort. We have already planned to do it again and I am looking forward to it. Though we already plan to skip the dingy and start with the kayak.

Quahog

Razor clam