2020 Life Logs, Day 221: Quahogs

2020 Life Logs, Day 221: Quahogs
Date: Sunday, August 9, 2020
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 83, Low 70 Degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA

Clamming in the estuaries along the coastline at low tide is a way of life on Cape Cod. On any summer weekend, you see people digging for clams using a clam rake to try and fill a special wire basket/bucket. Peter Baranowski, called Poseidon by my grandkids, offered to take us out this morning to show us how to find clams by snorkeling and then digging them up by hand. Sam and Jonah weren’t interested in doing this, but Heather and Ollie were all in. Ollie is the family clam lover, so it was fitting that he should go. We took our bucket and special permit and Peter brought his bucket and permit and we filled both. That’s about 40 pounds of clams. Of course, the shells are most of the weight, but still we got A LOT of clams. Northern hard-shelled clams are called quahogs in these parts. And depending on the size of the shell, the quahogs have different names. If the shell is 1.5 inches, it is called a little neck. If it is 2.5 inches, it is called a cherry stone. Any shell bigger than 3 inches is called a chowder quahog.

We got lots of chowder quahogs today, but there were also plenty of smaller ones for steaming and eating. Heather is planning to make a big batch of clam chowder and I am going to try to make stuffed clams. Yummy! Thank you, Poseidon.

Tomorrow the Mayflower II, a replica of the original Mayflower that brought the Pilgrims to our shores, will be making it way through the Cape Cod Canal on its way back to its home in Plymouth. It has spent the last three years in Connecticut getting restored. I am planning on picking up the Goldpebbles early in the morning and heading up to the Canal to see it. We are taking our bicycles and are hoping to ride the bike path along the canal as the Mayflower makes it way home.