Figuring out first-hand food
Since we moved to Cape Cod, I’ve learned a lot about clams. They were my first, and remain my most dependable, source of self-procured animal protein, and I figure Kevin and I have harvested at least fifty pecks since we got here. A peck is ten quarts, so that’s enough for even the slowest of [...]
It was clams that started all this. When Kevin and I first moved here, in spring of 2008, we thought it might be fun to try clamming, and after one or two ignominious failures (which you can read about in all their ignominious details in my favorite local publication, Edible Cape Cod), we managed to [...]
It happens every time. Kevin and I actually leave our home and take a trip somewhere. We visit friends, or stay in a hotel. We eat at unfamiliar restaurants and check out the local attractions. We have a good time. We like this place! And then, inevitably, we start looking at real estate. Not because [...]
The controversy is raging, and I need your help. It all started when my friend Chef John, uncharacteristically, made a mistake. John’s web site, Food Wishes, is a collection of extremely good recipes. They’re straightforward and easy to follow, familiar enough to be craveable, but with an interesting spin or variation. His videos are clear [...]
If you spend any time at all raking clams, you will, inevitably, lose a tine. Maybe you hit a rock, maybe just a big clam, maybe regular use loosens an imperfect weld. Tines break, and when you don’t have all your tines you can’t clam as efficiently, so it behooves you to get them fixed. [...]
One day last fall, as we were coming off the clamming grounds at Bay Street in Osterville with a peck of quahogs, we saw two guys loading their pickup with two full baskets of steamers. Steamers, as all you clammers know, are generally harder to come by than quahogs. They bury themselves much deeper than [...]
Kevin and I went clamming this morning, accompanied by our friend Katie, who is visiting from New York. It was a very satisfying experience. Until today, I thought I was the only person on the planet who gets a thrill out of raking clams up out of the seabed, but now I know there’s at [...]
One of the critical pieces of clamming equipment is the noodle. Not the kugel kind, the pool toy kind – those 5-foot lengths of Styrofoam that kids invariably use to thwack their friends upside the head. Clammers, though, have a different use for them. When you wade out with your rake, you need to bring [...]
It was three-day, three-shellfish weekend. Saturday was clams. Sunday, oysters. And Monday, for the first time, we went for mussels. Mussels are the gateway shellfish. If you’re a little intimidated by clamming or oystering because of the expertise, special equipment, and fortitude involved, then musseling is for you. You just wait for low tide and [...]
Shellfish have many virtues. They’re tasty and versatile, low in calories and high in minerals. They’re good raw or cooked. They freeze well. There’s really only one problem with shellfish: shells. Since oyster season opened last October, I figure Kevin and I have gone through almost 400 oysters. Every single bloody one of them had [...]
Tamar Haspel has been writing about food and health for over a decade. She recently moved from Manhattan to Cape Cod. She’s adjusting well. [Read More …]
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