It all began with a bowl of clam chowder. Saturdays in the Randall house means two things: I will eat too much at some point and I will probably lead my family to the outdoors on some adventure. Why not combine the two I thought on a Saturday afternoon as I enjoyed the creamy goodness and satisfying chewyness of a great bowl of national brand chowder - the DYI (do it yourself) side of my personality began to emerge. Usually I fight this urge as it leads me to expensive and sometimes incomplete conclusions to projects began but inconveniently unfinished. But instead I allowed myself to indulge this impulse and wonder about how the ingredients are grown, harvested, put together in a pot and enjoyed in a bowl. I began to hatch a plan to build the perfect bowl of clam chowder out of ingredients I harvested and caught. I started with the harvested and caught part instead of actually making a plan based on a recipe. The recipe emerged later thanks to my wife Emily.
My first task was to procure the ingredients in the most adventerous way possible. I had heard about "razor clamming" my grandfather used to talk about visiting the beaches of Clatsop County Oregon to go clamming. He made "clam patties" that were legendary. I had heard stories of the clamming experience but really had no personal experience in the activity so I began to research the activity online and found out that the local clam season runs from late October - May on the beaches near our home in Portland, Or. This was ideal due to the fact that I was right in the middle of the season. So I researched further and found some important factors to consider in order to have a successful razor clam harvesting trip to the coast.
The first factor is the ocean tides. The lower the tide the more abundant and accessible the clam beds are on the beach. Clams usually colonize so there are usually several in the same area. both in the water and on the sand. The best clam beds are only accessible during low tides. For a local report on tides check out http://www.protides.com they have tide tables for the Oregon and Washington beaches. After consulting the tide tables I found a date on the calendar that had the lowest tide of the month and I set our date for clamming.
Prior to our trip I really needed to find out more specifics about the harvesting process including the hows, the whys, and the equipment I'd need. The state allows use of a shovel or a clam gun. I thought, "...hey, anything with 'gun' in the title is for me! I don't want to shovel anything that doesn't sound like an adventure." So I visited a local store and invested $19.99 in a metal clam gun which resembles a pipe with a handle on the top. It's a pretty simple tool and didn't take long for me to figure out how it would be used...I'll explain. The "gun" is really just a cylindrical shovel that is shoved into the sand with the sole purpose of extracting a submerged clam. So really a shovel in your garage could accomplish the same thing and save you $20 on your adventure. The next expense was a required state issued license to harvest the Pacific Razor Clam. So I purchased my annual permit for $7 ( a three day non-oregon resident license is $11.50 for shellfish). The most obvious expense is the gas to get there (which is why I call my recipe "the world's most expensive clam chowder"), but it's worth the investment.
