A short Story of Clamming in Rhode Island
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Rhode Island Clamming
This
story of clamming in Rhode Island takes place in Snug Harbor,
Rhode Island a small coastal community, it’s beginnings were as
a fishing community, the small fishing cottages still line the
streets mixed in with new “cottages” and modern homes.
Clamming in the mud-flats and along the coastal waterways,
and salt ponds in the area has been the pass-time and industry for
the “swamp Yankees” there for decades and most probably
centuries.
Clamming
is a great pass-time and even an industry, throughout much of
Rhode Island. One of
my favorite clams are known as “little-necks”, specifically I
like the little-neck clams that are called “cherry-stones”
they are most likely called “cherry-stones” because the are
about the size of a cherry…actually they are a bit larger, as
small little-necks are illegal to harvest (that’s what it is
called when you go clamming, according to those government types
that make all them rules). Anyway
cherry-stones are fixed a variety of ways many people know them as
fried-clams…the way I like to eat them is RAW.
Yep that’s right raw.
There is nothing like mixing up a little home-made cocktail
sauce (ketchup, lime or lemon juice and fresh horse-radish),
horse-radish is delicious! Then
using that home-made concoction, to dab a little on the raw
little-neck aka cherry-stone and suck it in your mouth chew it up
a little and swallow….hmmm good!
Being
the son of two frugal down to earth New Englander’s who embody
everything there is to be a swampuh, swamp yankee, from looking
for the best deals to capitalizing on the best bargains (there is
a difference between deals and bargains…we’ll get into that
later), to being staunch advocates for recycling coming for the
adage: Reduce –
Reuse – Recycle, the three R’s as they are called certainly
sum up the yankee swamper creed:
“Use it Up, Wear it Out, and don’t throw it out OR Else
Go WITHOUT”.
There
is nothing like spending the Monday, holiday of Labor Day, out for
hours as a family, mom, dad and son, clamming for hours upon
hours, we brought back our “catch”, well you don’t exactly
catch clams, nor do I like the word harvest either, so it is just
called Clamming. We
clammed up enough clams for almost a week of snacks and
appetizers…hmmm good!
We
kept the clams, little-necks, what I like to refer to as
cherry-stones, in cold tap water in the refrigerator, which keeps
them alive for days! Over
the next couple of days we had cherry-stones as a snack before
dinner. After having
our fill of cherry-stones we realized that six of the little guys,
little-neck clams, were just a little too big, more like quahogs,
which are very large little-necks.
Quahogs,
Mercenaria mercenaria, quahaug, quahog, hard clam, round clam;
Quahogs are found just below the sand or mud surface
between the high and low tidal zone and beyond, in sheltered
waters. A quahog with
a shell thickness or hinge width of less than 1 inch is seed and
below legal harvest size. These
should not be taken. A
1 inch thick to 2 1/2 inch long quahog is known as a littleneck, a
2 1/2 to 3 inch quahog is a cherrystone, and a 3 inch or larger
quahog is a chowder. The chowders are often used to make chowder,
clam pie, and fritters.
Throwing
Back the Big Ones, when we realized some of the “little-necks”
were so big they were more like quahogs, my dad said to me you
need to walk those down the dock all the way out to the end and
throw them back so we will have more clams to go clamming for next
year and for future generations.
Like the adage says Waste NOT WANT Not!
Goode Olde New Englanders, especially those in southern
Rhode Island and Connecticut “swamp Yankees” aka Swampers or
Swampuhs know not to waste anything and sustain-ably go clamming,
fishing or hunting so there will always be more for next year and
future generations.
The
old seventh generation rule takes on new meaning in today’s age
with the 250 year Rule for 10 generations, which is actually more
like the old seven (7) generation rule as a generation is becoming
much longer than 25 years.
So
this is a little story about clamming in Rhode Island in the
beautiful and desirable little community of Snug Harbor, Rhode
Island.
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