Low Tides Should Mean High Yields of Mussels and Clams in Southland
Extremes are a law of nature when it comes to those mysterious forces that regulate tides.
Extremely high tides for our Southern California coast of seven feet plus are happening this week, while minus low tides complement the cycle.
For those of us who sail and have become watchers of the sea’s various moods, minus tides that expose great expanses of shoreline not only mean caution in navigating channels with shoals in them, but easier gatherings of those delicious gifts of the sea--clams and mussels.
Mussel gathering is the easiest sport of all during these low-low tides. Simply remove your shoes and, with bag or bucket in hand, walk out across the sand to the pilings of the several ocean piers of our shoreline and have a mussel pick. A bucketful of these succulent bivalves can be gathered in a few minutes, especially if you’re equipped with a stout knife to help cut the mussels loose from their tough little mooring lines.
Mussels from the farthest pilings will prove to be the least sand laden and the cleanest. Of course, mussels can be harvested from pilings and rocks of our various harbors, but, unfortunately, the threat of pollution exists, so I prefer to get mussels that have grown in the open sea. This time of year is a fine time for musseling because the toxic effects of red tide, making mussels and other bivalves poisonous during the summer months, is absent.
Cleanse the mussels of sand by immersing them in water for several hours, or better overnight, then scrub their shells, removing the beards, and you have a gourmet treat in store. The simplest preparation is steaming them until the shells open. Before doing that, discard any mussels that have already opened their shells. Tap any mussel whose shells are open. If they close, then they’re safe to steam.
After steaming, eat them while they’re hot. They’re delicious dipped in melted butter. More complicated recipes involve mussels made into chowder, a sauce for linguine and an ingredient for fish stew.
All of the mussel recipes can be made with clams that one digs at low tides. Cleansing of clams of grit is the same process as with mussels.
Talking with John Sunada, state Department of Fish and Game biologist, I learned that clams, especially the pismo, have not entirely recovered from the mortal beatings they took from storms during 1983. To reach maturity, pismo clams require about seven years. Other kinds of clams--little necks, cockles, razors--mature in a year or two.
The traditional clamming site in Orange County, he said, is along the coast from the Huntington Beach Pier west to the Santa Ana River. You’ve got to dig for clams, so a pitchfork or a shovel is almost a necessity, along with a receptacle to put your harvest in.
Plan on getting cold feet. Average water temperatures are about 60 degrees.
Good appetite, my friends!
Walter Gleckler, coordinator of the Orange Coast College Sailing Adventure Series, announces that the 1987 four-part film/lecture series begins with Lin and Larry Pardey Jan. 16 at Marina del Rey and Jan. 17 in the Robert B. Moore Theatre, Costa Mesa.
On one of their infrequent visits to the States, Lin and Larry will share their delight with their engineless cutter, the 29-foot Taleisen, designed by Lyle Hess and built by Larry. Taleisen is moored near Aukland, New Zealand, where the Pardeys have been working on their latest cruising book, “The Capable Cruiser.” The Pardeys circumnavigated the world in their 24-foot Seraffyn. It took them 11 years. In 1984, after launching Taleisen at Lido Shipyard, the couple began their second circumnavigation. The title of their lecture is “The Second Time Around--Is It Still Fun?”
All lectures begin at 8 p.m. Others in the series, to be held in Marina del Rey, are the Robert Driscoll family, with “Blue Water Odyssey,” a five-year voyage around the world in their 36-foot Sea Witch ketch, on Jan. 24; Steve and Sharon Ticehurst, “Adventurous Voyage on a Shoestring,” an account of cruising in Mexico and Panama in a 36-foot Sea Goer yawl, on Jan. 31; and Earl and Betty Hinz, “Meandering Through Micronesia,” in their Morgan Out Island 41, on Feb. 6.
For ticket information and the Marina del Rey schedules, call 432-5527 or (213) 598-6744.