Clams

Winter 2009

Video: Acres of Clams

Eugene Thrasher, a trained Washington State University Beach Watcher with more than a thousand volunteer hours under his belt, has been digging and eating clams in Washington for half a century. Thrasher is the guy to ask if you want to learn how to find and dig a clam.

Follow him through a clam dig at Penn Cove on Whidbey Island, and then learn about types of clams found in Washington. Finish up with a dose of Northwest icon Ivar Haglund singing “Acres of Clams.”

You can read more about clams in “In Season: Clams.”

Winter 2009

Clams

Displaced by the salmon and eclipsed by the oyster, the clam is perhaps the forgotten star of the Puget Sound. But once it was the main seafood symbol of the region. Even before restaurateur Ivar Haglund made his “Acres of Clams” restaurant a Seattle landmark, the clam’s status was lodged on the shores of Northwest Native American lore. In fact it had a role in the origin of man. According to Haida tradition, Raven discovered a large clamshell on the beach and looked inside to find dozens of little people. Lonely for someone to play with and trick, he coaxed them out of the shell … » More …