The
only other Eastern Boring Clam with which I have had experience is the Rough Piddock, Zirfaea crispata, which is
only about 2 inches long. It bores in very hard clay or soft rock and is
fairly common in cold-water areas, although its total range is from Labrador to
North Carolina. The queerest thing about this clam is that each valve of
its shell is divided into two approximately equal areas by a radial groove that
runs directly from the hinge section to the margin of the shell, about midway
on the shell. The sculpturing of the two areas is vastly different.
The anterior half of the shell is covered with radial ridges or wrinkles,
terminating in rasplike teeth at the margin, while the posterior end of each
valve is decorated only with concentric growth lines. It looks almost as
if two dissimilar clams had been grafted together at the middle. The ends
of the shells gape widely, but the margins converge and touch near the middle
of the clam.
Rough
Piddocks are small and very laborious to dig, but they are almost worth
it. As with other Boring Clams, there is a large portion of the meat
relative to the length of the shell, since the clam bulges over. Because
of the gaping ends they are very easy to clean, and when the meat is run
through a food chopper it makes delicious chowders, patties, or scalloped
clams.
Euell Gibbons, Stalking The Blue-Eyed
Scallop – Foraging our Native Seacoasts for Food and Pleasure, New
York, David McKay Company, Inc., 1964.
NOTE:
I
feel like a Rough Piddock.
Mute (perceived as Dumb),
Overlooked, Persistent, Sleepless.
Boring and Grinding.
I
will leave evidence behind. Negative Space
(like a Black Hole).
Piddock and Euell
Gibbons Links:
PIDDOCK (MYSTERY)
EUELL GIBBONS -- WHERE THE WILD FOODS ARE -- BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE
Music Link:
The
Box Tops -- I Shall Be Released
