August 26, 2014: This is the last week of Summer before school starts. And we planned to have a clam digging trip since the first day of summer holiday way back in June. The closest clam digging beach is Birch Bay at Blaine in Washington state just across the border from Vancouver Canada. There was a red tide/biotoxin warning since the first day of summer break until Aug 21. Finally we can go and have our first time clam digging experience with kids before school starts. It is only an hour travel time from Richmond, Canada to Birch Bay, Blaine US if you have a NEXUS card (like us) to save border waiting time.
To check for Red Tide warning and Washington state shellfish harvest area, you can go to their Shellfish Safety Map Website: https://fortress.wa.gov/doh/eh/maps/biotoxin/biotoxin.html
For tide table in Blaine, Washington: http://www.dairiki.org/tides/monthly.php/bln
Tide predictions for other areas in Washington state: http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/tide_predictions.html?gid=259#listing
To check for Red Tide warning and Washington state shellfish harvest area, you can go to their Shellfish Safety Map Website: https://fortress.wa.gov/doh/eh/maps/biotoxin/biotoxin.html
For tide table in Blaine, Washington: http://www.dairiki.org/tides/monthly.php/bln
Tide predictions for other areas in Washington state: http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/tide_predictions.html?gid=259#listing
For non US resident, one day shellfish license is $20.15. My friend told me that annual pass is just $35 and you can go unlimited clam digging all year round in any State of Washington beaches. Kids under 15 also need a license but it is free.
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| Clams are located 4-5 inches deep down from this rocky beach. You will need a big shovel for faster and easier harvest. |
There are restrictions on bringing live and raw shellfishes back into Canada, therefore we brought a BBQ stove and a Hotpot stove for cooking our harvest on site.
We went to Bay Centre Market for shellfish license and also some food for BBQ and ingredients for cooking clams. We bought wiener sausage and a loaf of garlic bread. For cooking the clams, we bought butter, white wine, lemon, lemon and pepper seasoning, and cilantro. I prefer dill but they don't have any fresh herbs except Cilantro. It is better to have garlic too. Unfortunately I cannot find any in the market :(
Today's low tide happened at 12:34 PM. Perfect time to catch some clams for lunch. We did not dig many because we did not bring proper tools. We only brought some gardening tools and it takes longer time to find good number of clams. Next time we will bring a bigger shovel for more and easier harvest.
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| We also grill portions of our harvest. It tasted good too! |
Birch Bay State park has washrooms, picnic tables and water all along the beach. It is very convenient. We wash the clams there and put the clams in bucket of clean water. Leave it for half an hour and let them have enough time to spill out the sands.
We got 3 kinds of clams and a few mussels there. Cockle Clams taste the best. But the Manilla Littleneck and butter clams are also delicious.
Ingredients:
White wine
Butter
Lemon
Lemon and Pepper seasonings
Garlic (But I cannot find that in market)
Cilantro or dill
Directions:
Prepare a pot, melt the butter
Sauteed crushed or minced garlic
Put in clams and stir
Pour in White wine, add lemon and cilantro/dill.
Covered until white wine boiled.
Open cover and stir the clams. Cover again and turn to medium heat.
Served when clams are cooked and opened up.
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