Digging clams

SLIDESHOW: Have a clam or two

CHERITON Wading knee-high in chilly creek water is a questionable way to spend an autumn afternoon.

Unless the water you're sloshing through is Cherrystone Creek, just off the Chesapeake Bay on the Eastern Shore, and the reason you're getting wet is to fill a basket with littleneck clams for dinner.

"This is definitely the best part of my job," Dave Burden said a few minutes later, sitting at the end of a wooden dock, his feet dangling in the creek, as he popped one steamed clam after another into his mouth.

"Today's a perfect example. You've got a million things going on, the world seems like it's just going nuts, and no matter what, you have to stop whatever else you're doing to go kayaking and sit on a dock eating clams."

He laughed the laugh of a man who had just pulled another fast one on the real world.

Burden operates SouthEast Expeditions and guides kayaking tours all around the Eastern Shore -- even to a local winery, which gives you an idea just how smart he is. One of his most popular trips is a clamming expedition ($50 per person, and the first dozen clams are included in the price) that includes a couple of hours of paddling in the waters Captain John Smith explored in 1608 and then digging in a family-owned creekside clam farm. Then comes the big payoff: a clam-steaming on the dock or shore, or, at the very least, a bag of clams to take home and cook yourself.

Clams are high in protein, potassium and iron, as well as beneficial omega-3 fatty acids, but low in fat and calories. They're also beyond tasty, which you most certainly know if you've ever dined on a clam fritter sandwich at Stella's at Willis Wharf or on chef Ted Cathey's Eastern Shore Clam Fritters at the Charlotte Hotel in Onancock. Or maybe you're fond of Clams Casino, linguini and clam sauce, or clam chowder.

Summer is usually considered peak clam season, but because the clams are harvested year-round, the holidays have become a popular time for those seeking an offseason indulgence.

"Christmas is big," said Ron Crumb of Cherrystone Aqua-Farms, which turned clams into a cash crop on the Eastern Shore. It has grown into one of the world's largest producers of littleneck clams. "Mom and Grandma have everything they want, so buying them a bag of clams is a treat."

How do fans of clams like them?

"Everything from littlenecks steamed on the half-shell to Clams Casino," said Jason Restein, a clam farmer who earned a degree in fisheries science from Virginia Tech and whose family runs R&C Seafood in Oyster, on the ocean side of the Shore. "People even make clam pie. You can do anything. It just depends on how much you like them."

But, said Burden, "It's hard to beat them just steamed."

Burden is not a native of the Eastern Shore, but he loves the place like one. Born in London, raised in South Carolina and educated at the University of Virginia, he came to the Shore 10 years ago and hasn't left. Last year, he was elected to the Northampton County Board of Supervisors.

He also loves clams.

Burden set up a propane-fired steamer on the dock and got to work.

"Clams are simple," he said. "You fill the bottom of a steamer pot with about an inch-and-a-half of the water the clams grew up in. Heat it up until it boils. Dump the clams in, and wait until they pop open. Then, in a perfect world, you dump them on the dock, open up a bottle of Church Creek Steel Chardonnay [from nearby Chatham Vineyards] to dip them in, and you can't ask for much more than that."

Melted butter, with a little parsley sprinkled in, also makes for good dipping.

We scooped the clams from their opened shells, dipped and ate -- and repeated.

"We get a real variety of clam eaters," Burden said. "We'll get people who have two or three or four and they'll say, 'Those are really good,' and we say, 'Dive in, we've got a couple of hundred more.' Then they'll say, 'Oh, no, I've already had four. I couldn't possibly have any more, but thank you so much.'

"Then we have your real clam-eaters. You're trying to hold a conversation with them, and they're eating them like they grew up on the Eastern Shore. Popping one open, throwing the shell, and then opening another one. They'll go through 100 clams in five minutes."

For the record, we ate like the real clam-eaters.
Contact Bill Lohmann at (804) 649-6639 or wlohmann@timesdispatch.com.