Bagging The Bivalves

This is Alligator Harbor. Alabama Chef Chris Hastings has brought us to the waters of the Florida Panhandle, just south of Tallahassee, to meet some hard-workin' people. And share in what's being harvested on the floor of this large saltwater bay. Chris says, "As a chef this is what we live for. Finding products like these and taking them right out of the water and eating them. It doesn't get any better than this."

Chris is an award winning chef who grew up in the South and hosts tours along Florida's panhandle. It's an area known affectionately as the "forgotten coast." Residents like A.D. Folks have great pride in this area and the bounty it produces. A.D. says, "After 39 and a half years on the water, it's kinda nice to have something I can still do. It's a fun way to live and try to make a little money."

A.D. and his wife Karen have leases on this state-owned section of the bay. On any given day you'll find the two of them on their small pontoon boat working with their clam beds. They're more farmers than fishermen as the clams are raised in mesh bags, staked to the harbor floor. There are tens of thousands of clams here. After about a year in the water, the clams are big enough to harvest for sale. Today A.D. and Karen get help harvesting from another clammer here by the name of Tanglefoot. Tanglefoot says, "The clams bury in the mud on the harbor floor to protect themselves from predators. Good Lord, he just knows what he was doing when he made a clam. They don't got no eyes, and they ain't got no mind. But, God give him the wisdom to bury up. He put 'em here for us to eat."

After hauling in a batch, A.D. boils some up in a pot right on the boat, "We've got some butter with a little garlic. Little butter. Lemon Juice. Over here in another pot. This is Alligator Bay gourmet. Just good food."

With Chris gathering up clams himself, it's obvious he's got some plans for his own gourmet creation. "We serve these clams to our customers in the restaurant. It just blows them away. They didn't know. They had no idea that clams could be so tender, so sweet, have good salty you know, wonderful seafood flavor."

The climate here allows for year-round clam harvesting. That's good news for A.D. and Tanglefoot, and for Chris Hastings, who buys clams for his Birmingham, Alabama restaurant. After a long day on the water, Chris did a little cooking of his own in the kitchen of a nearby Florida beach house, "Vegetables picked fresh at a nearby farm, shrimp and clams pulled out of the water hours ago, all the ingredients for a paella dish. This is what we live for. Those guys work hard out there. They work extremely hard. and you don't make a lot of money, but you noticed how passionate they were. They were passionate the region. They were passionate about that bay. They were passionate about clams."

Of course not everyone has access to fresh Florida clams, but Chris says there's a bounty of fresh produce and food products in most corners of the U.S.you just have to look for it. "Go to farmer's markets, talk to the grower's themselves, um, and say 'hey' you know 'what are you growin'? Because this is a conversation of food that is happening today in America. Food of place, food of season, food that has a smaller carbon footprint. It's important." That conversation made us very hungry so we dug into the paella and enjoyed the bounty of the heartland, fresh from the sea. In this case, the proof is in the paella.

A Bit About Bivalves
Clams are members of the bivalve family and it's a big family! There are dozens of bivalve varieties around the globe. Some are tiny, measuring less than an inch in diameter. Some are big: weighing up to seven hundred pounds. Oh...and pearls! Some clams can grow pearls as big as golf balls.