Day 346- Keep Clam and Carry On.

Two walks today, but the most interesting one was the walk down to a tidelands nature preserve here on Bainbridge Island. I'm doing a story on a local organization that's trying to clean up Puget Sound, by way of growing shellfish. They're called the Puget Sound Restoration Fund, and they are good at what they do.  Lucky me...I got invited to one of their harvests for the Shellfish CSA that uses the tidelands. Lucky my kids, too. They had no school, and since they are such awesome little buggers, they got to accompany me on this unique adventure. 

So this morning, at a seriously low .1 tide in warm weather, we learned how to harvest shellfish from the farm. I sorted oysters, counter oysters, removed mussels, saved crabs of all sorts, saw starfishes, ate a fresh raw oyster right out of the water (Did you know they DO NOT need lemon, sauce, or ANYTHING?! Freakin' delicious!), and watched my kids explore the beach after they tired of the harvesting work. 

Here are some pictures of the morning--nothing profound or provocative today, Dear Reader. Just good ol' fashioned Puget Sound fun. 

Dumping out the net bags where the oysters have been growing.

Sorting out the larger ones, broken and dead ones.

Jackson and Lola learning how to sort from the PSRF founder.

Bagging up dozens for the CSA members, who will be eating well tonight!

Volunteers get to keep a couple dozen for themselves!

They tired of sorting, but beach combing is educational, too!

Bissel threads, with which a mussel attaches itself to other things. FYI, these suckers were about as strong as steel guitar strings!

Guess who else will be eating well tonight?

Me and Lola. 'Cause Jackson won't touch 'em. Too bad for him!

Aw, shucks, 
Dani