Ocean forage
I had a few days off this week and was asked to give a fella a life out to the beach to collect periwinkles. I decided sure why not I go with you give you a hand to see what else is out there as you never know, with the Irish coastline can range from golden sand to rocks stones and silt.
So off we went at low tide, today was to turn at 11.20am so we were there for 9am out in the shore plenty of seaweed and stone. I think to myself this is going to be a long day. Right so straight out do you see that black bit way out there that’s where we are going (oh here goes). From this point on I’m in completely uncharted territory I don’t wander too far from shore usually. However that black bit was a bank of mussels, clams, periwinkles, and oysters. (Jackpot) as I turn around to look back I think anyone who does this deserves to get paid. We returned day 2 for more winkles I took the excess mussels and clams as my payment for my days labour. (First time for everything).
Getting all these into bags is the easy part getting all bags back to shore when you are half a mile out. That’s the hard part.
Cutting a long story very shortly all bags arrived to shore and were left over night to be rinsed by the incoming tide, to be taken the following morning to a place to be washed and sorted. I was given plenty mussels and clams for my troubles just to sort through what was usable and not anything small goes back so it can continue growing. These however get dropped somewhere I can get them without getting covered in silt sand and muck. In a year or so I will put them on a plate provided birds don’t get to them 1st.
Cutting a long story very shortly all bags arrived to shore and were left over night to be rinsed by the incoming tide, to be taken the following morning to a place to be washed and sorted. I was given plenty mussels and clams for my troubles just to sort through what was usable and not anything small goes back so it can continue growing. These however get dropped somewhere I can get them without getting covered in silt sand and muck. In a year or so I will put them on a plate provided birds don’t get to them 1st.
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