Snow's Preserve Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Thanks to The Conservation Trust of Brooksville, Castine, and Penobscot
When the ice began to break-up in the upper reaches of the Bagaduce, we knew Spring was just around the bend. And that meant the annual clamming trip to Young's Point beach.
Sis and I looked forward to this rite, because it meant that Gramps would show up unexpectedly at school with some cockamamie excuse and off we'd go leaving behind our sad-faced friends to endure another interminable school day.
Sis, of course, had been planning the trip for months and had all our gear ready to go. She carried the rakes, Gramps carried the hod which held our lunches and I got to carry the peavey.
In those days, we had to walk about a quarter of a mile to the beach where, first thing, Gramps would set us collecting firewood while he built the fire for the venison shish kabobs he'd been marinating for about a week.
Gramps always claimed that Bagaduce clams were the sweetest this side of Ipswich...but only baby ones less than 2 inches, and then, only the ones under the ice slabs which accumulated in the ebb flow along the beach. Sis and I dug while Gramps used the peavey to break up the bigger ice chunks. By the time our hod was full, Gramps was sweating like a pig, but we had mud frozen to our fingers and icicles forming from our noses. Just a minute to warm up by the fire, and then, home, lickity-split, as fast as we could go.
Ma always had the fat up to temperature and was mixing the batter when we arrived:
2 eggs separated
8 Tbs. flour
half cup of milk
3 quarter tsp. baking powder
3 quarter tsp. salt
Mix together then fold in the beaten egg whites
Gramps shucked, and Ma cooked while we (Pa, Sis and I, Aunt Esther, Aunt Ruth and Uncle Bob) ate, ecstatic, the first batter-clams of the year at the big table, snugged close to the kitchen stove.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Er-One