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June 06, 1996 - Tasting the Summer's First Steamers8A • The Suffolk Times • June 6, 1996 Tasting the Summer's First Steamers It is 6:30 a.m. on a clear sparkling morning at the beach cottage. We slept over after a busy day on the bay and our first try of the year at good old- fashioned clamming. Clamming in the past has been pretty poor in our creeks but with the town's clam transplant program, if you hit it right, you'll make out just fine. There are many ways of clamming; the most common is using a clam rake but under certain conditions the oldest of all methods, treading with . your feet and hands, works best. Either way requires getting into the water and at this time of the year the water is still pretty cold. My son, who is half polar bear, plunged right in and immediately started work- ing the muddy bottom of _ one of our creeks with his hands and feet. (No, I'm not telling you which creek.) He hit a good spot and soon he was stuffing the clams into his bathing suit to hold them for we had forgotten to bring a pail along with us. Every once in a while he'd swing back to the boat to unload his pre- cious cargo. In the meantime the grandchildren were learning how to row the dinghy we'd pulled along. I'd attached a long line to the dinghy just in case their learn- ing experience should fail and they might drift. Each had an oar and each was trying to outpull the other and, as you would expect, around and around they went. At this stage of their learning, pulling togeth- er had no place in their youthful effort. Back at the cottage we had our first steamers of the year — hot, steaming and dripping with butter. We feasted over the first little clams from our local waters. The large clams we put overboard in a basket in front of the cottage, where I'm looking at them right now. The tide has gone down, exposing part of the basket, and right alongside of it are two seagulls trying to figure out how to get at them. They paddle around and around. Every once in a while one will point his head and bill high in the sky and scream in a loud gull -like language all sorts of unpleasantries that I'm sure are his way of venting his frustration. If the gull had been successful in pick- ing up one of the clams, he'd take off and fly 30 to 40 feet in the air, over the beach, and then drop his clam, hopefully smash- ing it open, making it easy to get inside. If not, he'd pick it up again and the process would be repeated. In many places where gulls dig their own clams, and they are quite expert at this, they have found a favorite dropping place such as a roadway or a parking lot. Once dropped here the clam is usually broken open. Some areas are so heavily used for this bashing purpose by the gulls that the areas have become hazardous to car Focus on Nature by Pam Stoutenburgh tires. But we'll not leave any clams to Mr. Seagull for it won't be long before I'll wade out and get our spoils of the day and open them up. Chilled in the refrigerator they'll be easy to open, especially if you lay them out on a tray so they won't be shaken when you take them out. Barbara will then make the most delicious stuffed clams using the cleaned -up shells. I'm all for that for you can freeze some of them easily for later use. The last few nights (Thursday, Friday and Saturday) have been especially pro- ductive here at the beach for horseshoe crabs, what with the full moon creating especially high tides (called spring tides). The crabs have literally plowed up the beach with their egg laying. The grandchil- dren threw back 36 horseshoe crabs (anoth- er beach had 27) that were stranded behind a little berm along the high -tide mark; most were males (the smaller ones) but some were doubles. The big female plows along half- buried, laying her eggs in the sand while the male clings behind fertilizing them. Probably most would have sur- vived until the next high tide, but youth- ful concern thought it best not to take any chances. Let's leave the water world and look to the flowering trees along our roadside. Probably most noticeable right now are Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh POLLEN BEARERS —Many trees have inconspicuous flowers. Here we see the oak catkin that is responsible for much of the pollen in the air today. Puffy eyes and sniffling noses are the results. the beautiful horse chestnut trees with their clusters of creamy -white flowers that stand upright in the shape of miniature Christmas trees. As the season slips by the familiar green - bristled, golf ball -size fruit is formed that carries the nut. When they drop and split open, they reveal the most elegant leather- brown- colored nut that every school child just has to collect. Sorry to say, the nut is not edible as once the nut was from our own American chestnut that has disappeared. What a loss, not only in its edible nut, but in the wood itself. In the early days of our coun- try its wood was in demand for buildings, fences and early telephone poles. It was extremely durable and resisted rot and insects. I can vouch for its longevity for I still have a few rails in my split -[ail fence made of American chestnut. Another flowering tree we see that is being used more and more in landscaping is the hawthorn. Its clusters of small white The oldest of all clamming methods, treading with your feet and hands, works best. 1 All,90% 1 AAU oAA'116 75 Years Ago June 3, 1921 Funds Raised for Memorial Marker: It can be done! In spite of discouraging remarks made to members of the committee concerning the success and failure of drives to raise money, the Tag Day instigated by The Suffolk Times to start a Memorial Boulder Fund met with marked success, bringing in the sum of $349.44, net proceeds. The fund is started. There is a balance of $384.98 in the bank to build up to the amount necessary to get a suitable memorial boulder. It is now time to have a permanent com- mittee appointed, invested with the authority to get esti- mates on the moving of a boulder, the cost of the bronze tablet, and to plan for raising the balance necessary to cover the expense. 50 Years Ago June 7, 1946 Centerpiece: At a meeting of the Shelter Island Civic Improvement Committee held on Friday, May 31, the com- pleted plan for the beautification of the Center was present- ed by the chairman, Mrs. Rodney Ward. The plan calls for a two -way lane road starting at the Center Fire Hall, divided by broken landscaped islands and ending at a traffic circle at the Four Comers. A flagpole and a flagged platform for the band is planned near the Community Hall, and a large com- munity Christmas tree will also be placed in this area. This is an outstanding example of the result of coopera- tion by all the residents of the island, as all the property owners on the west side of the road have cheerfully relin- quished the land needed and the light and telephone compa- nies have promised to move their poles. 25 Years Ago June 3, 1971 No Steam Engine for Greenport: With reluc- tance, the Greenport Village Planning Board voted Tuesday against a proposal to develop a railroad museum and excur- sion steam engines in the space now allocated for a com- mercial shipping venture for the village. The project, presented at a joint meeting of the Village Board and Planning Board, proposed development of the railroad dock as a tourist attraction for Greenport. Ron Ziel, director of the Long Island Sunrise Trail Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society, outlined his plans for utilizing the dock area for the project. Board members point- ed out that this would conflict with shipping development. "We can't have two projects on the same site," Planning Board member James Monsell said later. "The museum and excursions sound very interesting and possibly, if Ziel can work it out for another area outside the dock space, we can approve it." blossoms make it an attractive addition to one's yard, but beware for as the name hawthorn implies, it has huge thorns that protect it from grazing animals. Some of you might remember my writing last win- ter about the bird called "the butcher bird" (the shrike) that hangs its prey on these thorny points of the hawthorn tree. Probably the most common but most often passed by is the locust tree whose scent permeates the air at this time of the year. Its proliferation of hanging blooms invites my bees to come and sample its nectar. It's a legume, meaning that its roots add nitrogen to the soil, which is good for all plant life. Its wood is so rot - resistant it is used for fence posts, pil- ings, etc. Its disadvantage is that it is an invader of open fields. Look at a field that has been left unused and you'll see locusts moving in. The `Princess' Paulownia A tree not too often seen but one that will turn your head is the paulownia tree because of its striking appearance. Here the flowers come out before the leaves, giving the tree an overall bluish- purple color. It is often called the princess tree and has an ancient folk tale behind it, for it comes from China. The story goes that in -olden times when a baby girl was born a paulownia tree was planted. When she was grown and ready to be marred, the father would make a hope chest out of the wood from the tree. This in itself tells you it is a fast- growing tree, one that has captured the lumber industry's attention. There are so many blossoming trees at this time of the year, it is almost im- possible to describe them. There are the oaks, the hickories, the pines; most of these have inconspicuous flowers but each has a blossom that will form a seed or nut with the sole purpose, like every- thing else in this great world of ours, of continuing its species. Items, Help Wanted For Museum Auction Ransack your attic for curios for the upcoming East End Seaport Maritime Museum country auction fund - raiser, slated for June 15 at 7 p.m., with view- ing from 5 to 6:30 p.m. The site is the Greenport High School auditorium. Volunteers are also wanted. Call Dwayne Early at 477 -2100.