Mussel beach
Grab a shellfish license and head to the rocks
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| Paul Robertson and Tracey Kerle were harvesting dinner late in the afternoon on New Year's Eve, Dec. 31, 2006, on the Nelscott beach in Lincoln City. OCT photo by Dave Price. |
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| The Oregon Coast Today staff, willing to sacrifice on your behalf, dear reader, selected some mussels, too.These were prepared in a skillet with olive oil, one diced tomato, half an onion (also diced), fresh garlic and a splash of olive oil. After heating for 8 minutes on med-high setting, dinner was served. |
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By NIKI PRICE
Oregon Coast Today
Click here to download PDF version of this story.
No heaving the crab pots out of the water. No searching for tiny air bubbles in the sand, followed by frantic, messy digging as you search for the retreating gaper. No bait, no hook, no boat.
Welcome to mussel beach, the lazy seafood lovers’ paradise. With a small hand tool or even just a pair of heavy gloves, you can harvest your fill of these intertidal bivalves within a few minutes. Thrown into a pasta sauce, sautéed with a bit of butter and white wine, or steamed plain, the mussel can be every bit as good as its more popular shellfish cousins, with a great deal less effort.
“I love mussels because I don’t like to do a lot of work,” said John Kallas, nutritionist and owner of Wild Food Adventures, a Portland-based company that offers workshops and field trips on foraging. “But I love the flavor of mussels. They’re certainly comparable to any clam, although they have a different flavor, and they’re much less hassle in terms of cleaning.”
We know. We had you at “no bait,” but there are plenty of reasons try harvesting and preparing your own mussels. Flex your mussels with these guidelines.
1. Get legal
Purchase a 2007 shellfish license from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, available at most sporting goods and grocery stores. The annual license is $6.50 for residents, $16.50 for non-residents. Non-residents can also get a three-day license for $9. The rules are simple: 72 mussels of any size per person, per day. But grab an updated copy of the state regulations pamphlet anyway, because the Marine Zone section contains maps of the designated marine gardens and habitat reserves that are closed to mussel harvesting.
2. Call the hotline
Mussels, bless their little filters, feed by sucking up anything that is suspended in the waters surrounding them. From time to time, their watery food source carries bacteria that can be paralytic or even fatal to humans, who ingest these toxins along with shellfish. To help you out, the state tests regularly for these elements and closes areas where the levels are too high. Curious about the safety of your intended beach? Call the shellfish hotline, 800-448-2474.
3. Find your hunting grounds
Oregon’s edible mussels, mostly Mytilus edulis and some Mytilus Californianus, adhere themselves to rocky outcroppings of basalt, which dot the beaches through the central coast, and become more common as you head southward toward California. Designated marine garden areas at Cape Kiwanda, Otter Rock, Yaquina Head and Yachats are off limits, but rocks to the north and south of these areas are usually productive. In Lincoln City, intertidal zones in the Nelscott neighborhood (as shown on the cover) and north Roads End have good reputations; Mitch Vance, shellfish project leader for the ODFW Marine Resources Program Office in Newport, suggests Seal Rock and the beach south of the Yachats Marine Garden.
4. Find a low tide
Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be extremely low. “Mussels will be exposed at almost any low tide. At really low tides, the water is way below where the mussels stop,” Kallas said. Get a tide table, usually free where you buy your license, and find a low tide during daylight hours.
5. Assemble your implements
What to take on a mussel hunting trip? Kallas, who leads wild food field trips to the coast through his company, Wild Food Adventures (www.wildfoodadventures.com), has seen many tools in his 14 years on the job. “Some people use a crowbar, or one of those weeders with a handle and a notched end, used for dandelions. Or, you could just bring thick leather gloves, like woodworkers use,” he said. Other mussel-loaders pull the shell up with one hand, exposing the byssal threads that the mussel uses to adhere to the rock, and cut the threads with a pair of old scissors. He does not recommend harvesting them by hand, without protection, as the attached barnacles have sharp edges. You’ll also need a container to keep them in, but it doesn’t need to hold water.
6. Dress to impress (the barnacles)
For best results, wear old, weather-appropriate clothing and shoes that completely cover and protect your feet. Kallas recommends old tennis shoes, which can withstand the sharp barnacles while still offering some traction. No sandals or open-toed shoes allowed.
7. Start picking
There are no state restrictions on the legal size for harvestable mussels. But does it make a difference in taste? Vance, from the ODFW, suggests picking shells that are 2 to 4 inches in length. “The very large ones are not palatable. They can be quite chewy,” Vance said. To Kallas, on the other hand, size doesn’t matter. “I really don’t find (the smaller size) any more tender or better flavored. I love the big ones, too. They’re all delcious and tender.” But it pays to respect the mussel colonies by taking just what you’ll eat, and limiting the amount of damage you wreak on the surrounding wildlife. Mussels require 2 to 5 years to grow to edible size, and marine environments can take many years to recover.
8. Homeward bound
Like other shellfish, fresh mussels are a perishable product that should be eaten right away. When you get them to the kitchen, clean them with cold running water and a stiff brush, removing as much sand and grit as you can. Discard any with open shells or excessive sand. The byssus, a clump of black, threadlike material that held the shell to the rock, can be removed before cooking, or more easily, afterwards.
9. On the plate
The mussel is cultivated and prized all over the world, so the recipe possibilities are endless, from baked to bisque and chowder to salad. Both the sources used here prefer their fresh mussels prepared simply. Vance steams them in a shallow layer of water until they pop open, between 10 and 15 minutes, removes and cleans them, then tosses them with pasta in a butter or red sauce. “I start a big pot of water and steam or boil them. As soon as they start opening up, I take them out and eat them, just like that,” Kallas said. “I love the way they taste, just the way they are. I don’t even add salt.”
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