Friday, June 7, 2019 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com • A3
Langdon Cook
looks to
the land
Nourishment, deliciousness
abound — if you know what
to look for in the wild
By CARA MICO
For Seaside Signal
F
orage expert extraordinaire and globe
trotter Langdon Cook stopped by the
Seaside Library to share his knowledge
of shellfi sh collecting and cooking.
The May 23 event, “Pacifi c NW
Shellfi sh Foraging and Cooking,” was
sponsored by the Friends of the Seaside
Library and was his fourth at the library, his
past presentations focused on mushrooms,
plants and berries, and salmon fi shing.
Cook spends most of his time in Seat-
tle with his family, but has travelled “up
and down the west coast” as well as in New
England.
“Wildfoods have been a part of life since
I moved to the Pacifi c Northwest three
decades ago,” Cook said.
Cook spent a good part of his life on
the water, out in the wilderness. The forag-
ing stemmed from a need to improve bor-
ing camp menus with fresh, wild berries, fi sh
and mushrooms when 20 miles in the wil-
derness. Over time Cook’s goal became the
wild foods rather than bagging a peak.
F IN
DING THE
Food
Al
L a ro u n d
us
Langdon Cook with
the elusive geoduck.
But for Cook, foraging isn’t only about
Cook’s thorough and engaging presenta-
sprinkling in bits of wild food recreation- tion covered detailed descriptions of where
ally, it’s also about preserving wild foods for to fi nd the best shellfi sh including razor
future generations.
clams, Manila clams, horse clams, cockles
“Sustainability is a huge part of what and the famed geoduck. He also provided
I talk about. Foraging makes you a better several mouth-watering recipes for each
steward of the land and water. It was the species, many of which can be found in his
matsutake mushroom hunters of southern books.
Oregon who convinced the Forest Service to
For the Seaside region he suggested for-
consider more selective logging. They can agers should keep an eye out for beaches
make more money from harvesting one vari- with equal parts sand, gravel and mud where
ety of mushroom in mature forest than from they might fi nd the non-native Manila clam
traditional forestry,” Cook said.
three to four inches beneath the surface.
He’s compiled his knowledge of the land This commonplace clam is considered the
into a series of
clam of commerce
books, which are
as it travels well
less guidebooks
and is considered
‘FORAGING MAKES YOU
and more narra-
a delicacy by most
A BETTER STEWARD
tives with people
chefs. Cook steams
at the center. They
them with chopped
OF THE LAND AND WATER.’
focus on the inter-
fennel and thyme,
Langdon Cook
section of food and
wine, butter and
nature with a fair
cream. His recipes
few recipes woven
are simple, incor-
throughout.
porating bright and bold fl avors with fresh
If you’re looking to start foraging Cook seasonal ingredients.
recommends taking a class, either through
“All you need is a limit of clams and a
a local extension service or from someone few ingredients,” Cook said.
you trust, and start foraging. You could also
If you’re considering hunting for the elu-
consider joining a mycological or botanical sive geoduck bear in mind that this is not an
society which has the added benefi t of mak- animal for beginners. The clam is only found
ing friends. A good class will not only help during the lowest tides of the year, around
you learn to identify and harvest wild foods the minus three foot tide. Look for the dou-
but also to process and cook them.
ble barrel shotgun siphon and then start dig-
ging. Give yourself plenty of time and dig
adjacent to the clam until you hit the ele-
vation of the foot. It’s no wonder that the
clam’s name is rooted in a Nisqually word
for “dig-deep.”
Geoducks are the longest living shellfi sh
species living for 150 years or more. The
massive bivalve can grow up to eight inches
with a three foot siphon, weighing over three
pounds. Remarkably Puget Sound suppos-
edly has more geoduck clams on the bottom
than all other life combined by weight.
Cook recommends immersing the clam
in boiling water for 10 seconds to remove
the shell and the membrane surrounding the
body. He serves the siphon, which is choice,
sashimi or sushi style. The body is delicious
as well but requires slightly more cooking
time. Try the Sichuan morel and asparagus
preparation in his book.
Other tips included in the books include
which shellfi sh make the best chowder and
which ones are good for frying, as well as
cleaning methods. But Cook suggests that
you won’t become an expert forager by read-
ing his books, for that you’ll need to get out
onto the land and start looking for yourself.
“There is no substitute for going outside
and seeing food for yourself,” Cook said. “A
photograph and text don’t tell the full story.
A Douglas fi r can look one way in a picture
but look completely different depending on
the location. Get out there with someone you
trust.”
‘By-the-wind sailors’ return to Seaside beaches
Seaside Aquarium
The Oregon Coast Aquar-
ium reports the “blue tide” is
upon us, as beaches all along
the Oregon coast are strewn
with an aquamarine layer of
jelly-like organisms espe-
cially apparent at low tide.
These are the innumer-
able bodies of by-the-wind
sailors, formally known as
Velella velella, and their
strandings are a regular, yet
fascinating late spring phe-
nomenon in coastal Oregon.
By-the-wind sailors are
hydrozoans, a class of pred-
atory animals, distantly
related to corals, sea anem-
ones and jellies. They range
in size from a few millime-
ters across to seven centime-
ters and appear brilliant blue
and purple when at sea or
freshly washed ashore. After
time in the sun, the velella
dry out and lose their pig-
mentation. Beachgoers will
often mistake the dried ani-
mals for thin, clear pieces of
plastic.
By-the-wind-sailors are
not singular organisms but
in fact colonies of animals.
Each velella is a colony of
all-male or all-female indi-
viduals (called polyps),
which are divided into sep-
arate groups within the col-
ony. Some polyps specialize
in feeding and reproduction,
while others protect the col-
ony and provide structural
support.
Visitors walking the
beaches in the next few
weeks should enjoy these
incredible creatures safely
while their aquamarine hues
last — they won’t look that
good for long, and they’ll
soon smell much worse.
The Oregon Coast Aquar-
ium creates unique and
engaging experiences that
connect visitors to the Ore-
gon Coast and inspire ocean
conservation.
Oregon Coast Aquarium
Velella velella along Oregon beaches.
National parks track visitor dollars in new report Fresh Oregon
The Astorian
A new report shows 1.3
million visitors to national
parks in Oregon spent $94
million in the state last year.
Overall, that spending
resulted in more than 1,000
jobs and a cumulative ben-
efi t to the state economy of
$133 million.
Nationwide, the National
Park Service report found
$20.2 billion of direct spend-
ing by more than 318 million
park visitors. The cumula-
tive benefi t to the U.S. econ-
omy was $40.1 billion.
Oregon’s North Coast con-
tains one national park, the
Lewis and Clark National His-
torical Park in Warrenton. The
state’s other national parks are
Crater Lake National Park,
John Day Fossil Beds National
Monument and Oregon Caves
National Monument.
“The national parks of Ore-
gon attract visitors from across
the country and around the
world,” Stan Austin, regional
director for the National Park
Service’s Pacifi c West Region,
said in a statement. “Whether
they are out for an afternoon,
a school fi eld trip, or a month-
long family vacation, visitors
come to have a great experi-
ence, and end up spending a
little money along the way.”
Lodging
expenses
accounted for the biggest
chunk of visitor spending,
about $6.8 billion total in
2018 at parks nationally. Food
expenses came in second at
around $5 billion between
restaurants and bars and gro-
cery and convenience stores.
Hood
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