Buy Clam Shells
No longer relegated to fishpond in Nanna's backyard, Giant Clamshells have made a huge decorating comeback. This rare and beautiful lady of the sea (OK, well technically a hermaphrodite, but we digress) is the perfect way to add a touch a natural organic elegance to your home interior!
buy clam shells
Fruit bowl, key holder, soap dish, door stop, magazine rack etc. the uses are endless. Each one is truly unique in size, stature and variety of natural inclusions with some featuring corals, barnacles and oyster shells.
To start the cleaning process, rinse the clams under cool, running water and scrub the shells well with a stiff brush. Scrape any barnacles or debris with the tip of a paring knife, if needed.
Clams are tender and juicy, and taste sweetly briny. They're easy to cook by steaming, grilling, or sautéing, and are delicious eaten in or out of the shell. Hard-shell clams can be served raw on the half-shell, but soft-shell clams aren't served this way.
Be sure to shop at a reputable fishmonger or seafood department with high turnover. Farm-raised clams are generally available year-round, although their harvest in certain areas is occasionally restricted due to contamination.
All clams should have an ocean-fresh aroma, and closed shells. Give any open-shelled clams a tap, and if they don't shut, discard the clam (soft-shelled clams will stay slightly open; thanks to their long neck, they can't close completely). Clams must remain alive until cooked, so make sure that they're packed in netted or perforated bags to prevent smothering.
There are so many ways! For some inspiration, see this list of approachable, delicious clam recipes right here. Whatever you decide to do, just remember: Before cooking hard-shell clams, scrub them with a hard-bristled brush. Let them soak in a large bowl or bucket of salted water for 30 to 60 minutes to expel any extra sand, then rinse again. Some cooks like to add a half cup or more of cornmeal to the soaking water, because they say it helps coax the sand out of the clam. Razor and geoduck clams are not eaten whole, but are shucked before being cleaned, cut, and cooked.
Archaeologists have discovered a way to reconstruct past climates by analyzing the shells of this species of short-lived surf clams, Donax obesulus, which have been consumed by people since ancient times.
To capture the sea surface temperature from different phases of ENSO, the researchers collected 18 surf clams from markets and coastal beaches in 2012, 2014 and 2016. This new research used a species of short-lived surf clam called Donax obesulus, which has not been used to reconstruct climate before. Previous studies have successfully used the short-lived intertidal clam species, Mesodesma donacium. However, this species is now extinct in northern Peru.
Warner is currently reconstructing past climate using clam shells collected at another archeological site called Caylán in the Nepeña Valley of north-central Peru that was occupied about 2,200-2,600 years ago.
Hand sculpted in England, each clam is unique and no two are the same. Our giant version in natural white is as beautiful as it is versatile; place it on the kitchen counter to hold your fruits, fill it with tea lights to soften the lighting, or take it to the bathroom to store your bath salts.
We are able to ship shells to UK and US based addresses. If you would like to order a shell to anywhere else in the world, please contact us with your delivery address for a custom shipping quote. Please note, your shell will be dispatched in 2-3 days.
Our findings, based on data reconstructed from the shells of clams, show how freshwater from melting ice in the North Atlantic has the potential to destabilise ocean currents and can lead to rapid and long-lasting change.
Overlapping the information from shells that lived at different times helps to obtain long-term and precisely dated records. For example, scientists can count back through the rings and infer the conditions at the time of a specific historical event. Furthermore, the chemical composition of the shells encodes information about the state of the seawater in which the quahog was growing.
The records that we studied are the longest of their type, spanning the entire last millennium. They were constructed by measuring the width of the growth bands along with the oxygen and carbon isotopes on shells collected from north of Iceland. Together, they provide insights on a range of processes in the marine environment, such as regional changes in circulation.
"The equipment available now, compared to the past, is precise and powerful enough to be able to reveal the sea surface temperature and the overall climate at a specific location when the clam was building its shell. This gives us archaeologists and paleoclimatologists another tool in our proverbial toolbox to reconstruct past climate. As we know today, climate can influence all kinds of practices and behaviors, which may have been the case in ancient civilizations as well," said LSU Department of Geography & Anthropology doctoral candidate Jacob Warner, who is the lead author on this new research published in Chemical Geology.
Like trees and tree rings, clams create layers in their shells as they grow. Warner drilled along the shell to collect samples at each interval of time during the clam's lifespan to get a snapshot of the ocean temperature as the shell grew.
In a separate, forthcoming paper, Warner collaborated with fellow archeologist Aleksa Alaica, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Alberta to analyze the surf clam Donax obesulus found at an archaeological site in the Jequetepeque Valley in northern Peru. They discovered that the clams' shells were larger during warmer ENSO events; therefore, shell size can also be used as a paleoclimate proxy. They also discovered that the ancient people, who lived at this site, preferentially harvested larger individual clams, which indicates a fisheries management practice in place more than 2,000 years ago.
White clams locally known as Halaan are nutritious lean source of protein and Omega-3 fatty acids. It is most popularly prepared as Tinolang Halaan Ð a soup cooked with garlic, ginger, and onions.
This millennia-old practice may hold the key to addressing a new crisis. As humans burn fossil fuels, oceans are absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, making seawater more acidic. At lower pH levels, clams and other shellfish struggle to build shells. As their protective structures weaken and dissolve, the animals become vulnerable to damage and predation. But studies suggest that adding shell fragments to clam beds could release carbonate into the water, potentially neutralizing acidity caused by the greenhouse gas.
In the lab, Hannah Hensel bubbles carbon dioxide through the seawater in experimental clam beds to test whether mixing crushed shells into the sediment can protect young Pacific littleneck clams from acidic conditions. Photos courtesy of Hannah Hensel
After 90 days, Hensel dug up all the clams. Comparing the buckets containing more acidic seawater, she observed that the bivalves burrowed in shell hash had grown bigger than the clams in sand alone. Strangely, though, the larger clams were not heavier, and Hensel plans to cross-section the shells to assess whether the new growth was thinner or less dense.
Bendell also studies the buffering power of shell hash. Working with the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, Bendell and graduate student Bridget Doyle added shell fragments to clam beds in Burrard Inlet, near Vancouver, British Columbia. In that study, hash reduced pH fluctuations in seawater seeping through the sediment, which can vary markedly with rising and falling tides. Although the reduction was limited to areas with coarse sediments, and the hash did not reduce the overall pH, Bendell sees the results as a hint of something promising. Given a longer period of time, shell hash could have a greater effect on pH in certain clam beds, she says.
Heavy duty clam shell heat press includes easy pressure adjustment, replaceable pressing pad, and an idle auto-off timer which turns off the heating elements based on an adjustable timer up to 60 minutes. Unit also features suction cup feet for holding in place during use.
In addition to clamshells, many other types of plastic packaging are created by molding or forming. These include salad containers, plastic egg cartons, takeout containers and veggie trays. None of those things are recyclable in Summit County.
We do something very similar. However, we live half mile from an excellent beach for clamming, so we dig them ourselves. I can say that a couple hours is not nearly long enough soak for fresh dug clams.
We soak for at least 2 days. The secret is to go get a small aquarium air pump, hose, and air stone. They are about $15 total and last for years. The clams can soak for days, only dying if they starve to death. A time or two we added ocean water to to feed the on an extended soak, but 2 days get nearly all the yuck out of them. Best method we have found.
Synthesis of strontium-doped hydroxyapatite from Mercenaria clam shells has been carried out by hydrothermal method. The doping of bioceramic, processed from biogenic resources is mostly unexplored. The objective is to understand the effect of strontium (Sr) incorporation on phase stability, sintering behaviour, mechanical properties and cytotoxicity of hydroxyapatite (HAp) derived from clam shells. The different molar concentrations of Sr, varies from 10, 30, 50, 70% of Ca, were substituted into the HAp. The synthesized powders were sintered at 1200 C in air. The as synthesized powders and sintered specimens were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy. The crystallite size and cell parameters of sintered specimens were analyzed from XRD. The XRD of hydrothermally synthesized powders mostly matched with HAp with slight shifting due to Sr doping. However, some distinct Sr based compounds were also observed where Sr substitution is more that 50% of Ca. The XRD of sintered specimen showed increasing β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) phase with Sr substitution. The sintered density of solid samples gradually increased from 3.04 g/cc to 3.50 g/cc and surface energy decreased with increasing Sr substitution. Similarly, microhardness, fracture toughness and nanohardness of solid samples found to be enhanced with Sr substitution. The elastic modulus gradually increased from 130 to 137 GPa for HAp and Sr substituted HAp (70% of Ca). The in vitro cytotoxicity of sintered specimen against mouse osteoblast cell line showed that all the samples were nontoxic. However cell proliferation found low for the solid samples containing more than 50% Sr substitution. 041b061a72