An Older Person Remembers – A Seafood Feast

My big sister and her family came for a visit once. I always called her my big sister, even though she was only two inches taller than me. But June was three years older than I was, and as long as I can remember she knew a lot of things I didn’t know. Like how to clean windows, and how to cook from a recipe.

She and her husband Matt are in their trailer right now sleeping, tired from the long day we had yesterday. Their two children, Jayne and Mark, are already in the big house, playing with my two children, Andy and Chrissy-Jane.

Jayne and Andy are the same age, Chrissy-Jane is a year younger. They spent the past two days exploring our half acre property, running from one hideout to another, always ending up in the chicken coop, petting and feeding the chickens. Mark, two years younger, did the best he could to keep up.

They heard about the abundant seafood

My sister and her family live in a prairie town in Alberta. Matt, like a lot of prairie people, is fascinated with the abundance of seafood on this island, free for the taking. “Where’s all this ‘bounty of the sea’ you keep talking about,” he said, after our first meal of roast beef. “I came all the way out here to have some of that famous seafood!”

I told him about the saying I had heard when I moved here:

When the tide is out,
The table’s set.

So we decided to make a ‘seafood feast’ of all of the sea creatures that we could catch, find or dig up on the beach. It would be a memorable feast!

The first part was easy. My husband took Matt fishing in his small boat, arriving home with two sizable salmon. This was our second summer on the island, so I was used to cooking fish, although I didn’t like to clean them. Matt offered to do it, saying, “I used to catch and clean fish when I was a kid. Of course I can do it!’

He came back inside, holding up the two scaled and cleaned fish. I was impressed.

We went to the beach to forage

That afternoon, June and I and all of the children headed out to the beach when the tide was out. We picked up oysters, which were only part way submerged in the sand, and Andy and Jayne dug as deep as they could to find some clams. By the time we got home, an hour later, we all smelled like fish.

Later, while a Shepard’s pie baked in the oven for dinner, we worked at the picnic table on our ‘seafood feast’ for the next day.

“Man, I can hardly wait for this. Don’t bother cooking these oysters. I want to eat them raw, like the locals do.” Matt kept saying, as he started to shuck the oysters.

Just then, we heard a scream, and June dropped an oyster and bolted from the table.“There’re insects in these things!” she shouted, slamming the door behind her.

“Those aren’t insects”, Andy chirped, “Those are baby crabs!”

Matt picked up the oyster and gamely finished prying it open. “Yikes,” he yelled, dropping it, as a small crab headed up his wrist, What the heck are these things doing in here?’

My husband and I finished cleaning the oysters and soon they were simmering in butter in the frying pan. The salmon was already baking in the oven, and the clams were stewing in a thick white chowder. The rest of the dinner was simple: only corn on the cob and dessert.

A new family tradition?

We had dinner outside—it was a beautiful summer evening. I knew the children would only eat corn and salmon, but the adults were game to try everything else. After all, it was a ‘sea food feast’. Maybe this would start a new family tradition.

“Mmmm, mmmm,” Matt said, as he picked up his spoon and tasted the clam chowder.

Suddenly he stopped chewing.

“Diane,” he said, “Is this soup supposed to be crunchy?”

I dipped my spoon into the soup and tasted it. As I bit into a clam, I could feel the sand in my mouth. 

“I was sure we washed all of the sand out,” I muttered, as I lifted the pot from the table and took it away. At least we have salmon, corn, and oysters—that should be enough.

It was a wonderful dinner. Everybody loved the corn, salmon, bread and apple crumble dessert. I think we adults all tried at least one oyster, but I’m not really sure. There seemed to be an awful lot left.

I hear June and Matt waking in the trailer and getting ready. They have only one day of their visit left. I want them to have a special, perfect, memorable day.

So I think we’ll have pork chops for dinner tonight.