Rachelle's June 2016 Art a Day Creations

[azemigh]

Crossposting again for day 6. This is another garden club layout for the June Sketch Challenge. I need to go rotate one of my backgrounds so it doesn't repeat like that, but it's a fun sketch.

[azemigh]

Another Garden Club layout for day 7, using the Crewel and Unusual kit, which I wasn't sure I liked, but it's growing on me. Get it, "growing" for garden club. I think I'm a little punchy tonight. Roger's been digging and I've been cleaning 47 razor clams these past 4 days. Topped it off with a spectacular pasta in clam sauce for dinner tonight, along with a side clam fried to perfection. Yum!

[Debbie J]

Your garden club are really going to love what you are doing for them

[paddlegal]

Your garden club couldn't have roped in...er...accepted a better scrapper than you. You are on fire with your digi LOs...smart way to go BTW. LOVE all your cards and the graduation card is an art piece that will be treasured.

[pamcook]

They're very pretty and I can appreciate all the time it must take. I hope they love the pages as much as we do.

Can you preserve clams? (I can't imagine how many it takes for a meal for two but it sounds like you have a lot of clams!) Do you freeze them? Can them?

[Keitha]

Really enjoying your garden club pages Rachelle, I'm sure the members will, too. You've definitely been busy; the graduation card is wonderful.

[troublesmom]

My goodness such wonderful work. You really have been busy.

[pbp908]

I hope you share some of the tips on "what to do with weeds." I have a yard full of them.

Let us know how the club liked the LOs. Hope they appreciate your talent as much as we do!

[azemigh]

They're very pretty and I can appreciate all the time it must take. I hope they love the pages as much as we do.

Can you preserve clams? (I can't imagine how many it takes for a meal for two but it sounds like you have a lot of clams!) Do you freeze them? Can them?

Razor clams are huge compared to regular steamer clams. These are fairly large at 6 inches long and 2 inches wide. There are 15 in this bowl which is the daily limit here in Oregon. There is no size limit, but you are required to keep the first 15 you dig, so if you get a little 3 incher you must retain it as part of your limit. The reason we were so excited to get to dig this past week end is they've been closed to digging for over a year in our area because of high domoic acid levels (domoic acid is the toxin in shellfish that causes severe food poisoning). And, they live way out off the beach so there has to be a minus tide to get to them. We get about 4 minus tides per 2-week tide cycle and if it's pouring rain and windy during that time it makes it really difficult to find them too. It's a case of all the stars being aligned and then you still might not get any.

I canned on Monday. This is 12 half pints each having 3-4 clams in it. They can and freeze very well.

Roger went out again on Tuesday and got 5 more, but it was tough to find them and those are what I cooked for dinner. I made pasta and clam sauce with 3 of them and then pan fried the other 2 so we could each have a fried clam on the side.

[pamcook]

I wondered if you might can them.
Someday I will learn to can. I just need someone to hold my hand the first few times. My home ec teachers did a great job with scaring me to death about botulism.

[Debbie J]

Those jars look so pretty with the clams in them. Love to can but don't do much besides tomatoes these days. I bet those clams make some tasty clam chowder. We ate at Mo's in Florence several times just for that.

[Monica]

Canning is easy. You just need to not have a glasstop stove. Which is why my canning stuff languishes on a shelf in the laundry room. Jams I still do, because they don't need the pressure cooker.

[azemigh]

I actually use our old coleman camp stove to can on. It's the only one I can get the burner low enough to maintain the right pressure. I just bought a new larger canner too and boy is it nice. My old one had the little weight that jiggles on top and had to be babysat constantly to regulate the heat. The new one has a gauge and was spot on the pressure the whole time.

Very easy to can, Pam. Just gotta follow the directions on pressure and time for the food you're trying to preserve.

[paddlegal]

Those jars look so pretty with the clams in them. Love to can but don't do much besides tomatoes these days. I bet those clams make some tasty clam chowder. We ate at Mo's in Florence several times just for that.

Oh gosh, I've eaten there also Debbie! I so want to go back up the Oregon Coast again. It's been way too many years since we were up there.

[ScrappinJen]

My LOAD layout yesterday featured Mo's in Lincoln City. Love those places.