Live Cultured Manila Clams,United States price supplier

Famed by the Japanese for centuries, Manila Clams are highly prized for their sweet, tender meat. Grown in the cool, clear waters of the Pacific Northwest, and averaging about a dozen to the pound, they are delicious raw or steamed, and perfect for pasta sauces and chowder.

Early man used clam and mussel shells as currency. Native-Americans used polished white clamshells as wampum. The Latin genus for the common clam is Mercenaria, literally "money-conscious." Colloquially the word "clams" still refers to money. Yet despite these timeless associations, in the world of seafood delicacies, cultured clams and mussels are a bargain.

In order to judge the quality of mussels and clams, one must try to understand something of their life and biology.

Mussels and clams are molluscan shellfish called bi-valves. One valve extracts nutrients like algae and plankton that thrive in ocean water. The other valve expels the seawater back into the ocean. The quality of shellfish is completely dependent on the quality of the water digested through these valves. Lying on the ocean floor, as the seawater enters a valve, sand enters along with it and often gets stuck inside. If that water is loaded with toxins, the shellfish themselves become toxic.

What's a clam and mussel lover to do?

F2M ships mussels and clams grown in pristine waters isolated from industrial pollution. Water tests constantly monitor quality. The prestigious Penn Cove Shellfish Farms of Coupeville, Washington produces clams and mussels grown from lines suspended off floating rafts that never makes contact with the ocean floor. They are fresh, safe and absolutely grit free.

Harvested daily, only moments out of the water, these shellfish are packed in insulated foam boxes, and delivered live anywhere in America within 12 hours.