A Pennsylvania man thought he had bit down on a piece of shell earlier this month when he was eating little neck clams at the Salt Air restaurant in Rehoboth Beach, Del., known as President Joe Biden’s vacation spot.
“My wife thought it was a piece of candy because it looked like those candy dots,” said 37-year-old Scott Overland, according to the Delaware News Journal. It was actually a rare purple pearl.
Overland and his family, who were visiting Delaware from Phoenixville, Penn., had never heard of pearls from clams before.
“I always thought they came in oysters,” Overland said.
While oysters are common sources for pearls, the gems “do indeed grow in clams and several other mollusks,” and in this case, the clam was a northern quahog (Mercenaria mercenaria) grown by Cherrystone Aqua Farms in the Chesapeake Bay. These clams are native to the New England coast.
Natural pearls such as the one Overland discovered in his $14 appetizer typically form around microscopic irritants in the bodies, or mantle tissue, of certain mollusks, according to the Gemological Institute of America.
Louisiana-based Hannon Gemologist and Master Jewelers explained that pearl color is determined genetically by the host mollusk.
Quahog clams have a “deep purple inner lip,” according to the International Gem Society. Shells and pearls from quahog clams were once a form of currency among Native Americans in the region, said the society.
Natural quahog pearls “remain exceptionally rare,” since mechanized harvesting typically destroys all of them, the IGS said. Around one in every 5,000 shells produces a pearl each year, but most are damaged, of poor quality or end up steamed.
“Most quahog pearls nowadays are found by unsuspecting restaurant patrons,” said the IGS.
Tim Parsons of the Ballard Fish and Oyster Company – the parent company of the farm that supplied Overland’s purple pearl-producing clam – said he hears about diners finding pearls in clams two to three times per year.
“Usually, it’s over a dentist claim,” he joked, according to the Delaware News Journal. “But you can definitely get it graded and they are worth money.”
Ballard harvests between 60 million and 80 million clams a year in the Chesapeake area. Some of their long-term employees have a few pearls of their own.
Overland said that he is glad that he didn’t send the dish back even though his wife didn’t like the garnish.
“I guess sometimes you get rewarded for not being a pain at restaurants!” he said. He does plan to get it appraised, but he said the family will hang on to it for the memories rather than selling it.
On the Kari Pearls website, quahog pearls for sale as of Thursday ranged from $283 to $23,325.
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