Guided by the Tides
The tides rule her days, not a clock nor a calendar. Want to meet Monday morning, for coffee and a catch-up? She first needs to check the lunar charts; a new moon might be rising. Where will she be on Wednesday afternoon? Hard to say. Will the wind be from the southeast or out of the north? She could be in the Masonboro marshes. Or along a tidal creek off the Cape Fear River. She’ll have to get back to you. She’s on a schedule as ancient as the sea.
Ana Shellem of Shell’em Seafood is a forager of wild shellfish, a harvester of oysters collected from the muck and marsh, and a purveyor of Atlantic delicacies for some of Eastern North Carolina’s most heralded restaurants.
From whelks to tulip shells, mussels to sea beans, Shellem lives and makes a living in concert with the seasons. With a hori-hori knife in hand, she bends down to a bed of mussels sheltered by the spartina marsh, and deftly cleaves a cluster. Sustainable. Organic. Zero waste. Wholly wild. Cradled in her hands is a promise of Eastern North Carolina’s culinary future.
