Earlier this year Phil and I went to Suzhou to see the canals and beautiful gardens. Yesterday, I returned with the Shanghai Expat Association to learn about pearls! There are pearls available in all of the markets wherever you go in China and now I know why!
Once in Suzhou, we stopped at a pearl farm where we met a couple in their shack by the river. They were hauling up baskets with 3,4 or 5 clams (not oysters) to check their progress and safety. One of the baskets was four years old and ready for harvesting.
On the side of the river in a rudimentary shack with a rickety old dock, the man of the house opened one of the clams for our inspection.
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Opening the Clam (or cRam as they say here)
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| Pearls! |
The pearls are harvested from the clams and the meat is used to make soup for dinner! The closer the pearls are to the edge of the shell where the Mother of Pearl is present, the more colorful the pearls. They take on the color of the shell where they grow.
The reason there are so many pearls is each mollusk is because they are implanted with flesh from a different clam. The implanted clam then tries to secrete fluid to get rid of the foreign tissue and creates pearls. Kind of sad for the clam that it is abused this way for the sake of jewelry!
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| Harvesting flesh |
This woman was "harvesting" flesh from the outer edge of the shell with surgical precision. The thin pieces of clam were then inserted into another clam that she opened slightly to master the implantation. That clam went back to the farm for a four to ten year dip in the river!
Our tour then took us to a pearl factory where all sorts of jewelry is made for purchase! Not sure how I feel about the mollusks and the treatment of these creatures - they don't have a brain or feelings but they are living things after all.
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| Sorted pearls ready for making jewelry |
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| Guilty Pleasure |
