News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Peggy Miller bit into a clam and found a pearl.
Peggy Miller, Principal at Sisters Christian Academy, got more than she bargained for when she ordered lunch at El Caporal Mexican restaurant last week.
"My secretaries and I were at lunch Wednesday and I ordered the clam pasta dish that I love and took a bite of the clam at one point, and there was a pearl in the middle of the clam," Miller said. "I showed it to them and they didn't believe me!"
The pearl is tiny and pink, not quite perfectly round and it is cracked slightly from the heat of cooking.
It's not unheard of to find a pearl in a clam. Cultured pearls come from oysters, but clams make them, too. Earlier this year, a man in Florida bit down on a pearl from a clam dish. It was a rare, iridescent purple pearl that may be worth as much as $25,000.
Miller's pearl isn't likely worth a whole lot, though she does plan to have it appraised just for grins. Pearls from clams generally lack luster and don't have much commercial value. But they're still a lot of fun, especially for an educator.
"I came back and I wanted to show the students, because I think it's so cool how pearls are made," Miller said.
Pearls are formed in mollusks when an irritant like a piece of sand is lodged within the shell. The mollusk secretes a substance that coats the irritant and creates a pearl.
Only mollusks that secrete "nacre" or mother-of-pearl can create lustrous, high-value pearls. Clams don't contain nacre.
Miller said she plans to have jeweler Peter Jon make a setting for the pearl so she can wear it as a pendant.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
Reader Comments(0)