Rakin’ in the clams, by Bruce R. Posten (Eagle / Times)
 
As featured in the Lifestyle section of the Sunday June 18, 2000 Reading Eagle newspaper
 
    When Gerald and Beverly Wert of Brecknock Township get in their truck each year and drive along the shoreline of five Eastern states, stopping at hardware stores or fish and tackle shops, they often hear the comment, “What do Pennsylvanians know about clamming?”
    Sure, it’s almost summer and the livin’ may be easy, even if the ocean clamming in landlocked Berks County is impossible, but that doesn’t deter a family of local landlubbers from making and marketing clam rakes.
    “We’re not at the ocean; we don’t have a river running through our land,” Gerald said, “but we do have a spring-fed stream that runs through our property.
    “We kind of feel we’re at the source, even though the water here has to go a long way before it turns into a home for a clam.”
So, what do the Werts actually know about clamming?  What is their background in harvesting those bivalve mollusks that are so tasty steamed, fried, baked or plopped in rich chowder?
    Gerald is a custom cabinetmaker by profession.  Beverly used to be a waitress and is the mother of three children, Heidi, 23; Scott, 20; and Laura, 19.
    To be sure, there is a woodworking and food connection there, but basically they are family-oriented people.  They like to have clam bakes in their back yard.
And from 1985 to 1992, every summer weekend when their children were growing up, they went to the shore near Lewes, Del., where they had a trailer and motorboat, and they fished and clammed – for hours, for days.  Every summer weekend.
    “It was a time for making our family the priority,” Gerald said.  “It was the place to slow the pace down, enjoy the moment, listen to the birds, watch the shoreline; no one could reach us in the middle of the water by telephone.
    “I always owned a business, but, as you get a little older, all of a sudden your business starts to own you.”  “And truthfully, I was looking for something to get into as I slowly move toward retirement.”
    Gerald will turn 50 this summer and jokes that this is his 100th year celebration, if you add his age to 25 years in business and 25 years of married life.  Now in their middle age, the Werts noticed that – as their children became teen-agers, went on to college and pursued their own interests – the call of those clamming days seemed to beckon them.
    Memories of all the clam rakes made in Taiwan that the family used – “They weren’t that bad, but they weren’t that good, either,” Gerald said – sparked the idea for the Werts to make their own sturdy, improved clam rake.
    They wanted to assemble a durable rake for people who love to scoop us quahogs, little necks, cherrystones and chowder.  Gerald designed a special rake, with the help of some Amish farmer friends and others, that has a sway-back basket for easier collection of clams.
    The cold-rolled steel rake has side plates, so smaller clams don’t easily topple out of the angled basket.  The 6-foot-lone rake, with a solid ash handle, comes in 11-inch or 9-inch widths.
    The Werts call their home business Clam Out Equipment Co.  It boasts a cartoon logo of two clams, one with an open mouth and another one with its mouth firmly shut.  The Werts assemble, paint, pin handles to metal baskets and brand their logo on the rakes.  Fabrication of the metal baskets is done in two shops run by their Amish friends.
    Their rakes – they make several models depending on the needs in a geographic area – are good enough for the veteran clammers along the beaches of Long Island and all those old salts along the coasts of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia.
    The couple makes three trips each spring and summer to their five-state shore territory – before Memorial Day, Fourth of July and August.
    “We’re actually the new kids on the block,” Gerald said.  “The market has been dominated by rakes made in Taiwan.”
    In fact, having made clam rakes only for the past six years, the Werts have 300 accounts in five different states.  In their first season they sold only 300 clam rakes.  They expect to sell between 1,500 and 1,800 this year.  Depending on the type of rake and where they are selling, the retail price can range from $30 to $47.
    They’ve also expanded their product line to a variety of items ranging from clam knives and clam caddies to crab tongs, crab mallets and gloves, aprons, caps and T-shirts, all with cartoon clam logos that boast such slogans as “From the Rake to the Bake.”
    One of the most popular slogans on their products has two clams sitting on a beach in the hot sun.  One says to the other, “I’m baked!”  The other one casually replies, “Sure beats being steamed.”
    It’s all cute clammin’, but cute doesn’t necessarily cut it when it comes to landlubbers breaking into the no-nonsense clam rake business.
    “It was tough, at first, to get people to buy them,” Gerald said.  “They had to see you were willing to come back and provide the service.”
    Dressed as a sort of seafaring couple in khakis and navy or white shirts, the Werts would visit almost every bait and tackle shop along the East Coast, and store owners, looking skeptically at these Pennsylvania invaders, would invariably say, “Here come those Clam Out people.”
    Businessmen might buy a few rakes, but not that many.  But over the years, the quality of the product apparently sold itself.  And, the Werts, most importantly, listened to their clam clients and refined their rakes to handle the specific types of clams that local people enjoyed harvesting.
    “In New York on Long Island, there was a lot of gravel and stone, so we had to make the rakes stronger – we call our rake the New York style rake,” Gerald said.  “In New Jersey, they wanted us to make a Calico crab rake with netting, because they catch crabs at a certain time of the year to use as a bait.
    “In Virginia, the people said, ‘What we need is a two-pronged clam pic, because when the tide changes we have these sandbars and the clams bury themselves, but leave a little keyhole sign that tells where they are.  You can take one of those pics and just scoop them up.”
    Whatever the request, the Werts tried to satisfy it.  In the process, they learned a lot about the clamming traditions in the region.
    With family members helping them in their business, they also learned that what starts out as family recreation can turn out to be a pre-retirement business proposition, too.
    “We’re thinking about expanding our territory to the Carolinas,” Gerald said.  “New England already has some real good rake makers.”
    Beware tight-mouthed clams.  Watch out for those Clam Out rakes.  If only Pennsylvania had a shoreline!