Clams, crabs, yams, salads and organic whole-wheat pasta

Hundreds of Cherrystone Clams were shucked under a tree on Saturday, the first day of summer, during Members' Day at American Littoral Society in Highlands, above and below.

The clams came from Virginia, because they were cheaper than New Jersey clams, one of the shuckers said.

The headquarters of the American Littoral Society, a coastal conservation group, is in a former lieutenant's house at Fort Hancock, part of the Sandy Hook national park, above and below.

The front porch overlooks Sandy Hook Bay.

Navesink Fishery, in a shopping center on Route 36 in Navesink, above and below, is a homier version of Seafood Gourmet, the fish market-restaurant in Maywood.

I had hoped to have another lunch of soft-shell crabs, like the one I enjoyed on Friday in Maywood, but Navesink Fishery doesn't serve lunch on Saturdays. (1-732-291-8017).

Are these yams or sweet potatoes? ShopRite in Paramus complicates the answer by selling them as "yams/sweet potatoes" for $1.29 a pound. I boiled them with peeled garlic, drained and mashed them with extra-virgin olive oil, salt, curry powder, cinnamon, red-pepper flakes, black pepper and other seasoning. Yams are starchier and probably have more calories.

A wedge of frittata (egg whites, cheese, fresh tomato, garlic and pesto) served with mashed yams/sweet potatoes and leftover Chinese takeout string beans.

A dinner salad from the cafe at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center includes tofu and mozzarella cheese.

Another dinner salad includes red- and green-leaf lettuce from our garden, smoked wild Alaskan sockeye salmon, organic beets, Campari tomatoes and reduced-fat Jarlsberg Lite Swiss Cheese, all dressed with extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar, above and below. Most of the ingredients are from Costco Wholesale.

Non-organic whole wheat spaghetti, on sale last week at the ShopRite in Paramus, was no bargain, compared to the $1.39 Trader Joe's and Whole Foods Market charges for 1 pound of the organic version. But ShopRite did have a sale on 1-pound packages of Luigi Vitelli-brand organic Whole Wheat Capellini from Italy with a cooking time of 3 minutes ($1.25), a whole-wheat shape I haven't seen anywhere else.