I can appreciate a good sea scallop, especially raw or almost raw. Scallops, along with other shellfish are often quickly cooked by fishermen “on the muffler” using the heat from the engine exhaust. My dad scalloped when I was young and many of my friends are still working on scallops boats out of various ports like Chatham, Mass. If you’ve only had scallops in a restaurant setting, the freshness and bright sweet flavor of a freshly shucked scallop is something special. As a kid, I really didn’t know just how lucky I was getting to eat scallops that would have been outrageous expensive in a restaurant. Today I don’t get scallops often, mainly due to the price, but they are abundant if the mood strikes. Besides, I am only a two hour drive from New Bedford, the major sea scallop port here in the U.S.

A little North of us, our distant cousins up in “Novie” are rightfully proud of their famous scallop fishery out of Digby. Going strong for a century, these high quality sea scallops are sustainably harvested from healthy scallop beds. I just had some visitors to the Essex Shipbuilding Museum that just came from Digby and declared them the biggest and best scallops they ever had. It’s going to be a while until I can get to Digby, but trust me, it’s on m list. In the meantime, let’s take a closer look with this short, but very cool video highlighting the famous Digby scallop fishery from Nova Scotia.