The purple pearl a vacationer present in his clams at a Rehoboth Seaside restaurant has been appraised at over $4,000, however he’s not promoting. 

Scott Overland, of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, dined at Salt Air on Wilmington Avenue along with his spouse and two youngsters Aug. 9. He ordered a $14 littleneck clams appetizer and nearly despatched it again as a result of his spouse didn’t just like the pepper garnish. 

“I suppose typically you get rewarded for not being a ache at eating places!” he stated. 

Overland felt one thing arduous in his mouth as he ate and spit out one thing small, buttonlike and purple. He seen an indentation within the clam shell, however was skeptical he had discovered a pearl. 

“We had by no means heard of a pearl in a clam. I all the time thought they got here in oysters,” he stated. 

Pearls develop in oysters, clams and several other different mollusks. Overland’s pearl grew in a Cherrystone Aqua Farms northern quahog within the Chesapeake Bay.  

Ballard Clams and Oysters, Cherrystone Aqua Farms’ dad or mum firm, harvests between 60 million and 80 million clams a yr from a number of websites within the Chesapeake.