>> NARRATOR: Coming up on Weekends With Yankee... >> That's good.

>> TRAVERSO: Really excellent.

>> NARRATOR: Amy visits Essex, Massachusetts, the famed shipbuilding town and home of the original fried clam.

>> Back in 1914, when my grandfather started selling clams, a few people that were around kind of laughed at him.

Who wants to eat a fried clam?

>> TRAVERSO: Right.

>> NARRATOR: Then, in Townshend, Vermont, two artists are making goat milk caramels.

>> This is how we want small farming to look.

This is what it can be.

>> NARRATOR: And then Richard is in Woodstock, Connecticut, crafting kitchenware from local wood.

>> WIESE: Wow, look at that, look at that.

>> You really found a beautiful piece of wood.

>> NARRATOR: Back in her home kitchen, Amy is cooking up another classic clam dish.

>> TRAVERSO: I love all the layers of flavor.

Really aromatic, really delicious.

>> NARRATOR: So come along for a once-in-a-lifetime journey through New England as you've never experienced it before.

A true insider's guide from the editors of Yankee magazine.

Join explorer and adventurer Richard Wiese and his co-host, Yankee senior food editor Amy Traverso, for behind-the-scenes access to the unique attractions that define this region.

It's the ultimate travel guide from the people who know it best.

Weekends With Yankee.

>> Major funding provided by... ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> The Vermont Country Store, the purveyors of the practical and hard-to-find since 1946.

♪ ♪ >> TRAVERSO: I'm in the village of Essex, Massachusetts, north of Boston.

Essex is famous for being a center of shipbuilding, and the two-masted schooners that were built here, and are still being built, powered the Gloucester fishing industry for hundreds of years.

I also like to come here for seafood, because Essex is home to Woodman's, where the fried clam was invented and popularized.

♪ ♪ Steve, you know, one thing that always interests me about chowder is, even though the broad dish is generally pretty consistent, people have their own little variations on how they do it.

So I'm curious how you guys do it here at Woodman's.

>> Well, we basically stick to the same recipe my Nana Bessie did back in 1914, when we first opened the roadside stand.

>> TRAVERSO: Mm-hmm.

>> It's very simple ingredients.

We had potatoes, we had clams.

>> TRAVERSO: Right.

>> We had onions.

>> TRAVERSO: Right.

>> A little salt and pepper, and that's really the base for, for our chowder.

>> TRAVERSO: All right, well, let's get cooking.

How do you start?

>> Well, first thing you do is grab a potato.

You just kind of peel it as you're going here.

>> TRAVERSO: So, this area around Ipswich and Essex, Massachusetts, on the North Shore, is really famous for the quality of its clams.

>> You know, in the, what they call the Essex Bay is surrounded by the Great Marsh.

That's where all the nutrients from the salt marsh get into the clam beds, and that's what the clams eat.

>> TRAVERSO: They're just, like, really well-fed, happy clams.

>> Well-fed and happy clams, exactly.

>> TRAVERSO: Happy as a clam.

(laughs) >> Yeah, people say, "Happy as a clam," but it's actually, "Happy as a clam at high tide."

Because at high tide, you can't take them.

>> TRAVERSO: Right, right, oh, that's so funny.

>> I've got some water here, which is about two cups of water.

>> TRAVERSO: Uh-huh.

>> And what we have here is, uh, clam juice.

>> TRAVERSO: Right.

>> It's a reduction.

That's about a cup of onion.

>> TRAVERSO: Uh-huh.

>> To the three pounds of potatoes, and then we have salt and pepper, tablespoon and a half, and this is about a tablespoon of pepper.

Bring it up to a boil, bring it down, let it cook slowly, and really let the potatoes soften up.

>> TRAVERSO: Mm-hmm.

>> And then after that, you'll, you'll lay clams in.

>> TRAVERSO: So chowder is such an interesting dish with such a long history.

Initially, it was something that fishermen would cook on the boat, um... >> Leftovers.

>> TRAVERSO: Right.

>> I think that's kind of what chowder started off as, because it was cooked in a big cauldron.

>> TRAVERSO: And in fact, the name for that cauldron in France was a chaudière, which is where the name chowder comes from.

>> Chowder came from, well, I think the English and maybe, uh, New Englanders butchered it and called it chowder.

>> TRAVERSO: Yeah, they butchered it.

(laughter) >> So, it's called chowder.

And then New England even goes, "Chowdah."

>> TRAVERSO: "Chowdah," right.

>> Broth in there... And some of the stock.

>> TRAVERSO: Oh, my gosh, that looks... >> And let the butter melt.

>> TRAVERSO: It smells so good.

Mm... >> That's good.

>> TRAVERSO: Really excellent.

>> It's hot, too.

>> TRAVERSO: Mm-hmm.

Well, this is really excellent clam chowder.

I think I'm gonna be even more sold on your approach to fried clams.

I'd love to go taste them.

>> So here's where our station is.

>> TRAVERSO: There is some gorgeous-looking seafood in there.

>> Yeah, we have scallops, we have fish, we have shrimp.

>> TRAVERSO: Okay, so show me how you make these great clams.

>> Okay, you have the clams here.

You put a few in there, cover them with the evaporated milk, shake the excess off, drop them in the corn flour.

And you have to make sure that you cover them.

All the nooks and crannies get completely covered with the corn flour.

>> TRAVERSO: Mm-hmm, so they're nice and crispy all over... >> All over, that's right, yeah.

>> TRAVERSO: And now you've got a sifter?

>> That's right.

Lot of holes in there.

>> TRAVERSO: Yep.

>> Shake the excess off.

>> TRAVERSO: Now, that's not a ton of breading, and yet it does the job.

>> That's right, you don't need much.

So you take, take that and you bring them over to the fryolator.

>> TRAVERSO: Okay.

>> And you put them in.

(sizzling) >> TRAVERSO: They brown up really fast.

>> Yeah, they do.

>> TRAVERSO: I wish I had a big fryer like this at home, but I don't know, I could do it in a pot.

>> So let's go put them over here in the colander.

>> TRAVERSO: Ah, I love these little boats.

These just made me think of summer and good seafood.

These look delicious, thank you.

>> I use my fingers, but I brought a pick anyway.

(laughter) >> TRAVERSO: I use my fingers, too.

So a lot of foods, a lot of beloved American foods, I think lots of people kind of claim to have invented them, but you guys have a very credible claim to having invented the fried clam.

>> What happened was, back in 1914, when my grandfather, grandmother started selling clams, you know, the clams that he dug in the shell, and shucking them out and selling them in gallons, or pints, or quarts, whatever people wanted, uh, what he did is, uh, he brought in a fryolator.

Well, a few people that were around kind of laughed at him.

Who wants to eat a fried clam?

>> TRAVERSO: Right.

(laughter) >> Luckily, it was in the summer.

It was actually in July.

So he put a big sign out, "Essex Fried, Fried Clams," and people came in and tried them.

And he took in $35 that day.

That was in 1916, which is the most money he'd ever taken in, so he wasn't a stupid man.

He kept them on the menu.

(laughter) >> TRAVERSO: You know, it's always just such a delight to come in here.

I salute Chubby Woodman for giving us this delicious thing to eat, and thank you for having us again.

>> Glad to have you, and to Chubby and, and Nana Bessie.

>> TRAVERSO: Yes.

(laughter) But I'm gonna eat a few more of them before I go.

>> Okay.

♪ ♪ >> TRAVERSO: So, Chris, can you tell me about the mission of the Essex Shipbuilding Museum?

>> Of course.

Our mission is to preserve and interpret the history of Essex shipbuilding, as well as the town that supported it.

>> TRAVERSO: So how did Essex become such a center of shipbuilding?

>> Well, it was really by accident.

We had Europeans moving to this area that had had some sort of carpentry experience, but they weren't boat builders.

But they had this incredible resource.

You're right at the head of the Essex River.

That's your gateway to not only the very rich Great Marsh ecosystem, with lots of shellfish-- clams, mussels, and oysters-- but then you're right in the Atlantic, you're in Ipswich Bay.

So you're very close to fishing grounds.

The settlers here, they looked at what the Native Americans had been doing, and were essentially saying, "Gosh, we've gotta copy that, we have to build our own boats."

>> TRAVERSO: You got some giant trees here.

Take me through the process of how you get something from here to the, to the water.

>> When you see the logs come off the truck, it's like a butcher walking through a barn might see the cuts of the different pieces of meat.

I see the frames and the timbers that go into the boat right inside the log, and cut the log accordingly.

When we build a boat, it's a lot like a, like a New England barn-raising, where it's friends and family and people that are interested in keeping the tradition going along, all show up.

There's a real community in Essex and in this area of people that really appreciate the art of wooden shipbuilding and want to learn and want to practice that art.

What I realized is, people just want to take part in this and, and be part of it.

And so we keep the door open and try to keep something on the stove.

♪ ♪ >> TRAVERSO: New England is, in many ways, a center of technology and biotechnology, and life here moves as fast as it does everywhere else.

But it's also a place where there are a lot of people who love preserving tradition.

Like Harold, that might be shipbuilding, or it might be something else.

But somehow, being in a place where people really value the past makes me feel better about the future.

♪ ♪ >> Doing what we do with this farm requires the most creative thinking that we could imagine.

♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: In 2008, Louisa Conrad and Lucas Farrell were fresh out of art school and excited to start their careers in the art world, Louisa in photography and the visual arts, Lucas in poetry and creative writing.

Then the recession hit.

>> All those job prospects kind of vanished overnight, and we kind of hit the reset button.

♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: On a whim, they started apprenticing on a friend's goat farm.

>> I've eaten goat cheese since I was tiny.

We lived in France until I was six and I wouldn't drink milk, so I just ate tons of goat cheese.

That's, that's what triggered our interest in farming in general, was first the cheese.

It was supposed to just be a way to fill some time during the recession, learn how to make cheese, wonderful, have a little romantic farm life.

>> We were young and energized... >> Foolish.

>> And, um, foolish enough to sort of really throw ourselves wholly into the idea of it.

♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: Now they have their own farm, with 44 goats.

>> It wasn't something we thought when we came here, this is where we would end up.

>> Or in our wildest dreams, I think we could pull off.

And I remember standing on the top of the hill, it has beautiful views, and being, like, "Oh, if we could just have five acres of this, that would be the most incredible dream."

Now we have 100, this crazy barn, and a place to put all our goats and a creamery.

(goats bleating) >> NARRATOR: Although they loved making cheese, Lucas and Louisa realized that they would need to focus on a unique product in order to stand out in a crowded Vermont dairy market.

>> Like, what can we make with milk?

♪ ♪ We kind of ran through the gamut of all kinds of different things, and the caramel stuck.

>> There was a happy discovery there, that the goat milk was a perfect match, and it boiled down into beautiful caramel, really smooth.

And then it also kind of gives this flavor that's not just sweet, it's, it's more than that.

There's some other-- umami and other notes, floral notes, that come in that just kind of transform the whole product.

>> It's also an incredibly hard product to make.

It's very picky.

It doesn't like humidity or temperature, but it's not like it likes a fridge or a freezer.

It just wants its own climate.

That took us a long time to figure out, and I think that's one of the things that prevents a lot of people from getting into the caramel game, is that it's just... >> They're a lot smarter than us.

If we'd been a little bit smarter... >> So persistent.

>> And a little less strong-willed, then maybe we would have done something different.

>> NARRATOR: In their first year, Louisa hand-drew goats on each of the caramel boxes.

Since then, demand has soared as their caramels won over a dozen national awards.

They now sell to over 1,200 stores.

The packaging design continues to be an integral way to tell their story.

Like many small-farm owners, Louisa and Lucas see farming as more than just a livelihood.

>> Even our name, Big Picture Farm, really derived from that desire to provide the context for our customers and for the world, which is, like, this is how we want small farming to look.

This is what it can be.

This is how animals can be raised.

I hope that we can continue to tell this story in a meaningful way.

(goats bleating) ♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: Many of us don't think twice about the cooking utensils we use every day.

But for Meb Boden and Tom Vaiciulis, creating beautiful kitchenware is an act of love.

They started their business, Meb's Kitchenwares, in 2003, creating cutting boards, bowls, and utensils out of native New England hardwoods harvested near their home in North Woodstock, Connecticut.

>> WIESE: Hi, guys.

>> Hey.

>> Hi, Richard.

>> WIESE: I'm so thrilled to be here.

I have seen your work online and to actually come here in the middle of the woods-- and when I say middle of the woods... >> It really is, yes, we're two miles back.

>> WIESE: I am interested in cooking.

I cook all the time.

>> Yeah.

>> WIESE: And I'm starting to get particular about my utensils.

And the idea of customizing it or... >> Making it fit your hand... >> WIESE: Yeah, the feel of wood.

>> I have a couple of different patterns I like to use.

This one...

I'm thinking you might like that handle in your hand.

>> WIESE: Yeah, it feels a little substantial.

>> This is lovely wood, this is curly maple.

>> WIESE: Okay.

>> Because it changes so much.

If you look at it in the light, it moves.

It's like a little hologram.

>> WIESE: And curly maple is found here?

>> Yeah, it is, it's a wonderful wood, New England hardwood.

>> WIESE: So do we just pick out a piece of wood off the shelf in a store and, and do this?

>> We have a great place we go to.

>> We happen to have somebody that's just crazy as we are about pretty wood.

♪ ♪ We're at the Barrettes'.

We found these guys years ago, right in Thompson, right in our own neighborhood.

>> WIESE: Right here in Connecticut.

>> And, uh, yeah.

So, Richard, this, I want you to meet Bill.

>> WIESE: Hey, nice to meet you.

>> This is, this is his place.

>> WIESE: Wow!

These are all local New England trees?

>> All, all within an hour or two of driving from here, all around New England.

>> WIESE: This has got to be what, the vertical of a tree?

>> That happens to be American elm.

Yep, it's just a through cut, like a slab.

>> WIESE: These are trees that you're getting from what?

>> The logs come directly from sawmills, loggers, foresters, even an occasional homeowner.

Something comes down in the front yard.

If it's an interesting tree, we'll go take a look, and if it seems to have something worthy of it, we'll bring it to the mill and they'll saw from there.

>> WIESE: So I'm glad that you have all this big wood that can be turned into big projects, because Tom and I have a project.

>> (laughs): We're building some spoons, and so that might be a little bit more than we need.

>> Okay, Tom, we're gonna go to where, maybe something a little smaller in size.

Everything in here could be used for a spoon, but I think you're gonna be in real good shape with maybe something with a quarter sawn and a straight grain.

There's so many choices, I might want to start with something up here.

I see a piece of curly right there.

So this is a really nice piece, actually, got a lot of straight grain on there.

>> This, this will be fine.

>> WIESE: I have to admit, Bill, you've given me this hand-selected wood from decades of experience.

It's put a lot of pressure on me to build something worthy of your wood.

>> Well, I hope, you know, you look like you're up to the task.

>> All right.

(laughter) ♪ ♪ >> WIESE: All right, Meb, here we go.

We have produced wood.

>> Wow, it's absolutely gorgeous, but it's also such a dense and hard wood.

It won't take on odors or colors or flavor, it'll just get richer... >> It'll last forever.

>> It'll last forever.

So you want to draw your pattern on there?

>> WIESE: Now, this part I know I can do.

I've got little kids and I've definitely done the tracing... >> Tracing, tracing, so see... >> WIESE: You know what, I screwed up already.

>> They're so slippery.

>> WIESE: I am so embarrassed.

Tracing part two, here we go, okay.

♪ ♪ >> Done it.

>> WIESE: So okay, what do we do?

Just go like that, and a spoon pops out?

>> (laughs): There you go.

>> Over to the bandsaw.

>> WIESE (inhales): Okay.

(saw whirring) How's that coming, Tom?

>> You got it.

I'm gonna sit in a chair and watch you.

♪ ♪ >> It's brilliant.

>> WIESE: It's brilliant-- I don't think it's quite ready for cooking, but... >> Let's try to put the pattern on it.

Very nice.

>> WIESE: Are you now sanding to get this, or... >> No, you're gonna cut again.

>> WIESE: Cut again?

You're kidding.

>> Yeah, cut on the side.

>> WIESE: Oh, my gosh.

♪ ♪ Looks like it's starting to take shape, but obviously... >> You want that bowl, don't you?

>> WIESE: A spoon needs a bowl.

>> Yeah, yeah, yeah.

>> WIESE: And this is where, I think, I hand it off to the expert.

>> This is very ear-splitting.

>> WIESE: Okay.

>> And very dusty.

(tool buzzing) (tool stops) There.

I want to draw a pencil line on that we're aiming for.

(tool buzzing) Go over here, we're gonna sand out the inside of this.

And just rub it... Nice.

There you go.

Oh, see, it's growing more and more.

>> WIESE: Yeah, I mean, you can sort of see the arc of it coming out of the grain of the wood.

>> So now, this one, it's a sander.

We just want to smooth off the back of the spoon.

(sander whirring) All right.

>> WIESE: Getting close.

>> It is very close.

What do you think, how does that feel?

>> WIESE: It feels pretty good.

>> This is the last time, so you want to make it very smooth.

(sander whirring) Do every part and go very slowly, 'cause this is it.

I think it's brilliant!

We're going to open up the oil.

This is a polymerized linseed oil.

It is food-safe and safe for people with allergies.

This will make a smooth, beautiful finish.

You want to see it.

Uh-huh-huh, look at how it brought out that grain.

>> WIESE: Wow, look at that-- look at that, that is unbelievable.

>> Oh, that is just beautiful.

>> WIESE: That is magic.

>> You really found a beautiful piece of wood.

Okay, so now we're set with that, we're gonna wait for it to dry.

>> WIESE: Okay.

>> And then we're gonna put another coat on and wait for that to dry, and that's that.

>> WIESE: I am so impressed by this whole process.

I really am.

The biggest appreciation I have for this is, besides how wonderful it feels, is, we started with a block of wood.

>> A chunk of wood.

>> WIESE: And now we have this.

And it feels so much more personal than any utensil I've ever held, you know, and it just feels like it's meant to be.

I get goose bumps.

♪ ♪ >> TRAVERSO: The fried clams and creamy clam chowder at Woodman's are so good, but of course, there's another style of chowder that's also known in New England.

Today I'm going to be making a clear-broth, Rhode Island-style clam chowder.

This recipe is adapted from Matunuck Oyster Bar, where owner Perry Raso raises shellfish and then serves it in his restaurant.

It's an incredible place in Rhode Island.

Well worth checking out.

So let's go over to the stove and get started with our clear chowder.

So one thing that both styles of chowder have in common is the presence of a pork product, whether that's bacon, like I have here, or salt pork, which is like bacon, but not smoked.

I'm using bacon because I do like that smoked flavor, so that's gonna go in first.

(sizzling) So we're just gonna cook this off until it renders some of its fat and begins to turn golden-brown.

The presence of any kind of pork product is pretty traditional with chowders, but the addition of things like potatoes actually came much later.

In New England, as you saw the potato farming industry start to grow, you start to see potato in chowder, so I kind of love how this layering of ingredients mirrors the layering of history.

So my bacon's ready here.

I want to remove a little bit of the fat, because this has cooked off a good amount of bacon fat and we don't want that to dominate the flavor, so I'm just gonna pour a little bit of it out and keep about a tablespoon in the pot.

And to that, I'm now going to add some butter.

That's four tablespoons.

♪ ♪ My onions and my celery.

And then two bay leaves, which I'll remove before serving.

So I'm going to let these aromatics, the onions and the celery, soften for about six minutes, just until they're translucent.

Digging your own clams or buying cold clams and then cooking them and extracting the meat is a really wonderful way to make the dish, and it's the purest way to make the dish.

However, I also want this to be something you could easily make on a weeknight, so I'm going to cook my potatoes in something called clam juice, or clam broth, which you can buy at the supermarket.

So I'm gonna add my potatoes, this is two pounds of Yukon Gold potatoes.

I like the yellow richness of these potatoes, and I left the skins on.

Now I have six cups of clam broth, and that's going to go in.

So I've got this over a medium-high heat.

I want to bring it to a low boil, and then I want to reduce the heat to medium-low and let the potatoes cook until they're tender, which will take between 15 and 20 minutes.

♪ ♪ So you can see that, even though this is a clear-broth chowder, it's very hearty and it's really thick with ingredients, which I love.

It's very substantial.

So now that the potatoes are cooked, I'm going to add the last ingredient, which you add at the very end, and that's the clams.

This is two pounds of meat.

I'm going to give this a couple of more minutes to cook through, and then I'll be ready to serve it.

So the way they serve this dish at Matunuck Oyster Bar is with a finish of fresh herbs, and I really like that because it's a great way to add a lot of flavor.

So we've got a little parsley, some dill, and some chives, so I'm just gonna chop up a tiny bit of each.

Just very little, but it really looks pretty and it tastes really great.

I like to be able to adjust the seasoning at the very end.

You never know how salty your particular clams are going to be, so this is best done at the end and to your taste.

A little bit of pepper is always nice.

And now we get to eat.

I like to eat this with a nice, like, loaf of crusty bread.

This is some sourdough that I made yesterday.

♪ ♪ Mm.

I love all the layers of flavor, the sweetness of the clams, the richness of the broth, the little bit of smoke from the bacon, and then the fresh herbs and the onions.

Just really aromatic, really delicious.

>> NARRATOR: For exclusive video, recipes, travel ideas, tips from the editors, and access to the Weekends With Yankee digital magazine, go to weekendswithyankee.com and follow us on social media, @yankeemagazine.

Yankee magazine, the inspiration for the television series, provides recipes, feature articles, and the best of New England from the people who know it best.

Six issues for $10.

Call 1-800-221-8154. Credit cards accepted.

>> Major funding provided by... ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> The Vermont Country Store, the purveyors of the practical and hard-to-find since 1946.

(saw whirring) (tool grinding) ♪ ♪ (goats bleating)