Dylan Gesswin, 9, in foreground, hunts for quahogs with his brother Cameron, 6, and stepfather, R.J. Sala, in Point Judith Pond. The Providence Journal / John Freidah

NARRAGANSETT –– The tide was running out of Point Judith Pond as the two women, spattered with mud, moved their buckets, crouched down over the flats and searched for the telltale “eyes” beneath their feet.

Terry Orlandi, 89, squatted in her bare feet and dug with a garden trowel deep around a small hole in the sand –– what she calls the eyes, the sign of a clam buried several inches down.

“Stick your finger in there,” said Orlandi, wearing a wide-brim hat and cut-off shorts. “Feel that suction? That’s a clam in there.”

She burrowed after it.

“You’ve got to be quick enough to get them before they go down. I’ve got to go down as far as he is,” Orlandi said.

A few yards away, her longtime friend Ann Perna, 73, of North Providence, triumphantly pulled a good-size steamer out of its hole. The clam spit water out at her as she placed it on the sand and dug after another one.

“I just love, absolutely love it,” said Perna, her fingers gritty with sand. “It’s the challenge. Going down and coming up with a clam.”

The women have dug for clams every summer since they were small children out on Oakland Beach in Warwick, and then began clamming together when they became friends as young mothers. The years went by, but this tradition held fast. Summertime, and the taste of a fresh-dug clam pulled from the mud.

Digging for steamer clams or quahogs is like prospecting for gold, says Dennis Erkan, a marine biologist at the state Department of Environmental Management. Growing up in Charlestown, he learned how to dig, using his feet to feel for the hard shell of the quahogs and his hands for the soft-shelled steamer clams.

“I have a lot of scars on my feet from crabs and other things,” Erkan said with a laugh.

While the season is year-round, recreational clamming is a summer tradition, a delicious meal that’s the true “taste of Rhode Island” for those who are patient, don’t mind digging for their dinner and enjoy getting muddy and wet.

Steamers burrow down into the sand, leaving a small hole, the only sign of their presence.

Some use clam rakes or trowels, or just their hands, to dig down to get the clams. Erkan recommends digging to the side of the holes, so as not to break the shell. Sometimes you’ll find more clams in that spot.

For the hard-shell quahogs, good for stuffies and chowders, wade into the water as deep as you can and feel with your feet for the ridges of the shell, Erkan said. A little practice and you’ll be able to feel the difference between a rock and a quahog.

The DEM allows free recreational clamming for residents and charges a small fee for tourists. Quahogs must be at least one inch thick to be legal, and steamers must measure at least 1½ inches long.

There are shellfish beds throughout the salt ponds, shore and Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island, but you have to know where you’re going, Erkan said. The state sets seasonal closures and conditional closures of the shellfish beds, monitoring for pollution as well as protecting areas in the salt ponds and other coves as growing areas for shellfish. The maps of what areas are open and what ones are closed are posted on the DEM Web site (see accompanying box).

The most popular places for beginners are the salt ponds and here, off the Galilee Escape Road.

As the tide continued to draw out, more people walked down onto the flats at Point Judith Pond, carrying rakes and buckets, their feet bare.

Across the pond, a man and his two stepsons waded out with buckets, looking down and trying to see through the ripples for the tell-tale holes.

“That’s how I started out,” said Orlandi, who now lives in Providence. “When the kids are young, you have to let them do this. … Regardless of how tired I was, my father always took me to the beach.”

Perna was 2 when her grandfather, Angelo De Santis, showed her how to dig for clams out at the point at Oakland Beach, where the family spent the summers. Her first clam was so big that her grandfather didn’t want to cook it. Perna remembered how he showed the neighbors the clam the little girl had dug by herself. “I’ve never missed a summer,” Perna said. “This is what I love.”

They remember the meals they’ve made with the clams they’ve dug, but mostly, they have the memories of being out on the pond. There was the time they had company coming for a clam-and-spaghetti dinner, but it had rained and the tide was still a little high. The women persevered, dunking their heads under water as they dug up the clams.

Another time, Orlandi waded far out into Point Judith Pond when the fog rolled in. She didn’t hear Perna calling her name.

“I just said, God, let me find some background so I know where I am,” Orlandi said.

The fog lifted enough that she could see the outline of the houses along the pond, and she could find her way back, carrying her bucket of clams.

The summers they remember were decades ago. The Oakland Beach cottage that Orlandi’s father built and named “Smiling Through” is no longer standing. The loved ones who taught them how to clam have long passed away.

But out here on the clam flats, under the warm summer sky, the women are like two children again digging in the sand, the gray Galilee mud flaking on their bare legs, their ritual in a lifetime of summers. Quahogging and clamming

Locations: Salt ponds, Narragansett Bay and the shoreline.

Costs: Free for residents, fee for nonresidents over 12 years old (annual is $200; 14-day tourist license is $11). For a permit application, go to www.dem.ri.gov/programs/bpoladm/manserv/hfb/boating/commfish.htm. The limits are a peck (two gallons) per person, a half-peck for nonresidents.

What to bring: A clam rake or garden trowel (or your bare hands) for the digging, a bucket for the clams and ice to keep the clams cool for your ride home.

Advice for beginners: Expect to get muddy and wet, and be careful not to break the clam’s shell as you pull it out. Also, Point Judith Pond off the Galilee Escape Road is a good place to start.

The DEM has a list of maps on its Web site of all shellfish areas in the state. Check The Providence Journal or the DEM hot line (222-2900) for area closures. Signs will also be posted if the area is polluted.

What’s the Web site: http://www.dem.ri.gov/maps/mapfile/shellfsh.pdf

amilkovi@projo.com