MUSSELS: HOW TO FORAGE OR FARM THEM

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Your crop will reach good eating size (two inches, plus) in 12 to 15 months, but the precise time of harvest is always, of course, controlled by red tide conditions. The yield will vary, but five pounds of mussels per foot of rope per year is about an average figure for a good operation. (Current prices range from $1.00 to $2.00 a pound, cleaned off and delivered — alive and still in their shells — to restaurants.)

Harvesting can be a chore or very easy, depending on how much care you take. It's possible to raise each line and pick off only the salable mussels . . . but the procedure is time-consuming. A better method — according to many Maine shellfish farmers — is to take off all the mussels, and then put any too-small ones back on the ropes.

Wash the mollusks well before you market them, getting rid of the worst clumps of trash, dead shells, stones, and so forth. But don't break up the mussel clusters themselves unless your buyer insists; since — if you pull out the threads from the insides of the little creatures and thereby damage them — you'll find it difficult to get your entire crop to market alive.

DEADLY RED TAPE

Naturally, there are obstacles that can make setting up a successful mussel farm pretty difficult. The worst of them is probably that hideous creation known as "red tape". Getting permission to put in a mussel raft requires filling out sheaves of forms. The Army Corps of Engineers has to rule on your hazard to navigation . . . the county must decide whether or not you'll be in compliance with local zoning . . . and every state agency imaginable must — it appears — rule on your application.

The permit process for a big operation could take as much as a year to 18 months and cost several hundred dollars. There is no way to get around the procedure, and only a few things you can do to ease your way through it. First, keep your proposal simple. The less expensive your raft (and the less ambitious the plan), the less you're likely to be hassled by the bureaucrats. Second, talk to anyone and everyone who has been through the process before. And third, apply for as many permits simultaneously as possible ( an approach which involves more work initially but, with luck, will shorten your wait).

If you're serious about "going commercial" with mussels, you may have to do your own recruiting of restaurants that will buy your crop . . . and that can involve selling the "idea" of mussels as well. Certainly, no restaurant will buy mussels from an unlicensed and uncertified shellfish dealer (check with the health department, again, to learn the requirements).

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