“Black wampum,” made from the heart of the large quahog shell, was strung into bands or belts and ”served for money in the eastern colonies until the end of the 17th century.” (Quahog, by the way, is the Algonquin Indian name for all the hard-shell clams, including littlenecks, cherrystones and chowder clams.) Clearly, settlers of these shores have had a passion for clams in almost any form almost since the moment they arrived here. And we are among them. Because of our fondness for clams, we recently spent a good deal of time in our kitchen preparing them according to ”our own fashion.” The dishes that evolved included mushrooms stuffed with clams flavored with tarragon, baked clams with a snail butter and walnuts, and…