Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Organic snail control


For a number of weeks I had been watering a set of native plants in pots - kindly donated - while Melanie and I thought of where to plant them. When we finally decided on the place and started planting out we discovered 40 odd snails hiding amongst the plastic pots. Not wanting to turn a blind eye and let them make a run for it back to the garden, they had to be gotten rid of, but how?

The occasional snail that I find I usually throw to the chickens. Sometimes they eat it, but often they just give it a nonchalant peck - depends how hungry they are I guess. So there wasn’t much point feeding them 40 of the slimy things. If my conscience didn’t get in the way I would have crunched the lot beneath my feet. But despite them eating our prized vegetables I just couldn’t do it. I can however justify killing for food if done with minimal suffering, and by the size of these snail they sure looked liked they had had a good life with minimal suffering. But if the chickens weren’t going to eat them there was only one option… The family and I were going to have to do it.

Before doing so I did my research thoroughly. Turns out the common garden snail found in Australian backyards is the same variety used in fancy restaurants. I also learnt that the Italian method for farming them is almost equivalent to the way these have been raised: roaming wild in a vegetable patch. The only difference is that on a farm the vege patch has a snail proof barrier surrounding it - only this time to keep them in. Regardless I couldn’t be certain what they had been eating so the recommendation is to put them on a cleansing diet for a week.


We gathered them up and kept them in large plastic container with a few air holes in the top. We kept them in captivity for one week fed on a diet of nothing but polenta.


Every couple of days the children took great pleasure in giving them a wash under a cool running tap. The cool water sure makes them active and very friendly.


After saying a small prayer out of respect to living creates that were about to be killed at my hand, I threw them into a boiling pot of water - hopefully the most humane method.


After a few minutes we cooled them off under the tap and began what I thought was going to be a very difficult task… pulling them out of the shell. To my pleasant surprise they simply twist out with a fork or skewer.


The kids and I then cooked them first simmering for 30 minutes in wine.


Followed by a quick fry in garlic butter.


And the verdict… Ok. Nothing spectacular, but definitely palatable. Considering they are apparently fat free, high in vitamins A, C and D, together with a large number of essential amino acids, they might just become a regular at this dinner table. Have you eaten snail - what did you think?

11 comments:

  1. Good for you, I am full of admiration. Could I eat them? If I was truly desperate and hungry, possibly, but in my lucky country state of the present, perhaps not.

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    1. It is interesting how there are things that gross us out, often for no logical reason. My father hated tomato sauce, and when I say hated it I mean he feared it like it would kill him. He would always check any food from a take way store to make sure they had head is "NO SAUCE" request. And would take it back with anger if they hadn't. Interestingly I too grew up with a fear of tomato sauce. Until one day I actually tried it and was pleasantly surprised that I didn't die, nor was it offensive. I think the fear of food is a past down survival technique to avoid eating the many deadly wild things out there. So in most situations fear of food is a very good thing.

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  2. I've never tried it myself, but my mum used to collect her garden snails for a French work colleague who ate them. I think they cleansed them for a week on white flour, so very similar. It's an idea I've toyed with, but never seriously considered. You've inspired me to have another think about it, but I'm not sure if I will take the plunge. Well done on making it a family experience.

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    1. I was very impressed and proud of my whole family for taking the plunge with me. I highly recommend at least giving it a go - the whole experience from end to end is really very grounding. I now feel I could survive in the wild ;-)

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  3. Well done! Can't imagine I'd ever do it though. Maybe if they were cooked into a tasty dish and I didn't know they were there.....

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  4. That's just fabulous, Jason! I would totally give it a go if I had snails around here. Slugs by the hundred, but I have only ever seen a single snail, and only just recently. Not sure the exercise would be worthwhile for a single unlucky specimen. Thanks for the giggle ;)

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  5. What a great way to dispose of the snails! Am I seeing correctly that your most common snails are Helix pomatia? Here the most common snails are Cepaea hortensis which is a lot smaller than the Helix, so there isn't much to eat. Also, the hedgehogs love them and we hardly ever see them. The "problem mollusc" of our region is the slug and hardly anything eats it. My favourite way of disposing of them - don't tell anyone! - was to secretely toss them over into my neighbour's garden (he is NOT nice)....

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    1. Wow! you sound like a snail expert. Thanks for giving them a name - I hope it doesn't make it more difficult to eat them:-) Luckily I see more snails than slugs. I prefer snails, there hard shell makes it much easier to pick them up. Mind you I do like the feeling of holding a nice big slug. Is that weird? And don't worry your secret is safe with me.

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  6. Love your work as always Jason. I'm a vegetarian, but anyway I have song thrush in my garden who eat the snails, bashing the shells on the path to get at them. I also think it was great how you got the whole family into it! Cheers c

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    1. By "song thrush" I thought you had duck with that name, until I googled it to discover it's a type of bird. Never seen them in my garden - sound like I wish I did though.

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