6 September 2010

Snails - Crunch 'Em or Munch 'Em

| Mathman
Join the conversation
15
snails

A warm wet spring is a great time in the vege garden. New seedlings are planted in anticipation of fresh home grown garden salads. But the warm wet conditions also give rise to the gardener’s arch nemesis – the garden snail.

Voracious in appetite, they happily devour your lettuce seedlings before you can reach for the balsamic. The common garden snail (also known as Heli aspersa) has a life span between 2 and 5 years and can lay between 90 and 130 eggs within a few weeks.

Instead of using the traditional method of crunching them underfoot, seek the ultimate revenge by trying your hand at a bit of snail wrangling.

Heliciculture is the process of farming or raising snails. In Australia, the demand for snails exceeds availability, and the current market potential of snails is very sizeable, both locally and internationally.

Ronnie’s Succulent Snails is a Canberra based social enterprise that breeds and grows snails for the restaurant market in Australia. A social enterprise can be described as a feasible and profitable business – that’s built around a sound business model – but which also serves a social purpose; for example, in this case, providing a sustainable employment solution for someone who would be otherwise unable to enter the mainstream workforce.

Ronnie is a 21 year old Canberra man who has a moderate intellectual disability, as well as a life-long history of hospitalisation, injuries and surgeries due to a serious chronic epileptic condition. Entering regular mainstream employment is not an option for him. His family, with assistance from the ACT Social Enterprise Hub, developed the business as sustainable career that would help support his physical, mental and social development and also provide inspiration for others who are trying to help loved ones with special needs.

Always in need of fresh stock, Ronnie wants your snails.

All you need to do is collect the snails from your garden and keep them in a secure container with some small air holes. Also place some vegetable leaves and a lid filled with water in the container, if they are going to be in there for a few days. Then contact Ronnie to arrange pick-up or delivery!

Join the conversation

15
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest

prhhcd said :

can we get some contact details for Ronnie? I am spending next weekend on the garden beds and them little suckers have to go!!! (there are so many, not even the chickens want them anymore – spoilt brats).
🙂

Follow the link in the OP.

General rule: garlic butter will make anything edible.

can we get some contact details for Ronnie? I am spending next weekend on the garden beds and them little suckers have to go!!! (there are so many, not even the chickens want them anymore – spoilt brats).
🙂

ConanOfCooma1:22 pm 06 Sep 10

They aren’t snails, they are Stanhope children, so stop the murder, please.

great initiative by ronnie, but i’m not sure i’m willing to forego the sensory titillation engendered by tossing the things high into the air describing a parabola whose terminus coincides with my own or my neighbour’s concrete driveway – be havin’ my lettuces, will ya? ya slimy thief – fly!

if i can be restrained, stand by ronnie for a delivery… (actually mis-typed ‘delovery’; kinda a propos, eh?)

I was aware that our common garden snail was edible (I ate a fair few of them when I was a toddler), but always assumed that the commercially sold escargot would be ‘grain fed’ or some such.

Anyone got any recipes?

Here is another reference to them being edible at The Australian Museum. Apparently they are even exported to France.

If you’re interested in getting into the snail business yourself, check out Snails Bon Appetite. They will pay you 50 cents per snail. Damn, I must have stepped on a fortune over the years.

(I have no affiliation with Snails Bon Appetite but I do supply snails to Ronnie.)

Tetranitrate12:13 pm 06 Sep 10

colourful sydney racing identity said :

I always thought that snails used in cooking differed from common garden snails…

I think the main thing is that they’ve been raised in a countrolled environment so they aren’t carrying parasites, ect.

All jokes aside, what a great initiative by/for Ronnie. Good luck mate and you can have all my snails when it warms up a bit and I plant new seedlings in the patch.
BTW, snails are delicious fried up in some butter, garlic and parsley, will we also be able to purchase them ready for the frypan?

colourful sydney racing identity said :

I always thought that snails used in cooking differed from common garden snails…

Apparently not – List of Edible species

colourful sydney racing identity said :

I always thought that snails used in cooking differed from common garden snails…

Yes, so did I.

colourful sydney racing identity11:19 am 06 Sep 10

I always thought that snails used in cooking differed from common garden snails…

rapunzel said :

I’ve always wanted to try snails, but I haven’t come out of my shell yet.

I wonder if it would give me a bout of gastro. And when they get delivered, is the package marked “Prec-es-cargot”?

I’ve always wanted to try snails, but I haven’t come out of my shell yet.

Brings a whole new meaning to “snail mail”.

This trail of thought makes me feel a bit sluggish.

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.