April 2009
It’s already April and where did the time go? March blew away in a whirlwind of activity and smiling for the cameras.
Look out for us in the Times Food Lovers Guide and Kent Focus magazine at the end of April. It was Michael Wale who came to meet the snails and find out about the farm for a feature in the Times newspaper. His passion is allotments so he was very much in tune with small scale operations like ours. Read more about him here: (http://www.50connect.co.uk/features_and_regulars/green_issues_with_michael_wale)
We are still recovering from the surprise of being featured on the local news by Meridian and BBC South East and then selected by both channels for their reprise of highlights of the year’s news at Christmas.
The snails were centre stage for the cameras again in March when we were contacted by Regine Petersen a postgraduate student at the Royal College of Art in London. Regine wanted snails to feature in a project for her MA in Photography. (www.reginepetersen.de/) By the time she had spent a week photographing them from every angle she couldn’t bear to part with them and asked if she could keep them as pets.
The new season’s snails are ready for sale and all I have to do now is find buyers. Going round knocking on kitchen doors with snails in my hand has become a familiar activity. Just like last year, there have been many changes since the previous visit: chefs move on, premises change hands or close down. Writing a newsletter proved a useful way to concentrate the mind on what we have to sell. Now that we have permission to sell cooked food to shops and restaurants we can create a wider range of products to try out on old and new customers.
In the beginning our Unique Selling Point was live snails for the discerning chef and we offered frozen uncooked snails for those who preferred them that way. We have now branched out so that we can offer snails cooked simply in court bouillon and either bottled in brine or frozen. The Forager based nearby at Chartham (www.forager.org.uk/) takes orders for live snails and it is a good way for restaurants some distance away to buy just a few. If a chef wants a hundred or more it is worth paying for a carrier and we’ve found APC (East Kent) reliable.
Escargots a la Bourguignon, in presentation shells stuffed with garlic and herb butter, is the familiar way so many holiday makers have tried them. Because these are imported more cheaply than we can produce them we made a decision early on not to go down that route. However, there seems to be a demand so we are producing them this year. The butter is English and the herbs picked freshly for us by Walmestone Growers just a few miles away so they will taste much better of course. (http://www.producedinkent.co.uk/)
Alongside the usual garlic butter version we’ve been developing canapés for dinner parties, adding local cheeses such as Ashmore (www.thecheesemakersofcanterbury.co.uk/.) or local mushrooms. Packaging is one of the biggest challenges because we want them to look irresistible, like chocolates, and that is going to be hard to achieve.
The production of canapés followed on from a very successful day trip to Boulogne at the invitation of Emmanuel Brasseur (www.lescargotiere.com). L'escargotiere du Choquel is just a few miles from Boulogne in the countryside. We learnt such a lot from this one visit and our generous host invited us to go back whenever we want to. The canapés are served in edible shells made of wafer, like ice cream wafer which I have never seen for sale in England. As presentation shells of any kind would have to be imported, we have had to make an exception to our local only rule… but Boulogne is closer than London for us!
Mani’s snails hibernate in the winter unlike ours and had just been woken up to start egg production for the new season. I particularly liked the outside pen, like a big fruit cage, where the youngsters spend most of the summer, protected from predators by a friendly ferret. He does help himself to the occasional snail but more than makes up for such misdemeanours by keeping them safe from everything else. Visiting during the spring lay had great advantages for us because we had a serious problem last year with our adult snails refusing to lay. What do you do when your breeders which should have been full of the joys of Spring stuff themselves full of food then roll over and go back to sleep? Well Mani was able to tell us that the secret is all in the temperature, so this year ours are laying again too.
We launched our new recipe for smoked snails at Hadlow lambing event In March where they were voted delicious. Last year we had a lot of support from local food smokers such as Parkside Trout Farm but now that we have total control of the process we’ve been able to cure the cooked snails with sea salt and brown sugar which enhances the flavour considerably and adds to the shelf life. The recipe we are using is supposed to preserve them for a whole year but it will be a long time before we can print that claim on the label.
Over the next few weeks you can taste the produce at some of our local outlets Macknade’s, (www.macknade.com/events.html) on 25 April and
Kent Farm Gate Foods at Lower Hardres Farm shop on 2 May. Other new customers include Mamafeelgoods, www.mamafeelgoods.co.uk/ at Bekesbourne, Delf Farm shop (www.discoversandwich.co.uk/shops.htm ) at Sandwich and Perry Court Farm shop on the outskirts of Ashford
Wheelers Oyster Bar will be stocking local snails again this summer from May bank holiday weekend onwards, we’re very pleased to report. Mark and Delia have been very supportive of our business since we first started selling about eighteen months ago now.
(www.whitstable-shellfish.co.uk/wheelers.html) and from time to time they will be on the menu at the restaurant at the Goods Shed and the award winning Mulberry Tree at Boughton Monchelsea. So it’s back to the kitchen!
It’s already April and where did the time go? March blew away in a whirlwind of activity and smiling for the cameras.
Look out for us in the Times Food Lovers Guide and Kent Focus magazine at the end of April. It was Michael Wale who came to meet the snails and find out about the farm for a feature in the Times newspaper. His passion is allotments so he was very much in tune with small scale operations like ours. Read more about him here: (http://www.50connect.co.uk/features_and_regulars/green_issues_with_michael_wale)
We are still recovering from the surprise of being featured on the local news by Meridian and BBC South East and then selected by both channels for their reprise of highlights of the year’s news at Christmas.
The snails were centre stage for the cameras again in March when we were contacted by Regine Petersen a postgraduate student at the Royal College of Art in London. Regine wanted snails to feature in a project for her MA in Photography. (www.reginepetersen.de/) By the time she had spent a week photographing them from every angle she couldn’t bear to part with them and asked if she could keep them as pets.
The new season’s snails are ready for sale and all I have to do now is find buyers. Going round knocking on kitchen doors with snails in my hand has become a familiar activity. Just like last year, there have been many changes since the previous visit: chefs move on, premises change hands or close down. Writing a newsletter proved a useful way to concentrate the mind on what we have to sell. Now that we have permission to sell cooked food to shops and restaurants we can create a wider range of products to try out on old and new customers.
In the beginning our Unique Selling Point was live snails for the discerning chef and we offered frozen uncooked snails for those who preferred them that way. We have now branched out so that we can offer snails cooked simply in court bouillon and either bottled in brine or frozen. The Forager based nearby at Chartham (www.forager.org.uk/) takes orders for live snails and it is a good way for restaurants some distance away to buy just a few. If a chef wants a hundred or more it is worth paying for a carrier and we’ve found APC (East Kent) reliable.
Escargots a la Bourguignon, in presentation shells stuffed with garlic and herb butter, is the familiar way so many holiday makers have tried them. Because these are imported more cheaply than we can produce them we made a decision early on not to go down that route. However, there seems to be a demand so we are producing them this year. The butter is English and the herbs picked freshly for us by Walmestone Growers just a few miles away so they will taste much better of course. (http://www.producedinkent.co.uk/)
Alongside the usual garlic butter version we’ve been developing canapés for dinner parties, adding local cheeses such as Ashmore (www.thecheesemakersofcanterbury.co.uk/.) or local mushrooms. Packaging is one of the biggest challenges because we want them to look irresistible, like chocolates, and that is going to be hard to achieve.
The production of canapés followed on from a very successful day trip to Boulogne at the invitation of Emmanuel Brasseur (www.lescargotiere.com). L'escargotiere du Choquel is just a few miles from Boulogne in the countryside. We learnt such a lot from this one visit and our generous host invited us to go back whenever we want to. The canapés are served in edible shells made of wafer, like ice cream wafer which I have never seen for sale in England. As presentation shells of any kind would have to be imported, we have had to make an exception to our local only rule… but Boulogne is closer than London for us!
Mani’s snails hibernate in the winter unlike ours and had just been woken up to start egg production for the new season. I particularly liked the outside pen, like a big fruit cage, where the youngsters spend most of the summer, protected from predators by a friendly ferret. He does help himself to the occasional snail but more than makes up for such misdemeanours by keeping them safe from everything else. Visiting during the spring lay had great advantages for us because we had a serious problem last year with our adult snails refusing to lay. What do you do when your breeders which should have been full of the joys of Spring stuff themselves full of food then roll over and go back to sleep? Well Mani was able to tell us that the secret is all in the temperature, so this year ours are laying again too.
We launched our new recipe for smoked snails at Hadlow lambing event In March where they were voted delicious. Last year we had a lot of support from local food smokers such as Parkside Trout Farm but now that we have total control of the process we’ve been able to cure the cooked snails with sea salt and brown sugar which enhances the flavour considerably and adds to the shelf life. The recipe we are using is supposed to preserve them for a whole year but it will be a long time before we can print that claim on the label.
Over the next few weeks you can taste the produce at some of our local outlets Macknade’s, (www.macknade.com/events.html) on 25 April and
Kent Farm Gate Foods at Lower Hardres Farm shop on 2 May. Other new customers include Mamafeelgoods, www.mamafeelgoods.co.uk/ at Bekesbourne, Delf Farm shop (www.discoversandwich.co.uk/shops.htm ) at Sandwich and Perry Court Farm shop on the outskirts of Ashford
Wheelers Oyster Bar will be stocking local snails again this summer from May bank holiday weekend onwards, we’re very pleased to report. Mark and Delia have been very supportive of our business since we first started selling about eighteen months ago now.
(www.whitstable-shellfish.co.uk/wheelers.html) and from time to time they will be on the menu at the restaurant at the Goods Shed and the award winning Mulberry Tree at Boughton Monchelsea. So it’s back to the kitchen!
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