May and all those Bank Holiday weekends

The Times Food Lovers Guide has been in my hand for weeks so I could show the article to everyone I met. It made a good story and the pictures are striking though my friends tell me I don't really look like that: Tom Pilston is a well know documentary photographer. (http://www.tompilston.com/)

Two enquiries came from this publicity: one was a school wanting to keep snails as pets and a couple came from journalists. So I did a recorded interview for Gulf Radio Services that will be broadcast to ex-pats working in the Gulf. They sent me a DVD of the programme which was good. I wonder if any sales will come of it.

I’ve been studying customer behaviour over the holiday weekends. I noticed that snail eaters seem to get up late. Perhaps they’ve been fine dining the night before. All I have to worry about then is the kind of hangover that doesn’t take kindly to the smell of hot garlic butter. I tried persuading a few gardeners that eating snails was a way of getting their own back. These were the early morning shoppers intent on buying food for a cooked meal at midday. My best customers were less focused in their shopping habits. They wandered from shelf to shelf, sniffing the cheese to see if it was ripe, talking about their preparations for the evening to come and discussing the relative merits of different brands of extra virgin olive oil. They tasted the snails with concentration on the task in hand, commented on the texture and flavour, comparing them to those they had tasted on hot holidays in the Dordogne. After due consideration, they took home jars of smoked snails and garlic butter packs to share with friends. Some even phoned their friends to come over and try them.

One tasting took place in the middle of a pet animal show. The market place was full of well groomed obedient dogs greeting each silently with a rear end sniff, in the way dogs do. There was a wire pen full of guinea pigs and rabbits with plenty of warm furry bodies for children to stroke. The café was packed and people wandered round the shop looking at all the delicious goods as though they were a museum collection. Garlic butter scented the air and I watched as the smell raised their noses as they walked through the door to see if it brought a smile of recognition. They were interested in the snail farm as animal lovers might be, fed the cooked snails to their children and wished me luck with the venture.

The best tastings were at Lower Hardres Farm shop off Stone Street and Delf Farm shop at Sandwich where I had to drive back home after the first hour and a half to collect more stock because we had sold out.

My snail canapes in garlic and herb butter also featured on the menu at a well known local restaurant for a chef’s birthday party. So my fingers are crossed that this may bring in results.

The snails are well into egg laying now after an anxious few months in case they didn’t lay. But the shelves are filling with trays of tiny baby snails and most of last Autumn’s crop are ready to cook.

In June we will be at the Godinton Park farm open day on Sunday 7th (http://www.godinton-house-gardens.co.uk/) and the following weekend Friday and Saturday 12th and 13th June we have a stall at the Wealden Times Midsummer Fair at Brick House Farm near Tenterden: (http://www.wealdentimes.co.uk/events/wt86_midsummerfair.asp) Both of these occasions will provide opportunities to taste and buy smoked snails.

I've started offering snail events to primary schools to fit with the National Curriculum Key Stages 1 and 2 so watch this space: http://snailview.blogspot.com/