Saturnalia

Snails don’t do Christmas. They don’t want their antennae trimmed with baubles or flashing lights or their houses lit up with a jolly Santa complete with reindeer and sleigh. They wouldn’t know what to do with a sprig of mistletoe. For them Christmas Day is just another day. You don’t have to think about what to get them this year. They are the creatures who already have everything.

The winter solstice is very welcome when at long last the mornings and evenings start to get lighter. When edible snails were first brought to Britain by the Romans, this time of year was the festival of Saturnalia. There was lots of cross dressing and role reversal so being hermaphrodite would have had its advantages.

If you want to cook snails the Roman way you have to fatten them on milk. They were then fried in oil and served dressed with wine and liquamen, a sauce made from the fermented entrails of fish. Bon appetit!

Nanowrimo

Hibernation is a wonderful concept. I often think when it's cold outside that I'd like to just snooze the winter away. The temperature fell to minus three the week before last so the snails all had to come in from the cold. They were eating less and less outside so they'd stopped growing. Most are now crated up in my outhouse for the winter, but at the moment it is quite mild so they aren't asleep and probably wondering what's going on. It is only Autumn really and a wonderful one too with strong autumn colour on the trees.

And for me Nanowrimo is here! Let me explain: November is National Novel Writing Month and this year I have joined. I've cleared my desk and set myself the target of writing 50,000 words in November - that's 1666 words a day. I'm not writing a novel I have to confess: 'Of Molluscs and Me' is all about setting up and running the snail farm. I've been working on it for years a bit at a time but this is my chance to really get to grips with it. It's ages since I last spent any good length of time on it and I have to write about all the things that have happened this summer.

The clocks changing last weekend made things easier as I'm a morning person and I still wake according to the old time. If I start writing by 7.15 and eat breakfast at the same time, I can get my word count done by 8.30 or so and then get on with the rest of the day. What I've found is that when I write early like this, and resist the temptation to look at my emails first, my brain is still in the right mode to free write. It's like limbering up - going for a mental jog - so much better for my knees than a real one! Then I go on thinking of ideas during the day and jot things down as they come into my head. I've found less need to have the radio on once my brain is in writing mode. So here's to National Novel Writers everywhere!

Snail versus shrew

So far I have caught five tiny shrews just by picking them up with gloved hands and transferring them unhurt to a field not far away. I am just hoping there aren't any more as they seem to have eaten a lot of baby snails. I haven't actually caught them red-clawed but they were snuggled up with the snails and surrounded by empty shells which seems fairly decisive to me. Shrews are carnivorous and are supposed to eat earthworms and insects but in this hot dry weather I guess you can't get an earthworm for love nor money so it looks like they held their noses and turned to nice juicy snails.

Dusty and her mate Freddie ferret are helping to protect the snails by spreading their wonderful odour about the place, in the hope that the shrews will take the hint and dine elsewhere. I have some more baby snails in the nursery waiting to go out but I don't want to take them until I'm sure it is safe.

The good news is that the first of this year's snails have 'shelled': the front edge of the shell has turned up like the brim of a hat to show they've stopped growing. They've grown fantastically well outside where they have more space than indoors and a good diet of dry food supplemented by lots of waste fruit and vegetables.

Visitor numbers to the farm have increased now the summer holidays are here and UKTV were filming here last Monday. Look out for us in the Autumn on the Good Food Channel programme Market Kitchen with chef Mark Sargeant, formerly at Claridge's with Gordon Ramsey and now at The Swan at West Malling.

Cherry flavoured snails?

For a few short weeks this day tent provided shelter from the sun, wind and rain - though we didn't get much rain. Then one night a strong gust of wind blew it away.

But the Cherry Festival was fun. Lots of people crowded in to meet the snails who were feasting on waste cherries from the packhouse. The snails haven't turned noticeably pink yet. In between showing everyone round I did a cookery demonstration and sold hot snails as well as bottled: both flew of the shelves.

We made our presence felt at the Kent County Show the following weekend. I put together some snail rearing kits for people to buy with half a dozen baby snails and all they need. Hot and bottled snails sold well and I made lots of good contacts to take the snails on visits and give talks.

The next big event will be the Smallholding Fair at Sissinghurst 21 and 22 August. This is a first for me and I'm really looking forward to showing the snails in such wonderful surroundings.

In the meantime, I have a shrew to re-home. It has somehow got through the defences and taken up residence in the snail enclosure. On the whole I like small furry animals, but if they eat snails they have to go! Catching it alive is proving difficult so if anyone has any suggestions I would be pleased to hear from you.

Visit Faversham

June was very busy and I can hardly believe it is already July. Lots of things have happened:

This lovely picture was taken at Sandwich when I took the snails along for Le Weekend - their twinning event.

We've made it onto the visitor attraction websites: http://www.canterbury.co.uk/things-to-see-and-do/Faversham-Slow-@-Grow,-Slow-Summer-Snail-Farm/details/?dms=13&feature=1&venue=3037860&easi=true
In June we also featured in an article in Speciality Food Magazine with a picture of me with the Natalia and the snails.

We've applied to register with the Children's University as a Learning Destination and now have worksheets for children to do alongside drawing and handling the snails. I also hope to become registered in the Autumn as an external provider to schools but I have to do some training first.

The website brings in some fascinating enquiries: one was from a school in Tenby where the children are studying Applied Science. As part of that curriculum they have to look after animals and we are discussing the idea that they could have some baby snails for a term and then return them to me. This fits well with the snail rearing mini-kits I am currently building for sale at the County Show. Look out for more details on the website.

Snail Farm Open

What's behind the door? To find out you will have to come and see for yourself. The snails started moving in on 29th May as planned and we have had lots of visitors wandering down the the end of the garden centre to find out what's going on. I was musing on the concept of freedom food and decided it really couldn't apply to snails. The bird netting, metal barrier sunk into the ground and electric fencing are essential if I want to find the snails still there waiting for their breakfast each day. So far I have managed to keep the free range chickens out but a sparrow blundered in by mistake one hot afternoon. It sat for a while looking round with amazement and eventually worked out where the door was.

The ground has been seeded and with last night's rain it should start to green up soon, though the thistles, dock and bindweed are doing quite well. I hope the ground is green soon as we have TV cameras coming in a couple weeks time.

The snails will be visiting Sandwich for a couple of days for Le Weekend 12/13 June: http://www.open-sandwich.co.uk/events/leweekendl.htm so Slow@ Grow will be closed for those days.

The next events on the Brogdale calendar will be Soft Fruit day on 27 June and then the Cherry Festival 10/11 July. I am planning a cookery demonstration for the Cherry Festival. Then the following weekend is the county show so I will be in Maidstone for three days 16/17 and 18 July and Slow @ Grow will be closed for those few days too.

Building the farm

Chris and his team from Willow Landscapes have made rapid progress with building the farm enclosure, though the lovely warm weather has probably helped.

We had half a page in Your Swale this week:
http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/ see page 8/9.

KM online want to make a video when we are open and Great British Food Magazine plan to publish a piece about us too.

I will be running Slow Summer Snail Farm on my own which means that I will not always be there. However I will need to go there at some point most days to feed the snails. I will fit that in with my other work commitments but I am most likely to be there in the afternoon during the week but longer at weekends. There is a phone number if visitors want to check when I will be there: 07811395974 and I would like groups to book. The 50 p per child charge reflects the focus at this stage of the year on providing an educational experience for children. For this introductory period I will charge £1 for anyone over 16. Children under 3 would not be charged for.

The snails will be particularly pleased to see you if you come bearing gifts. They like the stalks of cabbage, cauli and broccoli - the bits you throw away, along with that apple that has been sitting in the fruit bowl too long or the odd carrot. When the veg growing season really gets underway they would be delighted if there was a glut of courgettes or your lettuces bolted. Whatever it is in the waste fruit and veg line - bring it along and find out what they like best.

Slow Summer Snail Farm

We're making progress at Slow Summer Snail Farm. The ground has been cleared and rotivated ready for construction work to begin on Wednesday. Press releases and leaflets are going out and attracting lots of excitement locally. It's a nail-biting time with the opening planned for Saturday 29th May.

The Real Food Fair at Earls Court was a fascinating experience last week. It was like a big farmer's market with several stalls from local Kent producers.

The website is coming along now so watch this space: www.snailfarm.org.uk.

Life in the slow lane

http://www.pressup.biz:80/clients/ten/canterbury-times---life-in-the-slow-lane.html

The local papers have all picked up the story about our trip to Belgium.

There was a Family Fun Day and Hog Roast at Brogdale yesterday, so I was able to tell lots of people that the snails are coming. The children were having their faces painted and riding up and down on the mini railway. A wet bank holiday Sunday is no surprise of course, but we've been promised a fine day tomorrow. So I'll be back out meeting the public and spreading the good news. I'm planning to offer a snail cookery course soon, to show people how good snails can be when you cook them slowly in plenty of Kentish cider.

Publicity snakes and ladders

April has involved us in a lot of press activity. Last week the Kent Messenger newspapers in the Canterbury area featured an article with pictures covering our visit to Tavola XPO, a big trade exhibition in Belgium. (photo (c) jules serkin www.Pressup.biz) I went with Simon from Rough Old Wife Cider and Jane of Canterbury Cheesemakers, with the support of Natalia at Canterbury City Council. The aim was to explore the feasibility of exporting Kentish products across the channel. We learnt a lot about the markets in Belgium and France and the publicity was very welcome. Although we found Welsh lamb and Irish butter on display there was no great enthusiasm for English products.

This was also reflected in the piece on BBC TV last night where a local French chef tried to demonstrate that tinned French snails were superior to fresh English ones. If he had cooked them properly of course the story would have been quite different. When I went to France last year and met Emmanuel Brasseur at his well respected snail farm near Boulogne, he told me that he meets many French people who have suffered badly cooked snails. Like me, he cooks his snails slowly for a long time in a well flavoured stock. He uses French wine and I use English cider but otherwise our recipes are very similar. The snails of course are the same and the truth is that if you cook them properly you get a good flavour and soft texture, whether you cook them in France or in England. If you get them out of a tin of course, who know how they've been cooked! What a pity the TV programme did not show a more balanced view.

Slow at Grow

Great news! This summer the baby snails will be outside in the fresh air at Brogdale near Faversham. We have been lucky enough to be offered a site for the snail farm in ‘Grow’ the garden centre at the back of the plant centre next to the community allotments.

This is the 'before' view of the site.

The chickens seemed to think I was moving the bark chippings just for their benefit. We still have to take down the old hen house but they’ve already moved to smart new accommodation a few yards away. Today we started clearing the site for construction work to begin and look forward to opening to the public at the end of May. By then we hope frosts will be over so the snails can live happily outside.

So raise your glasses to Slow at Grow: the only open snail farm in Britain!

First Day of Spring

1 March certainly feels like the first day of Spring on the snail farm. We're keeping our fingers crossed for the first batches of eggs to be laid this coming weekend. On Saturday we started setting up the enclosures in the barn so the babies will be able to go into their new home at the end of April. As soon as it is warm enough they will be living outside this year. For the first time we’ll try out the rearing method used in Northern France and Belgium. Keeping birds and rodents away will probably be the biggest challenge but we’re looking forward to reducing our human labour input. Meanwhile we're relying on our workforce to put lots of labour into laying.

Multiplication

The first phase of our expansion plans has begun. New breeding stock arrived last Thursday in a large cardboard box to join our own adults which had grown through the winter. The snails looked remarkably calm after being stuck in the post for 8 days. They were packed in two mesh sacks but some had escaped and were busily munching their way through the newspaper packaging. As soon as they were given their freedom they started to pair off without even waiting for breakfast. Mating was more important than food and water - which is good news for us. All we can do now is keep our fingers crossed that egg laying follows soon.

a snail Valentine

We can’t pretend that snails have aphrodisiac properties but they could make the perfect starter for a romantic meal.

SPECIAL OFFER

CROQUILLES D’ESCARGOTS: create attractively presented sweet or savoury dishes with edible wafer shells . Box of 1200 £75.00. Will split.

Live Kentish snails Helix aspersa maxima, fully prepared ready for cooking @ 30p each. Only a few hundred left. Cleaned and ready to go. Special delivery costs £8.65 for up to 2 kg.

Blanched and blast frozen snails, removed from the shells ready for you to cook @ £35 per kilo plus delivery.

Smoked snails: poached with Kentish cider, cured in sea salt and brown sugar, smoked over apple wood, served cold in rapeseed oil with smoked garlic and thyme @ £5.00 per dozen. Freshly prepared to order and supplied chilled or vacuum packed and frozen.

Canapés: cooked snails in garlic and herb butter in edible shells (chilled or frozen) @ £5.00 per dozen.

News:
Expansion plans – the market for home grown snails is developing and the farm is growing with it. This year we plan to raise 100,000 babies outdoors in the summer months. So keep your fingers crossed for good snail weather!

Look out for us in the Times-on-line newspaper: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/related_features/my_dinner_party/article6915702.ece