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.
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. 