Of Molluscs and Me

I can't believe it is so long since I wrote a blog. I just love this picture of baby snails. It is the translucent bodies and shells and the pale grey streak running down the antennae which I guess is the nervous system connected to their eyes. I'm taking orders now for mini snail farms with 6 cute babies for Christmas gifts.

Snail Smallholder kit

If you want to rear a few snails in your back garden or allotment read on. This is an opportunity for snail eaters to grow their own food. I will supply baby snails, an attractive predator proof pen for them to live in for the summer and a Smallholder Guide telling you what you need to know. Put it alongside your chicken run and have fun. www.snailfarm.org.uk

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.