Snail Photography, in the slow lane
There was a time when I dabbled in snail farming. But I was disconnected from my farm during lock down and things didn't go so well for the snails. I have restarted the area as a veggie garden now though.
Snails are very interesting, from all the different shapes they can make, their very unique facial expressions they make and their strength. But they are also very tasty I can't lie. I did not even think of eating snail before I started farming them and even that is because I was finding so many in my garden I didn't know what to do with them.
I think the picture above and the picture below are two of my best snail pictures, the face of the chewing snail is so interesting.
The snails are feeding on sweet potatoes placed over loamy soil. They lay a lot of eggs and reproduce quickly but grow to table size over about a year.
They eat just about anything and you can see how they could be quite destructive to a garden.
Snails do not have a defined gender they can be either male or female or both. After getting their eggs fertilized they can wait up to a year to lay them also. These type can lay between 200 and 400 eggs per clutch (a snail nest).
The variety of snail here is called Achatina fulica, it is one of 3 species categorized as Giant African Land Snails, or GALS. It is also called the city lady because it is often found in the city. Ghanaian's do not like to eat it as much as the other 2 varieties. But Nigerians eat this one more frequently.
The above snail is very large and is one of the other GALS species called achatina achatina. This is what Ghanaians love to eat in a big bowl of soup. They are often known as the forest snail.
Some people mistake snails for being poisons but it is not them but the rashes and other problems people have are most likely from what the snail has eaten itself because it can eat anything and things that are poison to people. So it is necessary you prepare them correctly. First you contain them and feed them a controlled diet. Carrots work very well for this because the snail poo will turn completely orange when they are flushed of everything else. This usually takes about 2 days. You then let them fast for another 2 days.
The next step is boiling them quickly and then pulling them out of their shell and cleaning them. This takes a lot of limes and vinegar to clean all the slime off. They can then go into any stew or soup.
Here is a Nigerian dish called pepper snail. It is very spicy and tasty, the texture of the smaller city lady snails I used in this was devine.
It is basically and unwritten law that you have to enjoy this dish with a very cold beer. I know the Nigerians like it with Guldar but I enjoy my club. Cheers, there is no longer any reason to fear snails.