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From: ems@amdahl.UUCP (ems)
Newsgroups: net.cooks
Subject: Re: Snails from the yard
Message-ID: <2181@amdahl.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 1-Nov-85 13:24:32 EST
Article-I.D.: amdahl.2181
Posted: Fri Nov  1 13:24:32 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 3-Nov-85 06:33:08 EST
References: <388@drutx.UUCP>
Organization: Circle C Shellfish Ranch, Shores-of-the-Pacific, Ca
Lines: 30

> >There seem to be many snails around my house and this year, instead
> >of trying to poison them I am going to collect them and eat them.
> 
> You might not want to do that.  The snails that you eat in restaurants
> are a particular variety (a tree snail from France).  It is very possible 
> that the ones in your yard are poisonous--or at least yucky tasting.
> 
I am not sure where the original poster lives; but folk wisdom (rumor?)
in California holds that the snails which consume our gardens were
introduced by the French as a food source.  Prior to that there were
none here.  Major worry factors should be parasites, diseases, and
what Mr. Snail had for breakfast.  Purging and cooking well should do it.

There was even an interview with someone from France on a local radio
show.  He makes a business out of having folks catch snails here that
he buys, purges, and sends to France.  As I remember it, one should
look for mature snails where the shell lip has started to curl
back somewhat (The better to mate with...)

Any mollusc-ologists out there who can give us a true story of 'The
Snail in America' ??

-- 

E. Michael Smith  ...!{hplabs,ihnp4,amd,nsc}!amdahl!ems

'If you can dream it, you can do it'  Walt Disney

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