Congratulations to Mr. Knapp for acquainting American palates with escargots. These are certainly not a common Anglo-American staple, as one does not see in "Downton Abbey" table settings the requisite tongs and little fork for holding the snail shell and extracting the mollusc, respectively.
Taylor is so passionate with everything he does. We locally are very proud of his work.
In the 1980's, in Bisbee, AZ, I was "just a guy with a bunch of snails." I believe I gobbled the entire production. Then, I quit because when I put them on the grill, they writhed and squirmed in agony.
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Now I got to google snails laying eggs - out of their necks!?! Yikes! I just assumed it was more like a chicken...
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A brand-new nonsense word 'devitalization'
And the hits just keep on coming...
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I love snails, and have thought to collect them, purge them, etc. There are lots all around my garden. I've also read that they contain a chemical that prevents breast cancer.
A favorite dish with snails is a kind of Sauce Bordelaise with bits of bone marrow and snails...
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Ahh, fond memories of my childhood pet snail. I loved letting it crawl on my arm where it would bite me with it’s thousands of tiny teeth. Love bites.
That didn’t stop me from enjoying the dish my brother made with the other snails: linguine with garlic and snails.
I eat very little meat by choice but I’m well aware there is a ‘food cycle’ on this planet where everything alive is eaten by something-eventually.
The point being, every living thing should b allowed or provided with as closely as possible its natural conditions, both environmentally and behavioral.
Eating snails makes more sense that eating a lot of big factory farmed animals.
No different than any other mollusk
However, I cannot eat octopus after making eye contact with one.
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@Sarah Carlson, I won't eat octopus because I don't like all the chewing involved! But yeah, looking your food in the eye can be offputting. :)
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@Reiam you've not had good octopus then... properly prepared, well tenderized and appropriately cooked - whether over flame or through acid - can be quite a delight, requiring as little jaw effort as a chicken tender may demand. Octopuses are super tough (and super smart) but they don't have to be once they're on your dinner plate. I thought I wouldn't be able to eat octopus again after reading 'The Soul of an Octopus' and watching one intently in an aquarium, but I still take a bite if it ends up in my sushi spread. An interactive encounter may change that... until then, I just try and make sure I give any animal I may consume the respect it deserves by thanking it for its service and savoring every bite.
If Mr. Knapp delivers to his customers via the U.S. postal system, would that be considered snail mail?
Just asking...
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“devitalization process”?!? What a way to get away from the squeamishness of what they’re actually doing! Just say the way you kill them is a secret and move on!
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@Sharon M
I myself am not looking forward to being devitalized...
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Crickets, black soldier flies, and snails, welcome to the future.
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@ Chris daudly actually welcome the “back” becoming the future . Human being’s been eating this food as long as we are existed ! We are changing our diet but not to the better . So it’s better for us to go back ! Be well!
@Chris Dudley, there is a difference between snails and bugs. At least I can make a distinction.
Snails have been legitimately on the menu and not as a gross out item for a very long time. Cooked in butter and garlic - very tasty.
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Good he's not in Hawaii where the largest outbreak of rat lungworm disease is underway. "Angiostrongyliasis, also known as rat lungworm, is a disease that affects the brain and spinal cord. It is caused by a parasitic nematode (roundworm parasite) called Angiostrongylus cantonensis. The adult form of A. cantonensis is only found in rodents. However, infected rodents can pass larvae of the worm in their feces. Snails, slugs, and certain other animals (including freshwater shrimp, land crabs, and frogs) can become infected by ingesting this larvae; these are considered intermediate hosts. Humans can become infected with A. cantonensis if they eat (intentionally or otherwise) a raw or undercooked infected intermediate host, thereby ingesting the parasite." Snails. Rat lungworm. There really isn't enough garlic.
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@GWPDA
Don’t ever eat snail sushi or snail ceviche. Cooking kills nematodes and other parasites.
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The NYT has published a very similar and equally interesting story in 2012 about a snail farmer in California. Not sure if that pioneer farmer is still in business, the farming model was slightly different.
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/17/dining/raising-sought-after-snails-in-california.html
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I love snails, always have. I hope Mr. Knapp’s business thrives. He is doing it right.
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Best line: “The certification is crucial, he said. “Otherwise you’re just kind of a guy with some snails.”
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Growing up in Africa , my son was a snail lover, he was about 6yo then! He would collect them from banana trees and gather them in a basket and just watched them moving and trying to escape. He sucked his finger then and just captivated by this things’ movement ( I’m sure some of snails’ saliva was in that sucked finger , yuk). We don’t eat them thou. He’s 27 now and I’ll forward this article to him. It was one of story we liked to tell his American friends, you shoulda seen those city kids faces:)
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Here we see explicit mention of government involvement in the development of a new industry through providing certification, which is "crucial;" and developing a "protocol." So while this chef has skills, curiosity, entrepreneurial nature, and contacts, he didn't "build it by himself." He had a government partner--which has happened before in our economic history (e.g. the Internet). Too many, though, don't like to admit it as it clashes with their ideology, or they only recall the failures.
That government role would be useful to acknowledge in the many debates taking place on how to create jobs and new sectors.
Also, it would be useful to know the environmental
and social implications of snail farming. I saw no red flags, it might even be positive, but such coverage should always be part of the story about new sectors.
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@Matt Polsky
Good points; in fact, beyond USDA interventions, many states have their own regulations; take Florida for example, where heliculture is banned (check the damages from the African land snails there.)
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@Matt Polsky
There is a "social implication" of snail farming. A major escape may mean the destruction of a neighbor's veggy garden, followed by a hail of airborne snails hitting you about the head and shoulders.
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I am a 9 minute ferry ride over to Greenport and have had snails at Industry Standard Bar.
Excellent. They are also served at a few restaurants on Shelter Island.
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I love this article. The fact that this Chef saw a void and filled it with love and precision makes me very happy. Plus the fact that I love snails helps. Saw them served as part of a pasta dish in Alba last year with Black Truffles. I regret having the rabbit instead.😉
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When I was a kid I used to keep snails as pets. We used to race them. They are surprisingly intrepid and fast. Also delicious. I lived in Kent in England. Near us was a hill with a population of snails of a species (variety?) introduced by the Romans. I am so delighted to find a source of fresh snails. The canned ones are enjoyable, but just not the same. I can’t wait for my order to arrive!
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Very interesting story, and I thank you for it. I'd like to try some of these snails.
I do have one concern: should he be grinding up the snail shells to feed to the snails. I'm not a biologist, but my understanding is that this is how prions became dangerous: feeding dead cows to live cows. Maybe the shell is a different story, but it is a question I would like to see asked.
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Prions come from brain tissue, I believe. The snail shells are primarily calcium - NOVA had a show recently that showed how certain birds eat old snail shells to get the calcium they need to make their egg shells calcify. Maybe the snails need the extra calcium for the same reason. Just a thought.
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@Wolf Chickens regularly eat and are given egg shells to eat too. Prions come from never cells. The ground up shells of their predecessors pose not problem.
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@Wolf Feeding the shells back to the snails is not unlike feeding the shells of chicken eggs back to the laying hens, to help them replace their calcium. (This is done at animal sanctuaries when a chicken happens to lay an egg, not at industrial egg-laying operations, of course.)
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Here is another example of a bright young person inventing his own business and prospering.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, since the end of the Great Recession, small businesses have created 62 percent of all net new private-sector jobs.
These creative people who are shunning the gig economy to make a living doing something that they love are an inspiration to me.
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I hope this catches on. A high quality food source produced locally, low carbon footprint, and a good source of income for people. Snail ranchers of the world, unite!
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In the late 1960s, I lived with my uncle and aunt in Spain; they had a vacation house on the Mediterranean. Their maid regularly went out each morning to collect snails. She then put them in a shoe box with cornmeal and, voila, a few weeks later we had a feast!
Fifty years later, I can still vividly recall the experience of her 'hunting them down' in the neighborhood and then preparing a delicious dish!
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One of the food markets I shopped at in the French Quarter in New Orleans many decades ago offered me live snails they had just gotten in from a freighter from Europe or somewhere. Of course I bought them, carried them home, and placed them in a shoe box to deal with later for supper.
A few hours later I returned to find they had all escaped and were climbing the walls of my kitchen which had 15 foot ceilings. I spent the next few hours rounding them up, knocking them back to earth with a broom. They were delicious but I had worked for my supper.
Once in a lifetime. The small market never got them back in stock again.
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His euphemisms are so evasive. Do they make him feel better about himself? Why can’t he just come out and say he’s murdering snails?
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@Paulie
Murder?
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@Paulie "devitalization", indeed...........
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@Paulie
murdering ? Is that like murdering kale ?
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Snails are starved for a week or so before they are killed to empty their intestines of food. They are not only shipped alive, they are also boiled alive. As they are fully senient beings this process can hardly be called "very humane".
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@Una
Fully sentient"?! Really?
And you base this statement on what? Their ability to respond when they view themselves in a mirror? They learn to fetch or to come when called?
You might want to use your powers of observation to read the following:
Did you think about selling them already cooked?
When we started this business, we planned to sell them cooked, by the pound. And then we saw the finished product. I was holding this sad-looking cooked snail and I thought, “This is not good.” If I was a chef, and this is what someone was bringing to me, I wouldn’t be happy with this. So we had to re-evaluate the whole thing and figure out how to process them raw.
"I assume they are not alive when they are delivered.
Our devitalization process is proprietary so I can’t really discuss it, but it is very humane. "
Seems that they are not "boiled alive"
But we can start rounding up their natural predators - birds and small mammals - to at least prevent the massive snailacide that has been going on for the last million years.
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@Una. The snail nervous system is very different from the central nervous system of mammals and other vertebrates, and many researches doubt they perceive anything analogous to what we mean by “pain.” On the other hand, they are without a doubt living creatures that are being killed by those who raise them as a food source for humans, which is enough for many to consider the practice cruel and unethical or immoral.
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@Steve Vegans will probably not be interested, not because of the pain issue, but because it is exploiting the snails. Even plants have a signaling system analagous to our nervous system, so everything alive "feels" something.
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At least if they "bolt" and make a "dash" for it, Mr. Taylor's job rounding them up will be easy...about 3 feet away, max, from the "corral".
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I believe “snail rancher” would be a better term.
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I've eaten Taylor's snails and they are superb; nothing like the rubbery old escargots from a can.
These morsels are tender, with a delicacy and nuanced flavor that can set up a craving.
Thank you, Taylor, for your dedication to innovation and quality, and for your understanding of how the soils of the North Fork (glacier-ground minerals) contribute to the vibrancy of flavor.
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Interesting story, I wish his business well.
Compare this story to the NYT article on Uber drivers, where one laments “I am rather at Uber’s mercy”
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A snail Uber driver painted a large ‘S’ on his car so his customers could identify him and say “Look at that S car go!”
(Sorry, couldn’t resist) :)
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Actually it is a snail ranch. Ranching involves mobile animals; farming immobile plants anchored in the ground.
I have often fantasized about starting my own snail ranch, Godspeed to the ranchers!
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