Unwanted garden snails cooked by gardener

When snails besieged Oriole Parker-Rhodes garden and began eating all her potatoes, she came up with the perfect credit crunch solution. If you can't beat them - eat them. For although the grandmother was unwilling to trample on or poison the troublesome creatures, after discovering they could make a tasty snack she decided to tuck in.

Now she regularly feasts on their meat, claiming they are higher in protein and lower in fat than beef. Her potatoes, meanwhile, are more likely to survive to be used as a side dish. And she said preparing them for the dining table was perfectly straightforward.

She waits until they enter a 'dormant' state, similar to hibernation, and usually either in the autumn or during a dry period in summer. When dormant, their metabolism slows to ten per cent of its normal rate.



First she checks the front edge of the shell opening is hard, which means they are mature, then gives them a temporary home for a week, typically in a bucket covered with an old pair of tights. In this final week they are fattened up with a diet of lettuce, onion, greens and apple, before a final two days of fasting to ensure their stomachs are empty.

After washing the snails, Miss Parker-Rhodes then cooks them in boiling water for five minutes to kill them - insisting that their two days of fasting means they will not be conscious and will feel no pain.

She takes them out of their shells, using a pin, washes them again, and then boils them again in stock for about an hour until the snails become tender. They are then baked with butter, garlic and other flavourings.