ottawa foodies

A recent post on how to cook up escargot got me thinking about my time in Barbados where the giant African land snail is a HUGE problem. There are so many of them but no one eats them (which is a shame!) Anyway, I was thinking about where I could buy escargot out in the village where I live which got me thinking about raising my own escargot, which got me looking or tutorials online! I found this video:
Any of you foodies raising your own escargot? I'd love to hear your stories!

Gordon Ramsay eats them out of the garden. Check out about halfway through, he pays his kids to collect them.

If Ontario garden snails are edible, I'm sure my kids would be happy to collect them for you.. It's a bit of a hobby for them in the Spring and Fall. My hostas haven't been the same since 2008 -- before they started bringing them home. ;)

More research on the way... I think we've got something going here... Yum yum! Thanks for the Gordon Ramsey vid - a foodie with great cooking skills, cute, personable, and foul mouth - why is that so sexy? Must be the snails... they are supposedly an aphrodisiac!

Managed to order a snail identification book (for Canada) from CFIA today. Should arrive in a few weeks. Psyched! If anyone knows of snail farmers in Ontario - please do share the contact info.
Thanks!

Got a link for that book? Would be good for the kids ...

Hey Z.,

Here is a link for information coming out of the US:
afsic.nal.usda.gov

And here is a link for the book coming out of CFIA:
www.inspection.gc.ca

I also found a professor who is interested in snail conservation in Ontario. I'll be writing to him today. If I get anything interesting, I'll make sure to share it.

Darnit - these links are being shortened by the Ottawa Foodies site. How frustrating. Must be a glitch. I will make a blog post and post all of the information there. Just give me a bit of time...

The links only look shortened. The entire link is still there and they all work fine.

Oh thanks Rizak! I was wondering what went wrong. The guy at CFIA was really nice on the phone today and said the 'free' CD and book copy should arrive within a few weeks. I'm looking forward to it. I'll keep hunting for more info and share whatever I come up with.