Baited by the snail trail

“I really enjoy eating snails”, says Rachelle van Heerden of Anzole Snail Farm in George’s Valley, just outside Tzaneen. “And I hit upon the idea of snail farming under lockdown. Everything was so uncertain then and everyone was looking for new ways of surviving, so snail farming seemed like a very interesting concept.

“After extensive research we started with our first batch of 664 snails imported from Ukraine in August 2021.” Rachelle and her business partner, farmer Thys du Toit, began their snail farm in a 57m² greenhouse which has since grown to 264m² and will soon get bigger.

“Though we started small-scale to first observe the entire process, from breeders to eggs to juveniles, we soon realised that though snails might be slow creatures, they multiply at a rapid pace. Our snails lay much more eggs than expected, according to industry statistics. Their mortality rates are very low and the quality is tops. As Thys likes to say, it’s because our snails receive so much love.”

Anzole sells across Limpopo to restaurants, hotels, caterers and foodies. They sell 120g packs of 24 snails, the same weight as tinned snails. That’s also an option the business is exploring. It is among more than 170 snail farms across South Africa, making up a heliciculture (that’s what snail farming is called) industry which, according to Farmer’s Weekly, is ripe with opportunity as snails have a food and cosmetic value, and overall, demand is starting to outstrip supply.

Snail is a healthy meat, with similar protein content to beef and pork, filled with phosphorus, calcium and iron, and low in fats, sodium and cholesterol. “We need to educate a potential market about the nutritional value of snail meat,” says Rachelle, adding that resistance to eating them is often based on perception and culture. "In Nigeria, for example, the giant African snail is popular and the industry strong."

The history of snails in cuisine dates way back to prehistoric times. In France, they were initially considered a poor person’s food, before the modern-day escargot was invented in about 1814, when Napoleon’s steward, Talleyrand, wanted to have lunch with Tsar Alexander I. They arrived at the restaurant so late, apparently, that snails were the only thing the cook had left to serve. He added garlic and parsley to them to improve the taste and presentation, and voila! — the men loved it and escargot became a hit. The French eat more than 16,000 tonnes of snails annually.

Rachelle also does dinners on request for people wanting to try snail meat. A popular method is to pan fry them with garlic and butter, but one of Rachelle’s best dishes is fillet mignon topped with snails and served with a garlic butternut purée. She is also excited about cooking with snail eggs, which are dubbed white caviar or snail pearls. The pearls are typically eaten like caviar, with sour cream and blinis, with bubbles, of course. Because the caviar is produced by land snails, the flavour is earthy and woodsy rather than fishy, with “notes of forest floor”, as the gastronomes like to say. White caviar can also be served with tuna, avocado, vanilla, chilli and lime, and infused with sweet flavours tops desserts such as panna cotta.